Oxford: Bodleian Library & Christchurch Library

Today was wild. Today was OXFORD!

In the morning we went to the Bodleian Library. It is the second largest library in Britain (the first I've already seen--the British Library!) and the biggest university library (since it's part of Oxford University). It houses 12 million books, though it started with only about 2,000. Like the British Library, it is one of 6 legal deposit libraries (meaning every book published in the UK has to be sent to this library and kept). The first librarian was appointed in 1610.

We went on a tour around, and the first place we went into was Duke Humfrey's Reading Room. It is the oldest reading room they have, and if Duke Humfrey walked in there today he would still recognize everything because it has not changed.

I am not going to lie: I cried.

We weren't allowed to take our own pictures of the reading room, so I borrowed this one from their website.

The picture is lovely but let me tell you, it's so much better in person. I have never in my LIFE seen something so beautiful or so close to Belle's library in Beauty and the Beast. I was able to keep it together enough not to openly weep, but the whole time I was there I was under this spell. I've never experienced anything like it.

A couple other things I learned (when I wasn't stupefied by my surroundings): They keep a lot of the medieval traditions, such as no fire allowed in the reading rooms. This is an obvious one, but back before electricity, this meant no candles. Libraries had to be built on the top stories of buildings to allow the light to get in and not be blocked by trees as well as keep the books safe from floods, rats, etc. As well, to this day, when they are closing the reading room for the day, they ring a bell. This is also a medieval practice they keep on. They used to transfer messages about what books were requested via a tube system (picture the one at the banks). They only stopped using this practice 10 years ago!

And here are some more pictures from areas I was allowed to take them!

They certainly know how to do ceilings in the UK.

This is the Duke Humfrey Reading Room from the outside (and below!)

For lunch, we went to The Eagle and Child. This was the fave hangout spot of none other than J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. No big deal.

Then the afternoon was saved for Christchurch Library, an academic library in Oxford!

It was also very beautiful and the feel was very different--very relaxed. I came sniffing distance to some very rare first edition books, and it was allowed! Christchurch was founded in 1525 and started collecting books in the 1560s. It is a living, working library and not a museum. It's unique because there are 400,000 visitors each year, but it's also an academic space with students milling about.

Fun fact: students are only allowed on the grass because it's finals and everyone is being extra nice to them. Otherwise, the quad is off-limits.

This is the only room that remains from the original library, and it has wide collection of materials

Books donated by one person are all grouped together, not by genre or subject or anything else. It's a little odd!

This is a religious text from 1070 and is officially the oldest thing I have seen on this trip!

This is a tiny book of psalms from 1340 (the second oldest thing I have seen on the trip) It is bound in silk and was meant to be worn on a belt loop. Each psalm was written in a different hand!

You see that ER and that crown? Yeah, this was Queen Elizabeth I's bible.

This is a first edition of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Oh, my god.

Followed by a first edition of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton.

But wait, there's more! This is a first edition of Alice in Wonderland, signed by the author to the library. Oh right, and Lewis Carroll himself got the original idea at Christchurch when he looked into the garden (from the room I was in as I saw this book, the office used to be his!!!!) and saw Alice playing.

Here are a couple of Lewis Carroll's sketches and brainstorming for Alice in Wonderland. You can see the evolution of the characters and his thought process. They have the added benefit of being pretty darn creepy to look at if you stare too long.

That concludes my first week here and I am so ready for the weekend. If you thought I was going to sleep in though, you'd be wrong--I am going to Trooping the Colour, aka the Queen's Birthday Parade tomorrow bright and early. I can't wait! See you soon with more adventures to tell.