Editing Thomas Bodley

{{short description|English diplomat and scholar}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
[[File:Thomas Bodley.jpg|thumb|Sir Thomas Bodley]]
'''Sir Thomas Bodley''' (2 March 1545 – 28 January 1613) was an [[England|English]] [[diplomat]] and [[Scholarly method|scholar]] who founded the [[Bodleian Library]] in [[Oxford]].

==Origins==
Thomas Bodley was born on 2 March 1545, in the second-to-last year of the reign of King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], in the [[city of Exeter]] in Devon. He was one of the seven sons<ref>Vivian, p.96</ref> of John Bodley (d. 15 Oct. 1591)<ref>Vivian, p.96</ref> of Exeter, a [[Protestant]] merchant who chose foreign exile rather than staying in England under the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] government of Queen [[Mary I of England|Mary]] ({{reign | 1553 | 1558}}).  He was thereby involved<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sir Thomas Bodley and his library |url=http://www.tyndale.org/tsj21/offord.html |access-date=2023-05-14 |website=www.tyndale.org |issn=1357-4167 |language=English |url-status=live |archive-date=June 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622140850/http://www.tyndale.org/tsj21/offord.html |date=4 February {{ndash}} 1 June 2002}}</ref> in the publication of [[Rowland Hill (MP)|Sir Rowland Hill's]] [[Geneva Bible]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Besant |first=Sir Walter |title=London in the Time of the Tudors |publisher=Adam and Charles Black |year=1904}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXjrtAFaf9oC&q=%22rowland+hill%22&pg=PP51 |title=A New Family Bible, and Improved Version ... With Notes, Critical and Explanatory ... By the Rev. B. Boothroyd |date=1824 |publisher=The author |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Subscription |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-apr-12-1886-p-2/ |journal=Boston Boston Daily Globe |url-access=subscription |date=April 12, 1886 |page=2 |access-date=2023-05-14 |url-status=live |archive-date=February 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221213909/https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-apr-12-1886-p-2/ |lang=en |publisher=[[Heritage Microfilm, Inc.#NewspaperArchive|NewspaperArchive]]}}</ref>

John's father, also John Bodley, was a younger son of the gentry family of Bodley of Dunscombe,<ref>Vivian, p.96</ref> near [[Crediton]]<ref>[[Todd Gray (Devon Historian)|Gray, Todd]] & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of The Reverend [[John Swete]], 1789-1800, 4 vols., Tiverton, 1999, Vol.3, pp.125-6
</ref> in Devon. Thomas's mother was Joan Hone, a daughter and co-heiress of Robert Hone of [[Ottery St Mary]], Devon.<ref>
[[John Lambrick Vivian|Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L.]], (Ed.) ''The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the  [[Heraldic visitation|Heralds' Visitations]] of 1531, 1564 & 1620'', Exeter, 1895, p.96, pedigree of Bodley
</ref>
Thomas's younger brother was Sir [[Josias Bodley]], knighted in Ireland by the [[Earl of Devon]].<ref>Vivian, p.96.</ref>

==Childhood and education==
The family, including Thomas' younger brother [[Josias Bodley]] (and the ten-year-old [[Nicholas Hilliard]], who had been attached to the household by his parents, friends of Bodley), sought refuge in the [[Duchy of Cleves]] during the reign of Queen Mary (1553 1558). They stayed in the town of [[Wesel]], then in the [[imperial free city]] of [[Frankfurt]], before eventually settling in [[Geneva]], home of [[Calvinism]] and a great centre of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]. There, Thomas had the opportunity to study at [[John Calvin]]'s newly erected Academy. He attended lectures in Divinity given by [[Theodore Beza]] and Calvin himself and attended services led by [[John Knox]]. He learned [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] from [[Mattheus Beroaldus]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] from [[Antoine Rodolphe Chevallier|Antoine Chevallier]]. The study of these languages remained enduring passions for Bodley throughout his life.

After Mary's death in 1558 and the accession of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]], the family returned to England, and Bodley entered [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], to study under [[Lawrence Humphrey]]. In 1563 he took his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] degree, and was shortly thereafter, in 1564, admitted as a Fellow of [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]].

Thomas Bodley was married to Ann Ball, a wealthy widow, and he left no children.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bodley |first=Sir Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/lifesirthomasbo00librgoog |title=The Life of Sir Thomas Bodley |date=1 January 1906 |publisher=A. C. McClurg}}</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Coat of Arms (geograph 7521252).jpg|thumb|Arms of Sir Thomas above the entrance to the Bodleian]]
He began lecturing at Merton and in April 1565 was formally appointed as the college's first Lecturer in Ancient Greek, a post that was subsequently made permanent. He served in many college offices: in 1569 he was elected as one of the University's junior [[proctor]]s and for some time after was deputy [[Public Orator]].  Leaving Oxford in 1576 with a license to study abroad and a grant from his college of ten [[mark (currency)#England and Scotland|marks]] (£6.&nbsp;13s.&nbsp;4d.), Bodley toured [[France]], [[Italy]], and the [[Holy Roman Empire]], visiting scholars and adding French, Italian, and Spanish to his repertoire of languages.

