Bodleian Library

In Oxford, we visited the Bodleian Library. Today, the library encompasses 4 buildings: the Old Bodleian Library, the New Bodleian Library, the Radcliffe Camera and the Clareadon Building. In our tour, we visited 3 of these buildings. The following map is taken from the Bodleian Library website.

The Old Library was originally intended to be only the school of divinity, not a library. Because the construction of the divinity school took 65 years to complete, they built on another story to the building and added the library in 1488. The king's brother at the time, Duke Humfrey, donated his collection of Renaissance influenced books and so it was called Duke Humfrey's Library (creative, huh?). There was no real organization with the first library because there was no librarian appointed and no plan for book acquisition.

Later, during the English Reformation (where Henry VIII changed the state religion from Catholic to Protestant) most of the books and manuscripts were destroyed because they were Catholic texts. Just think of the works that are no longer around because of that!

The next area the guide took us is called Convocation Hall. This room was were the convocation of the university met. These were the ruling men of the university including the chancellor (head) of the university and all of the heads of the various colleges. Parliament was even held in that room. Once during the plague and Great Fire of London because no one wanted to be in London while everyone was dying of plague. The other time was during the reign of Charles I and the English Civil War.

The next room of the Old Library was the Chancellor's Court which was a law court presided over by the chancellor of the university. The chancellor also had power over the people of the town as well as the university. The townspeople did not like that at all and there was a lot of 'town and gown' animosity.

The Bodleian library got its name from Thomas Bodley who used his own money to repair and expand the library. It opened in 1602 with ~2,000 texts. That was a huge number when you consider there were only about 100 students at the time. The Old Library was designed as a combination chained library (i.e. the books were chained to the desks) and a gallery library. Our tour guide, Matthew, said that the rest of Europe had already implemented gallery libraries but England had not. The chained book that he showed us is a reproduction so that tour groups can be showed a chain book. This does not mean, however, that the chained books are not used. Readers can request to see these books though they are under supervision by the library staff which they are using them.

One fact that I found fascinating was that there have been only 24 head librarians at the Bodleian library since 1602. Talk about long lived!

The next building we visited was the Radcliffe Camera, a round building next to the Old Library. Matthew said that this building is probably the most photographed building in Oxford. Bet many of the people taking those pictures don't know that it is a library. It wasn't originally intended to be a library, however. Curved walls must be a nightmare for the library staff and book storage. In 1860, the building became a part of the Library.

The two reading rooms, the upper and lower cameras, were simply amazing. I think I would always try to study in the upper camera if I went to Oxford University.

I liked seeing the conveyor belt that took the books from one building to another. Like all libraries and libraries housed in separate buildings, I am always amazed that things get from one place to another so smoothly.