In November 1520, Martin Luther published his pamphlet "On Christian Freedom" (Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen / De libertate christiana) which became the best-selling book of the 16th century. The online event celebrates the 500th anniversary of the publication by launching a new online edition and translation of the pamphlet, taking the publicity success to the 21st century. The edition is based on the four copies of the text (three in German, one in Latin) in the Taylor Institution Library and is published on the Taylor Editions website and as print-on-demand.
The new edition is the result of a cooperation between Oxford-based Reformation scholars Henrike Lähnemann, Lyndal Roper, Howard Jones and Edmund Wareham with students and colleagues from Britain and Germany.
5pm "On Christian Freedom" turns 500: A show and tell session from the Taylorian Library, presented by Henrike Lähnemann, and a conversation about the theological, historical, and linguistic significance of the text, chaired by Edmund Wareham.
5:45pm Relay Reading of Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen with 31 readers, among them Germanists, members of the Oxford German Lutheran congregation, students from a variety of subjects, and German-speaking friends of the project from Berlin, Basel, Bonn, and beyond.
As with the previous Taylor Reformation Pamphlets, the launch will include a full relay reading of the original text with English subtitles, cf. https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/sendbrief-vom-dolmetschen More information on the Reformation Pamphlet website!