J. D. Sargan

Dr J. D. Sargan is a scholar working on the history of medieval books, and the ways that history intersects with vernacular English literature. In particular, he is interested in the parallel histories of reading, writing, scribal practice, and wider conceptions of the book in use. His work focusses on the application of methods from traditional palaeography and codicology in combination with critical theory and new scientific approaches in order to access the practices of the book's early users, and to use the book as a window to other aspects of cultural history. His doctoral thesis, which was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, used this approach to consider the consumption of early middle English texts found in trilingual—Latin, French, and English—manuscripts from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In his consideration of literature Dr Sargan asks, what impact does this way of reading material culture have on our approaches to the literary text? What might the material form contribute to literary interpretation? And how does the surviving manuscript evidence disrupt and complicate our formulation of a Middle English 'canon'? 

In his recent research, Dr Sargan uses radiographic techniques to investigate historic bookbindings. Under heavy use books require regular rebinding. Reconstructing these layered interventions into the form of the book—evidence of which is largely hidden to the naked eye—tells us a lot about the way books were used, while vastly extending the corpus of historic binding structures and techniques available for study.

Dr Sargan received his undergraduate education at Queen Mary, University of London, and his graduate training at the University of Oxford. He comes from an interdisciplinary background, having completed his BA in English and History and his MSt in Medieval Studies before studying for his doctorate in the Faculty of English. In the course of his doctoral studies he acted as convenor for the seminar in 'Literature and Material Culture', and for the 'Work in Progress Group on Manuscripts and Textual Transmission in the Middle Ages', as well as sitting on the organising committee for the Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference. He has taught at Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Warburg Institute, University of London. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Old Books, New Science Lab at the University of Toronto (2019-2021), where he is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.