Bodleian Library, Oxford

On Radcliffe Square you will find the Old Schools Quadrangle, the oldest building of the Bodeian Library. Other buildings on this square that are part of the Bodeian Library are Duke Humfrey's Library above the Divinity School, the Radcliffe Camera, and the Clarendon Building.

The tower that is part of the Quadrangle is amazing. It's called the Tower of Five Orders and is named so because on top of the tower are five ornamented columns and each of them is one of the five orders of classical architecture, Doric, Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite.

Most people visit the Bodleian Library as part of a tour. I have never done that, but as a university member was able to get a glimpse of Duke Humphrey's Library and the Divinity School.
The former is the oldest part of the Bodleian Library, dating back to 1488. It is here that the visitor can feel the heavy omnipresence of knowledge best: Books, books, books - everywhere! Duke Humphrey's Library consists of ceiling-high storage racks with massive, leather-bound volumes of old books. Dark wood, the ceiling covered with the coat of arms of Thomas Bodley, and a librarian that looks nearly as old as the volumes he takes care of - everything forms one image.
The latter, Divinity School, is even a little bit older. Begun in 1424, but opened only in 1483, it was used as a lecture theatre for the theologists. Imagine listening to a lecture here, under its lierne vaulting (which looks like a Gothic fan vaulting)! The interior is so impressive that film-producers couldn't resist filming here: In "Harry Potter", the room was used both as the hospital wing and the ballroom lectures classroom. Duke Humphrey's Library was used as Hogwarts Library.
Standard tours through the Bod cost £ 6,50 and take 60 minutes, extended tours take 90 minutes (and probably cost more, but I couldn't find the price on the website). The Divinity School is the only part that can be visited without a tour - the entrance fee is £ 1.

The Bodleian Library, or Bod as everybody calls it, is the biggest and most important library of Oxford. It owns roughly 9 million (!) books which makes it the second-largest library in Great Britain. Opened in 1602 as the successor of a smaller library which was located on the premises of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, the Bod had quite a rough start. Its oldest part, Duke Humphrey's library from 1488, wasn't finished for years due to financial problems. 50 years after it had eventually opened, many of its books were destroyed: King Edward VI wanted all reminders of Roman Catholicism in England to be purged. It wasn't until 1602 that the library came to success again. Thomas Bodley, a rich Fellow of Merton College, donated the money to have it built and expanded. For this reason, the Bod itself is "only" 400 years old, but parts of it are older. Quite soon, the huge amount of books needed to be monitored and registered. In order to ensure the first, the most valuable books were chained to the shelves. In order to achieve the latter, the library introduced the world's first library catalogue in 1605, which by 1620 already listed 675 pages of books! This number grew continuously, also due to an agreement with publishing companies that made the Bod receive one copy of every book published in the UK. Nowadays, the Bod is the most important library of Oxford and is used by numerous scholars from all over the world.

The Bodleian Library dates from the early 17th century and is unlike other libraries because books cannot be taken away from the premises. Reading rooms are only open to members, not the general public.
The historic heart of the Bodleian Library is found in Radcliffe Sq. Here you can take a guided tour of the library or simply walk around the Old Schools quad where there is a bronze statue of the Earl of Pembroke, a Chancellor of the University in the 1600's.

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Right on Radcliff Square there is a certain heaven, that is if you are enamoured of books and of history like I absolutly am. It is called the Bodleian Library. It counts for 8 million items on 117 miles of shelving (not counting the ones that are stored outside, for lack of room), a staff of 400 and amongst the rest, has 3 underground floors where most of the documents are kept, and where only members of staff can go. If you want an item, first of all you have to be either a Reader (anyone can apply with good reason) or a Student at the university, then you send your request through a vacuum tube, a librarian gets it, looks for it and sends it on a conveyor belt to the exact library room in which you are waiting for it. Phew! Well, it is the second biggest library in all of the UK after the British Library , after all! Click here to know more about the Bodleian Library and it's history.

Part of the Bodleian Library, the Divinity School is the oldest university building, built in 1420-83 specially for lectures and discussions on theology. As you enter it, but not by the entrance in the picture, which is for professors only, look up and admire its wonderful vaulted ceiling with hundreds of bosses and about a hundred crests of the founders on its walls - a masterpiece of English Perpendicular Gothic architecture. One of the treasures kept there is a chair made of the original wood from the ship of Sir Francis Drake.
The door at the School's far end leads to the Convocation House where Cromwell's Parliament met in 1681. The room, with its beautifully carved benches, immediately looked familiar to me when my friend and library guide showed us in. Yet, I was sure I had never been there before. The solution to this mystery was simple: I remembered the place from 'The Madness of King George', which I had watched three times. The Divinity School itself also features in 'To Kill a King' and, as the Hogwarts sanatorium, in 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'.
Above the Divinity School is the magnificent Duke Humfrey Library named after Henry V's brother and built in the years 1439 - 1489. Unfortunately, I only visited the place on my first visit to Oxford and without a camera. When we were there last July it was Saturday afternoon, too late for it to be still open.

Open: weekdays - 9 am.- 5 pm., Saturdays - 9 am.- 12.30

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Built in 1711 - 1713 to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Christopher Wren's, this imposing, if rather heavy, building was to house the Oxford University Press, which until then had its quarters in the basement of the Sheldonian Theatre. The place takes its name from the Earl of Clarendon, author of 'The History of the Great Rebellion', whose son presented the University with its copyright. The proceeds from its publication partly paid for the construction of the building. The interesting statue in the niche of the first floor on the west side is that of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.
The building was used successively as the university printing house, university police station and the offices of the Registrar. It is now part of the Bodleian Library.

The Clarendon building is yet another building on Radcliffe Square. Well actually the main entrance is on Broad Street, but still the backside looks marvelous too and is a great addition to the square. It's unbelievable that all these nice buildings belong to a Library.