Conference
Joseph Bosworth & Old English Studies: Then, Now and the Future
- Date
- Thursday 21 May 2026
- Time
- Address
- Online conference
Joseph Bosworth & Old English Studies: Then, Now and the Future
An online academic memorial event about the continuing impact of Joseph Bosworth († 27 May 1876) and his dictionary on the field of Old English Studies. Joseph Bosworth produced one of the most influential publications in the study of Old English: A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, which today forms the basis for the most widely used online dictionary of Old English. Bosworth was the Rawlinson Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford between 1858 and 1876. He wrote his famous dictionary in the Netherlands, where he served as a chaplain in the Anglican Church in Amsterdam and Rotterdam; he was also a member of the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Society of Dutch Literature) and held an honorary PhD from Leiden University.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Bosworth's death, and this memorial event reflects on the importance of his academic work and his continuing impact on the field. The event is organized by the Leiden EMERGENCE project in collaboration with the University of St Andrews and Charles University in Prague. The programme (see below) consists of a series of 20-minute papers and a roundtable.
Programme
16:00-16:15 - Zoom meeting begins; words of welcome
16:15-17:00 Session 1: Joseph Bosworth & Old English Studies: Then
- Dabney Bankert (James Madison University): “Largely a translation of the Dictionary by Lye and Manning with some additions and alterations”: What Reviews Got Wrong about Joseph Bosworth’s A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language
- Rachel A. Fletcher (Leiden University): Bosworth between England and the Continent
17:00-17:15 Short break
17:00-17:15 Session 2: Joseph Bosworth & Old English Studies: Now
- Ondřej Tichý (Charles University, Prague): Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online: The Story of a Dictionary and its Digitization
- Christine Rauer (University of St Andrews): Language Learning Tools Then and Now: Using Bosworth Toller's Dictionary Online in the Modern
18:00-18:15 Short break
18:15-19:00 Session 3: Joseph Bosworth & Old English Studies: Then, Now and the Future
A roundtable with contributions by:
- Kees Dekker (University of Groningen)
- Sam Lewis (University of Cambridge)
- Thijs Porck (Leiden University)
- Christine Rauer (University of St Andrews)
- Martin Roček (Charles University, Prague)
- Ondřej Tichý (Charles University, Prague)
- Madeleine Thompson (Anthropic, author of the Bosworth–Toller smartphone app)
Registration
Attendance is free and all are welcome; please register via this REGISTRATION FORM to receive the Zoom info for this event!
This event is is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program (EMERGENCE, Grant agreement No.101115867, https://doi.org/10.3030/101115867 ). Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.