Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at The University of Oxford, in partnership with the Cambridge University Library

Edmund Castell, early modern lexicography, and the Hebraica collections of the University of Cambridge

Supervisory team: Judith Olszowy-Schlanger and Kirsten Macfarlane (University of Oxford); Scott Mandelbrote (Cambridge University Library)

Books collected by Edmund Castell (1606-86), professor of Arabic at Cambridge and compiler of the great but commercially ill-fated polyglot lexicon (1669), form one of the most important part of the holdings of early modern Hebraica at Cambridge. Materials can be found in the University archives, the University Library, and the library of Sidney Sussex College as well as scattered throughout the collections of the Colleges. In particular, Castell bequeathed his own library of printed Hebraica (numbering hundreds of titles) to Emmanuel College. Castell’s intellectual project (the revision and extension of existing lexica and concordances for biblical languages) remains largely unstudied, despite the fact that it formed a significant part of the most significant intellectual project of mid-seventeenth-century England, the editing and printing of the London polyglot Bible. No sustained biography of Castell exists. None of the treatments of Castell that do exist make substantial use of the materials that he gave to Cambridge collections. Understanding Castell and his approach to oriental languages in general and lexicography in particular will help to interpret substantial but neglected collections of manuscript and printed Hebraica and their creation in the seventeenth century. More generally, work on Castell will revise understandings of the priorities and achievements of early modern biblical and linguistic scholarship.

Please find further information here: https://www.oocdtp.ac.uk/edmund-castell-early-modern-lexicography-and-hebraica-collections-university-cambridge

Applications are welcome via the DPhil in Oriental Studies or the DPhil in Theology and Religion, according to the candidate’s specific interests and background. Deadline is Friday 10 January 2020, 12:00 midday UK time.