Thomas Bodley

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Thomas Bodley

Sir Thomas Bodley (born March 2, 1544 in Exeter , † January 28, 1612 in London ) was an English diplomat and librarian .

Live and act

Bodley fled with his parents under Queen Maria ( Bloody Mary ) to the Duchy of Kleve from there to Frankfurt am Main and on to Geneva and only returned to England under Elizabeth I. He studied in Oxford , made long trips and was commissioned by Elisabeth with missions to Denmark , France , Holland and to several German courts.

In 1597 he resigned from the civil service and went to Oxford to devote time and fortune to the reconstruction and expansion of the university library there (named after him Bodleiana - Bodleian Library ). He was buying up rare in all countries and valuable works which he will receive 200,000 pounds sterling have spent; he also made a legacy in his will to pay librarians and overseers.

1604 King James I proposed him in Whitehall to the Knight Bachelor .

Bodley also reached an agreement with booksellers for the library in 1610, according to which the library receives a free copy of every book published in England to this day. According to a census of 1867 , the library contained around 350,000 printed books and 25,000 manuscripts; in 2000 it contained 6.75 million books, 178,000 manuscripts and 6,500 incunabula on 173 kilometers of books.

literature

  • William Dunn Macray: Annals of the Bodleian library. With a notice of the earlier library of the university . Thoemmes, Bristol 1997, ISBN 1-85506-526-6 (reprint of the Oxford 1868 edition).
  • Thomas Hearne (Ed.): Reliquiae Bodleianae or some genuine remains of Sir Thomas Bodley . Hartley, London 1703 (Bodley's letters and other writings)
  • The Bodleyan Library . In: Innsbrucker Nachrichten ( Feuilleton ) of November 7, 1902.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 131.
personal data
SURNAME Bodley, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bodley, Sir Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English diplomat and librarian
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1544
PLACE OF BIRTH Exeter
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1612
Place of death London