Thursday 23 July 2009

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford


Most fitting, the coat of arms proudly displayed is an open book. Today the library is part of the Copyright Act, so their collection grows constantly. The first library here was built in 1320. Sir Thomas Bodley gave his own time, money and books to expand the library, which was opened to students in 1602. He devoted his life to expanding the library space and collection. He asked his friends to will their library collections to this library, which furthered it's size and importance.


There was a wonderful exhibit, An Artful Craft, which gave an overview of historic collections of unique book bindings. Historic Bookbindings from the Broxbourne Library and other Collections featured rare books of various textures, materials, and structures. They were beautiful and still so carefully preserved. The collection displayed important bindings from the 12th century up through modern day.The bindings are made from different materials, techniques, and to serve different purposes.







Visit them online at http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/bodley

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