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| Guide Fiona in an oak-paneled room of the ground-level, former Divinity
School at Oxford University's main building of the Bodleian Libraries. Photos are not permitted on the Humfrey Library level, discussed in this post and featured in Harry Potter's Hogwarts. |
Today I had the extraordinary experience of touring the main, historic building of the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University, UK. Here's some of the intriguing and tragic history shared by my capable guide, Fiona (a knowledgeable academic, whom I wish I could identify more precisely; Fiona, get in touch if you read this, and I shall give you due credit).
To get the most important matter out of the way at the top: Yes, this is the place were books literally were flying about the room at
Harry Potter's Hogwarts. Fiona told a couple of good stories about filming in the library, which was permitted only during, and ran fully throughout, nighttime closing hours, 7-7. Sometimes filming had to be stopped on
Harry
Potter if sound booms got too
close to the ceiling beams, or lights raised
the temperature too much for the books' safety. On another occasion, Fiona asked a bearded guy, authorized
to case the library, why?, and he answered, "For the next
Transformers
movie." Only later did she realize she had spoken with Steven Spielberg. She still wasn't sure why the library would make an apt set for
Transformers.
So I'll skip the fascinating mechanics and history of care for the books--let Fiona have her IP, and you should take the
tour, at least the 60-minute version, yourself--and mention just one arresting, contemporary fact: Fiona said it takes on average
£20,000 pounds to scan
one book from the
historical collection. So feel welcome to donate in support of the effort. What's here that's worth such extravagant effort? Fiona casually mentioned the presence of an original Johnson
dictionary among the holdings.
In the 15th century--the dawn of the printing press, remember--Fiona said, one book cost about as much as a small
car today. The University library owned the princely sum of 20 books. In
the 16th century, Oxford got a massive donation of books from Duke Humfrey
(Humphrey of Lancaster, first Duke of Gloucester), but had no place to
put them. So the library asked for some additional money from Humfrey
to build the structure I was in today (but just the second floor; the Divinity School was on the ground floor and
today is part of the halls still used for Convocation; it was and
remains--with modern climate controls precluded in the name of historic
building preservation--unwise to store books on the ground level because
of the risk of rat and insect infestations).
Today if someone who has
the proper credentials wants to see a book from this old collection, he
or she must request it in advance, and then is given a date, time, and
place to view the book. The book is then transported via underground
tunnel across Broad Street to the more recent Watson Library (opened
originally 1940s, renovated and reopened 2015), to meet its reader at
the appointed time and station.
Yet these are
not the original books of the 15th century. In the 16th century,
the entire contents of the library was (believed) burned in the name of
the Reformation. You can still see where a stone cross was removed
from the wall. The stained glass windows, featuring Catholic
iconography, were destroyed and today still are just plain clear glass.
Some 40 or 50 (more?, it is suspected) books are known to have survived
the burning, besides pages here and there (some lathered with butter,
as they apparently were recycled by fishmongers to wrap their wares).
The library has managed to buy back five--5! (or just three, Wikipedia says).
Thomas
Bodley came around to restore the library in the late 16th, early 17th
centuries--after 50 years of post-Reformation neglect that left ceilings open to the elements--and the library/libraries took his name. But that's another story for a
longer tour....
"Readers" at the Bodleian--such as, once upon a time, JRR Tolkein--have always been compelled to recite aloud the library's pledge, formerly in Latin and now, thankfully, in English. At the shop, I bought the tin sign for my law-librarian wife to adorn her workplace, and perhaps demand likewise of patrons eager to explore special collections:
I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, or to mark,
deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document, or other object
belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library or
kindle therein any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I
promise to obey all rules of the Library.
See, fire, such as the burning of candles even for the innocent purpose of generating reading light, always and still poses a grave threat to the library. But that threat is second, Fiona said, to the ravages of water, which might be needed to put out a fire. Mold begets hungry bugs, who don't stop when they reach paper. Not even bottled H
2O is permitted to today's readers, who must exit the library to slake their thirst.
Shhhhh! Silence in the stacks, please.
