Everything about Sir Thomas Bodley totally explained
Sir Thomas Bodley (
March 2,
1545 –
January 28,
1613), was an
English diplomat and scholar, founder of the
Bodleian Library,
Oxford.
Biography
Thomas Bodley was born at
Exeter in the second last year of the reign of
Henry VIII. His father, John Bodley, was a
Protestant merchant who went to live abroad rather than stay in England under the
Catholic regime of
Mary. The family (and the ten year old
Nicholas Hilliard, who had been attached to the household by his parents, friends of Bodley) eventually settled in
Geneva where Thomas received his early education. He attended lectures given by
John Calvin and
Theodore Beza, and attended services led by
John Knox. He learned
Greek from
Mattheus Beroaldus and
Hebrew from
Antoine Chevallier. The study of these languages remained enduring passions for Bodley throughout his life.
After Mary's death in 1558 and the accession of
Elizabeth, the family returned to England, and Bodley entered
Magdalen College, Oxford to study under
Lawrence Humphrey. In 1563 he took his
B.A. degree, and was shortly afterwards admitted as a Fellow to
Merton College. He began lecturing at Merton and in April 1565 he was formally appointed as the college's first Lecturer in Ancient Greek, a post that was subsequently made permanent. He served in many college offices and in 1569 was elected as one of the University's junior
proctors, and for some time after was deputy
Public Orator. Leaving Oxford in 1576 with a licence to study abroad and a grant from his college of £6. 13s. 4d., he toured France, Italy, and Germany, visiting scholars and adding French, Italian, and Spanish to his range of languages.
On his return he was appointed gentleman-usher to Queen Elizabeth and he entered
Parliament as member for
Portsmouth, and represented
St Germans in 1586. In 1585 Bodley was entrusted with a mission to form a league between
Frederick II of Denmark and certain German princes to assist
Henry of Navarre, the future
Henry IV of France. He was next dispatched on a secret mission to
France; and in 1588 he was sent to the
Hague as minister, a post which demanded great diplomatic skill, for it was in
the Netherlands that the power of
Spain had to be fought. The essential difficulties of his mission were complicated by the intrigues of the queen's ministers at home, and Bodley repeatedly asked to be recalled. He was finally permitted to return to England in 1596, but finding his preferment obstructed by the competing interests of
Burghley and
Essex, he retired from public life, and returned to Oxford.
As he'd married Ann Ball in 1587 (a widow of considerable fortune and the daughter of a Mr Carew of
Bristol) he'd had to resign his fellowship at Merton, but he still had many friends there and the college gave a dinner in his honour in the spring of 1598. G. H. Martin speculates that the inspiration to restore the old Duke Humfrey's library may have come from the renewal of his contact with
Henry Savile and other former colleagues at this dinner. Once his proposal was accepted he spent the rest of his life devoted to the library project. He was
knighted on
April 18,
1604. He died in
1613 and was buried in the choir of Merton College chapel. His monument of black and white marble complete with pillars made from books and allegories of learning is placed on the western wall of the north
transept of the chapel.
The Bodleian Library
Bodley's greatest achievement was the re-founding of the library at Oxford, later named the
Bodleian Library in his honor. He determined, he said, "to take his farewell of state employments and to set up his staff at the library door in Oxford." In 1598 his offer to restore the old library was accepted by the university. Bodley began his book collection effort in 1600, using the site of the former library above the Divinity School, which was in near ruin.
Even though Bodley lived over 400 years ago, modern libraries are still benefiting from some of his early ideas and practices.
One important idea that Bodley implemented was the creation of a "Benefactors' Book" in 1602, which was bound and put on display in the library in 1604. While he did have funding through the wealth of his wife, Ann Ball, and the inheritance he received from his father, Bodley still needed to have the gifts of his affluent friends and collegues to build his library collection. Although not a completely original idea (as encouragement in 1412 the University Chaplain was ordered to say mass for benefactors) Bodley recognized that having your name out for everyone to see their contributions was more inspiring. According to Lewis B. Wright,
He had prepared a handsome Register of Donations, in vellum, in which the name of every benefactor should be written down in a large and fair hand so all might read. And he kept the Register prominently displayed so that no visitor to the library could escape seeing the generosity of Bodley's friends. The plan, as it deserved, was a success, for its originator found that, 'every man bethinks himself how by some good book or other he may be written in the scroll of the benefactors.'
This innovative idea has carried on for over four centuries and has continued to be a great motivator for friends of libraries everywhere.
Another significant event related to Bodley was the agreement between the Bodleian Library and the Stationer's Company, in which "the Company agreed to send to the Library a copy of every book entered in their Register on condition that the books thus given might be borrowed if needed for reprinting, and that the books given to the Library by others might be examined, collated and copied by the Company."
This was the beginning of legal deposit libraries, and today, the Bodleian is one of six such libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 2003, the Copyright Act of 1911 was expanded to include information on CD-ROM and websites. This regulation is in place to ensure the collection and preservation of all published materials as an accurate, up to date historical record.
Publications
Bodley wrote his autobiography up to the year 1609, which, with the first draft of the statutes drawn up for the library, and his letters to the librarian,
Thomas James, was published by
Thomas Hearne, under the title of
Reliquiae Bodleianae, or Authentic Remains of Sir Thomas Bodley, (London, 1703, 8vo).
Further Information
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