Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library, principal library of the University of Oxford, and the second-largest library in the United Kingdom, with over 6.3 million volumes (covering over 163 km/101 mi of shelving). It is a national library of copyright deposit, entitled to claim a copy of every work published in the British Isles. Books are held in various libraries in Oxford, as well as in the Book Repository nearby. Special treasures within its extensive collection include the earliest surviving manuscript of La Chanson de Roland (12th century), the oldest existing copy of The Rule of St Benedict (early 8th century), Magna Carta of 1217, and the main collection of manuscripts of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The Bodleian Library traces the history of its current form back to 1602 when it was opened by Sir Thomas Bodley, an academic and retired diplomat. In fact, this was a refoundation of the University Library, which had fallen into disuse in the second half of the 16th century. The earlier library contained a great collection of manuscripts given by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, and became housed above the Divinity School in a room known as Duke Humfrey's Library. (This collection was dispersed and only three of these books have subsequently been returned to the Bodleian.) Under Bodley's influence, the fortunes of the library were restored and the collections built up through benefactions of significant books and manuscripts. The collection was further increased through the arrangement he made with the Stationers' Company to receive a copy of every new book it published.

Over the following centuries, as more space was required, the library built or extended into neighbouring areas. In the 1920s, it also absorbed other specialist libraries. Today it occupies several buildings, and its libraries include the Old Library, the New Library, and the Radcliffe Camera. There are also nine dependent libraries: the Bodleian Japanese Library, the Bodleian Law Library, the Hooke Library, the Indian Institute Library, the Oriental Institute Library, the Philosophy Library, the Radcliffe Science Library, Rhodes House Library, and the Vere Harmsworth Library.