It has been suggested that during his tour in Italy he was in initiated in [[Forlì]] in some form of Pythagorean initiation in a platonic academy.<ref>Thomas, D. I., "A Modern Pythagorean", ''Gnosis'', 59, Summer 1997: "It has been suggested  that some form of Pythagorean initiation  survived through the centuries, first in the Byzantine Empire and later, as the Ottoman Turks advanced, in Italy, where the Greek intellectual elite took refuge. During the reign of Elizabeth I, Sir Thomas Bodeley is said to have been initiated in the northern Italian city of Forlì in a platonic academy, established in imitation of an older Society which had existed before the fall of the Grecian Empire in the towns of Constantinople and Thessalonica."</ref>

On his return to England Bodley was appointed a [[Gentleman usher|gentleman-usher]] to Queen Elizabeth, and in 1584 he entered the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] as one of the members for [[Portsmouth]]. In 1585 he was entrusted with a mission to form a league between [[Frederick II of Denmark]] and certain German princes to assist [[Henry of Navarre]], the future [[Henry IV of France]]. He was next dispatched on a secret mission to France. In 1586 he was elected to represent [[St Germans (UK Parliament constituency)|St Germans]] in parliament, and in 1588 he was sent to [[The Hague]] as minister, a post which demanded great diplomatic skill, for it was in the [[Netherlands]] that the power of Spain had to be fought. The essential difficulties of his mission were complicated by the intrigues of the queen's ministers at home, and Bodley repeatedly asked to be recalled. He was finally permitted to return to England in 1596, but finding his hoped-for promotion to [[Secretary of State (England)|Secretary of State]] obstructed by the competing interests of [[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|Burghley]] and [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex|Essex]], he retired from public life and returned to Oxford.

When he married in 1587, he was obliged to resign his fellowship at Merton, but he retained many friends there and in the spring of 1598 the college gave a dinner in his honour. G. H. Martin speculates that the inspiration to restore the old [[Duke Humfrey's Library]] may have come from the renewal of Bodley's contact with [[Henry Savile (Bible translator)|Henry Savile]] and other former colleagues at this dinner. Once his proposal was accepted, he devoted the rest of his life to the library project. The former library had suffered from the overzealous commissioners of [[Edward VI]] who weeded the ancient collection.<ref>Richardson, Louisa E. “QUATERCENTENARY OF SIR THOMAS BODLEY.” ''Journal of the Royal Society of Arts'', vol. 93, no. 4686, 1945, pp. 172–73. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/41361897 JSTOR website] Retrieved 6 Apr. 2023.</ref> The subject was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] on 18 April 1604.

==Marriage==
In 1587 he married Ann Carew, the wealthy widow of Mr Ball, and the daughter of Mr Carew<ref>Misnamed as "Cary" (another ancient Devonshire family) in Vivian, p.96</ref> of [[Bristol]]<ref>Vivian, p.96</ref> in Somerset. His monument in Merton College Chapel displays the arms of Bodley [[Impalement (heraldry)|impaling]] Carew (''Or, three lions passant in pale sable''),<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/lysander2/5159172414 See image]</ref> an ancient Devonshire family seated at [[Mohuns Ottery]], descended from [[Nicholas Carew (died 1311)|Nicholas Carew]] (d. 1311), feudal lord of [[Carew Castle]] in [[Pembrokeshire]], feudal lord of Odrone (mod. Idrone, County Carlow) in Ireland and lord of the manor of [[Moulsford]] in Berkshire.

==Death and burial==
He died on 28 January 1613, and was buried in the choir of Merton College Chapel. His monument survives on the western wall of the north [[transept]] of the chapel, formed of black and white marble with pillars representing books and allegories of learning.

==The Bodleian Library==
[[File:Bodleian Library, Oxford; bird's eye view with key and coat Wellcome V0014205.jpg|thumb|Engraving of the Bodleian showing Sir Thomas's arms alongside the arms of the university]]
Bodley's greatest achievement was the re-founding of the library at Oxford. In 1444, the existing university library was augmented by a gift of some 300 manuscripts from [[Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester]], the youngest son of [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]]; this prompted the university to build a new library above the Divinity School which was at that time under construction. However, during the [[English Reformation|Reformation]] of the 1550s, the library had been stripped and abandoned, remaining virtually untouched until the return of Bodley in 1598. The library was later named the [[Bodleian Library]] in his honour. He determined, he said, "to take his farewell of state employments and to set up his staff at the library door in Oxford." In February of 1598 his offer to restore the old library was accepted by the university. Bodley began his book collection effort in 1600, using the site of the former library above the Divinity School, which was in near ruin.

