Bodleian Library

I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Oxford and the magnificent Bodleian Library. Our guide, Ian Mitchell, began our tour with some history about the University. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. The Divinity School was the first building of the University, and was built in 1488. Prior to this everything took place in the church, including the first recorded lecture in 1096. An academic came from Rome, the center of learning in the eleventh century. For him to have traveled such a great distance there had to be enough academics present to make his trip worthwhile. The University’s location was chosen because of the church, and also because the king had a palace in Oxford.

The 1100s were a period of great growth; in 1167 the English king had a falling out with the French king and all English students were commanded to leave the University of Paris. They came to Oxford. With all of this growth, the masters set up a guild to protect themselves, thus the University was founded in the 1180s. From this time until the building of the Divinity School in 1488 the University did not grow quickly. In the 1200s the first colleges were founded. The colleges were another means of protecting the masters. Wealthy patrons donated money to found the colleges. Today there are thirty-nine colleges, each independent from one another and the University. Some are wealthier than others, depending on who founded them. The University sets the curriculum, but the colleges admit the students. Currently there are students from 140 different countries.

The school’s architecture is a juxtaposition of Gothic and Classical styles. It took years to build just the Divinity School. There was no money in the University at the time; all money came from the alumni. The king was unable to give money to the school, having depleted his funds in the hundred-year war, but gave his promise to protect the school and required his successors to do the same. We also learned that Christopher Wren, who we know designed St. Paul’s cathedral, was also a professor of astronomy, and designed the Sheldonian building at Oxford.

The library began when the Duke of Gloucester brought back classic manuscripts from his travels and donated them to the University. These manuscripts were removed from the library when Edward VI became ill, and all superstitious manuscripts were destroyed. Thomas Bodley restored the library in 1598. He was married to a wealthy widow and used her money to fund his restoration. In 1602 the new library opened, which is the library that we were able to walk around in today! The library contained 2,000 books when Bodley re-opened it, and none of them were in English. When Bodley designed the library he had bookshelves installed, which were an innovation at the time. He also included galleries in his design, copied from the library of Philip II of Spain. The Bodleian was the first galleried library in Britain. It is the second largest British library, and was the first copyright library, which was another one of Bodley’s ideas. Today, the library receives 5500 new publications per week. There is also a New Bodleian Library, which was completed in the 1940s. It stores eight million books, and was built with the help of the Rockefeller fund. One of the difficulties that the staff has to overcome is the maintenance of an old library in new buildings. The library's website contains a more detailed historical account.

When a student today needs information from the library, he will start with the library in his college. If he cannot find information there, he will try the faculty library. Last he will come to the Bodleian Library. The library does not use the Dewey Decimal System, because readers do not find their own materials. Like many libraries that we have visited the books are classified by size and also by arrival. With this system space does not have to be planned in each section for new arrivals, as with Dewey Decimal. Readers request books, which are then brought to them in the reading rooms. When we walked through the tunnels downstairs we were able to see the system of conveyer belts that brings books to the readers. This tour provided me with some insight into Oxford University, and its long and colorful past. I look forward to returning someday!