Touring the Bodleian

Today was a very leisurely day for me. As I returned home from London last night I realized that a cold was threatening me so I took aggressive action in the form of benadryl. I slept well but it took a few extra hours this morning for me to be fully awake and alert. This afternoon I had a late afternoon lunch at The Covered Market including dessert at Ben's Cookies while I waited for my scheduled tour of the Bodleian Library to begin.

As I entered the library buildings for the tour I entered into the Old Schools Quadrangle under The Tower of the Five Orders (these are the five classical orders of architecture starting at the bottom with the most ancient - tuscan, doric, ionic, corinthian and composite). Near the top is a statue of King James I.

The tour went to the Divinity School and Duke Humfrey's Library. The original building fell into great disrepair following the burning of all its contents in the Reformation and it was restored by Thomas Bodley. It is a beautiful place for work but in order to use the library you must swear an oath not to remove or harm any books. The books of the Bodleian Library are for reading only, not borrowing.

The only place you could take pictures was the Divinity School. This is one of the oldest buildings in the library. It was used for examinations of students until the 19th century.

Here are a few fun facts courtesy of the library: 1. There are 7,428,000 volumes in the library; 2. There are 1,241,000 total maps in the library; 3. The shelving in the library takes up 118 miles; 4. On any given day it is estimated that 54,000 people have valid tickets to work in the library (this is not visitors).