From previous edition:

"… indispensable to researchers, students, and general readers requiring an accurate, very informative, and fairly short account of the first four hundred years in the life and times of the Bodleian Library." - Library & Information History

How did a library founded over 400 years ago grow to become the world-renowned institution it is today, home to over thirteen million items?

From its foundation by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1598 to the opening of the Weston Library in 2015, this illustrated account shows how the Library’s history was involved with the British monarchy and political events throughout the centuries. The history of the Library is also a history of collectors and collections, and this book traces the story of major donations and purchases, making use of the Library’s own substantial archives to show how it came to house key items such as early confirmations of Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s First Folio and the manuscript of Jane Austen’s earliest writings, among many others.

Beautifully illustrated with prints, portraits, manuscripts and archival material, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of libraries and collections.

Mary Clapinson was on the staff of the Western Manuscript Department in the Bodleian Library for thirty-five years. Appointed Keeper of Western Manuscripts in 1986, she was the first woman to hold a Keepership in the Bodleian. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, and Emeritus Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford, her undergraduate college.

• Hardback
• 288 pages, 234 x 156 mm
• 100 colour illustrations
• ISBN: 9781851245444
• Publication December 2020