Although Bodley lived over 400 years ago, modern libraries benefit from some of his ideas and practices.

One important idea that Bodley implemented was the creation of a "Benefactors' Book" in 1602, which was bound and put on display in the library in 1604. While he did have funding through the wealth of his wife, Ann Ball, and the inheritance he received from his father, Bodley still needed gifts from his affluent friends and colleagues to build his library collection. Although not a completely original idea (as encouragement in 1412 the university chaplain was ordered to say mass for benefactors), Bodley recognized that having the contributor's name on permanent display was also inspiring. According to Louis B. Wright, <blockquote> He had prepared a handsome Register of Donations, in vellum, in which the name of every benefactor should be written down in a large and fair hand so all might read. And he kept the Register prominently displayed so that no visitor to the library could escape seeing the generosity of Bodley's friends. The plan, as it deserved, was a success, for its originator found that, 'every man bethinks himself how by some good book or other he may be written in the scroll of the benefactors.'<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=3815753|title=Some Early "Friends" of Libraries|first=Louis B.|last=Wright|date=1 January 1939|journal=Huntington Library Quarterly|volume=2|issue=3|pages=355–369|doi=10.2307/3815753}}</ref></blockquote>For over four centuries, this innovative idea has continued to motivate friends of libraries everywhere.

Some remarkable donations to the Bodleian Library marked in the register of donations were fifty pounds from [[Walter Raleigh|Sir Walter Raleigh]] in 1603, on the eve of his second jailing in the [[Tower of London]], and a copy of Francis Bacon's new book ''[[The Advancement of Learning]]'', presented by the author himself in 1605.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jackson|first=Sidney L.|date=1969|title=Bodley and the Bodleian: Collections, Use and Administration|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4305998|journal=The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy|volume=39|issue=3|pages=255|doi=10.1086/619766|jstor=4305998|s2cid=145797787|issn=0024-2519|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Another significant event related to Bodley was the agreement between the Bodleian Library and the [[Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers|Stationers' Company]], in which "the Company agreed to send to the Library a copy of every book entered in their Register on condition that the books thus given might be borrowed if needed for reprinting, and that the books given to the Library by others might be examined, collated and copied by the Company."<ref>Nicoll, Allardyce, ed.  ''Shakespeare Survey Vol. 4:  An Annual Survey of Shakespearean Study & Production.''  Cambridge, UK:  Cambridge University Press, 1951.</ref>

This made the Bodleian the first [[legal deposit]] library.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart A. P.|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|date=2012|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-1-61608-453-0|page=127}}</ref> Today it is one of six such libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 2003, the Copyright Act of 1911 was expanded to include information on CD-ROM and websites.  This regulation is in place to ensure the collection and preservation of all published materials as an accurate, up-to-date historical record.

==Publications==
Bodley wrote his autobiography up to the year 1609, which, with the first draft of the statutes drawn up for the library, and his letters to the librarian, [[Thomas James]], was published by [[Thomas Hearne (antiquarian)|Thomas Hearne]], under the title of ''Reliquiae Bodleianae, or Authentic Remains of Sir Thomas Bodley'', (London, 1703, 8vo).

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}
'''Further references'''
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Bodley, Sir Thomas}}
*{{cite book
 | last = Martin
 | first = G.H.
 |author2=Highfield, R.L.
 | title = A History of [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]]
 | publisher = [[OUP]]
 | year = 1997
 | location = Oxford
 | isbn = 0-19-920183-8
 | pages = ch.8
}}
*{{cite journal
  | last = Wright
  | first = Louis B.
  | title = Some Early 'Friends' of Libraries
  | journal = The Huntington Library Quarterly
  | volume = 2
  | issue = 3
  | date = April 1939
  | pages = 355–369
 | doi = 10.2307/3815753
 | jstor=3815753
}}
*{{cite book
  | editor-last = Nicoll
  | editor-first = Allardyce
  | title = Shakespeare Survey Vol. 4: An Annual Survey of Shakespearean Study & Production
  | publisher = Cambridge University Press
  | year = 1951
  | location = Cambridge, UK
  | isbn = 0-521-52378-8}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Sir Thomas Bodley}}

{{Bodley's Librarians}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodley, Thomas}}
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