The Old Books New Science Lab (OBNS) is directed by Alexandra Gillespie and based at the Mississauga and St George campuses of the University of Toronto.

Established in 2014, the lab brings together researchers with interests in scientific, global, and community-engaged approaches to book history; and medieval literary manuscript studies, especially work on Chaucer and Middle English texts in manuscript and early print.

Lab members are leading three major current projects:  

• Hidden Stories: New Approaches to the Local and Global History of the Book (2022-2026, with the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, NJ), and University of Toronto Libraries) 
• The Andrews Project in Book Science at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library (2024-present, with the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and the Yip Lab, University of Toronto)
• Communities of Practice: Scripts, Scribes, and the Production of Literature in London, 1377 to 1471 (2025-2030)

Other recent projects include Digital Tools for Manuscript Study (2016-2018, with University of Toronto Libraries); and The Book and the Silk Roads (2019-2021 with UTL and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton).

Auckland Libraries, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Med. MS S.1588 – endband markers detail. Photo: Alex Gillespie