博德利图书馆
Bodleian Library
博德利的搜求兴趣十分广泛。据图书馆史学家伊恩·菲利普（Ian Philip）记载，早在1603年6月，博德利便尝试从土耳其搜寻手稿，且正是在“同一年，图书馆购藏了第一本中文书籍”——尽管当时牛津并无一人能通晓中文。1605年，弗朗西斯·培根向图书馆赠送了一册《学术的进展》，并将博德利图书馆誉为“拯救学术免遭洪水湮灭的方舟”。
此时，馆内收藏的英文著作寥寥无几，这在一定程度上是因为当时的学术活动并不使用英语 。托马斯·詹姆斯（Thomas James）随后建议博德利向书商工会提出申请，由其向博德利图书馆提供所有印刷书籍的副本。1610年，博德利与该公会达成协议，规定凡是在该公会登记注册的每本书籍，均须向图书馆提交一册副本。由于博德利图书馆的藏书量增长极快，馆舍在1610年至1612年间进行了扩建（该扩建部分被称为“艺术端”，即Arts End），随后在1634至1637年间再次扩建。1654年约翰·塞尔登逝世后，将其丰富的大量书籍与手稿遗赠给了博德利图书馆。汉弗莱公爵图书馆这部分后建的扩建区域至今仍被称为“塞尔登端”（Selden End）。截至1620年，博德利图书馆的馆藏已达16000件。任何渴望使用该图书馆的人，都必须斥资2先令8便士购买一本1620年版的图书馆目录。
Chinese Maps, Manuscripts and Printed Books
Over 2,000 items from the Bodleian’s Chinese maps, manuscripts and printed books collections, acquired since the 17th century.
The Bodleian Library’s Chinese collections date back to the earliest period of the Library’s history. Sir Thomas Bodley himself was instrumental in building up the collection, and during the following century the Library acquired other Chinese works from several bequests. The Bodleian now holds as many as a quarter of all the extant Chinese books that arrived in Europe in the 17th century.
Towards the end of the 19th century the Library acquired two large collections of missionary publications. These works have an interest which goes beyond their value as expositions of Christian doctrine: some are written in local dialects, others provide glimpses of the popular Chinese religious and social customs which the missionaries encountered in the course of their work; all illustrate the process whereby traditional Chinese block-printing was gradually replaced by Western typography.
Digitized items include: MS.Chin.c.15 and MS.Chin.c.37, two painted albums depicting the manners and customs of the peoples inhabiting mountainous regions of Yunnan, Guizhou and southwest China; MS.Laud Or.145, the well-known manuscript rutter, or manual of compass directions Shun feng xiang song (‘Favourable Winds in Escort’), which may have been derived from accounts of the voyages of the great Ming Dynasty navigator Zheng He; and the Selden Map of China, one of the first Chinese maps to reach Europe.
Discover over a million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries.
Featured Collection
Chinese Maps, Manuscripts and Printed Books
Over 2,000 items from the Bodleian’s Chinese maps, manuscripts and printed books collections, acquired since the 17th century.
The Bodleian Library’s Chinese collections date back to the earliest period of the Library’s history. Sir Thomas Bodley himself was instrumental in building up the collection, and during the following century the Library acquired other Chinese works from several bequests. The Bodleian now holds as many as a quarter of all the extant Chinese books that arrived in Europe in the 17th century.
Towards the end of the 19th century the Library acquired two large collections of missionary publications. These works have an interest which goes beyond their value as expositions of Christian doctrine: some are written in local dialects, others provide glimpses of the popular Chinese religious and social customs which the missionaries encountered in the course of their work; all illustrate the process whereby traditional Chinese block-printing was gradually replaced by Western typography.
Digitized items include MS.Chin.c.15 and MS.Chin.c.37, two painted albums depicting the manners and customs of the peoples inhabiting mountainous regions of Yunnan, Guizhou and southwest China; and the Selden Map of China, one of the first Chinese maps to reach Europe.
Featured Partner
Lincoln College
Manuscripts, archives and early photography from the library at Lincoln College, Oxford.
Lincoln College was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, to combat the Lollard heresy. The early history of the College is preserved with remarkable completeness: records of early College business, fifteenth century Library catalogues and manuscripts all still form part of Lincoln’s historic collections, giving us an unparalleled picture of its intellectual and administrative history and of what was considered to be the finest College Library in Oxford.
The College has digitized part of a French prose apocalypse decorated with 68 miniatures; Arnold Fairbairns‘ magnificent 1908 photographic survey of Lincoln College buildings and estates; and the core College administrative records from 1472-1640 and 1577-1739.
Featured Collection
Sanskrit and South Asian Manuscripts Digitization Project
The Bodleian Libraries have digitized over 100 manuscript works of Sanskrit and related South Asian manuscripts.
The Bodleian is proud to be the repository of some 8,700 Sanskrit manuscripts, the largest known collection outside the Indian subcontinent. The collection spans approximately 1,000 years of the continent’s cultural heritage, and covers every branch of Sanskrit literature.
This project will digitize a number of important works from the collection, alongside items identified as particularly valuable for teaching and research.
The digitization of these manuscript works has been made possible through a benefaction from the late John P. Clay, an alumnus of the University of Oxford and founder and benefactor of the Clay Sanskrit Library (CSL). The CSL has prepared editions of over fifty works of Classical Sanskrit literature spanning two millennia, as part of its aim to bring great works of Sanskrit literature to a worldwide audience. These are available as digital editions as part of the Digital Clay Sanskrit Library (eCSL).
