Bodleian Library

On Friday I went on a tour of the Bodleian Library. Sir Thomas Bodley was a rich widow, who restored the original Oxford Library, which had been stripped of just about everything when the King ordered Catholic books to be destroyed. I wasn't able to take pictures of most of it, but I've found a virtual tour to link. This is the quadrangle before you walk in. The statue is of the Third Earl of Pembroke, a poet named William Herbert, who is the W.H. in Shakespeare's sonnet dedication. I also found that he kept to himself as he is suspected to suffer "migraines" from syphilitic infections and was married to a dwarfish and deformed woman, though he had many affairs. Further proof of Judith's theory--when it comes to love, all bets are off with a poet.

Upon walking through the doors behind W.H.'s statue, you come to the Divinity School. It has the most beautiful vaulted ceiling I've ever seen. Unfortunately you can't see too well in the virtual tour, but each piece that dips down in the fan vaulting has little statues in it. This was an actual lecture hall, and the location of exams during the time when exams were an oral defense of your ideas.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the library is the massive underground system they have for book transport. There are, I believe, 9 million books spread throughout the various buildings, much of which is underground in what they call the book cemetery. Our tour guide stated that since the library is keeping a copy of every book published in the UK, they get 1,200 books delivered every Wednesday. Unfortunately, for security reasons they wouldn't let us take pictures, and I can't find any on the web either.