William Poole

William Poole

John Galsworthy Fellow and Tutor in English; Senior Tutor; Fellow Librarian
English
MA DPhil Oxon

 

    • 2004- Galsworthy Fellow in English, New College; Fellow Librarian (2011-); Senior Tutor (2018-) 
    • 2000-2004: Research Fellow, Downing College, Cambridge
    • 1995-2000: BA, MA, MSt, DPhil, New College and Linacre College, Oxford
    • 1989-1995: Madras College, St Andrews (state)

    For the college, at undergraduate level I teach all aspects of English literature c. 1500-c. 1830. I am also Senior Tutor, Fellow Librarian, and one of the two college trustees for the annual college Reading Party in the Alps. I am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (2015-), and a Fellow (governor) of our sibling in Winchester, Winchester College (2015-). At graduate level, I supervise doctorates in both English and History. I am also, with James Willoughby of New College, the co-editor of the Bibliographical Society’s journal, The Library, which appears quarterly.

    Research Interests

    My interests lie in the field of early modern studies, specifically:

    • Literary history
    • Intellectual history
    • History of science
    • Bibliography and palaeography
    • History of libraries and collections

    My specific current projects are:

    • Early European sinology, c. 1580-c. 1740
    • Oxford books and book economy from c. 1580 to c. 1700,
    • The Scottish Neo-Latin poet Peter Goldman of Dundee (1587/8-1628) 
    • The shelf-lists and benefactors register of Oxford’s Anatomy School Museum, c. 1630-1780
    • An edition of the correspondence of experimental philosopher Robert Hooke
    • A co-edited edition of the correspondence of the antiquary John Aubrey

    Selected Publications

    I have published over a hundred articles or chapters for learned journals or edited collections. Books and editions include:

    •    Thomas Hyde, Epistola de mensuris et ponderibus Serum seu Sinensium (Oxford, 1688): A forgotten chapter in the history of Sinology. Oxford: Editiones Rariores, 2021. 
    •    Wykehamist Pattern Poems, 1573–1618. With Jessi Glueck and Stephen Anderson. (Winchester, 2021). 
    •    John Milton, Manuscript Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
    •    Geometry and Astronomy in New College, Oxford: On the Quatercentenary of the Savilian Professorships, 1619–2019. With Christopher Skelton-Foord. Oxford: New College, 2019. 
    •    John Fell’s New Year Books, 1666–1686. Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 2018.
    •    John Wilkins (1614–1672): New Essays. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
    •    Milton and the Making of ‘Paradise Lost’. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2017.
    •    ‘The Letters of Shen Fuzong to Thomas Hyde, 1687-88’, electronic British Library Journal (2015), article 9.
    •    Wadham College Books in the Age of John Wilkins (1614–1672). Oxford: Wadham College, 2014.
    •    John Milton, Areopagitica and Other Writings. London: Penguin, 2014.
    •    John Aubrey and the Advancement of Learning. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2010.
    •    The World-Makers: Scientists of the Restoration and the Search for the Origins of the Earth. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010.
    •    Francis Lodwick, Writings on Language, Theology, and Utopia, ed. Henderson and Poole. Oxford: OUP, 2010.
    •    Milton and the Idea of the Fall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005; paperback 2009.
    •    Francis Godwin, The Man in the Moone (1638). Ontario: Broadview Press, 2009.

    Explore further

    Discover more about New College