Its three-storied flying-buttressed facade belies just how many books Oxford’s most famous library now stores. Its origins can go back to the 14th century when a library was established at University Church of St Mary the Virgin. After outgrowing its building, the library moved to the Divinity School of Oxford. That collection, started by Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, the brother of Henry V, largely dispersed by the start of the 17th century, and in its place was built another one, a 2,000-volume collection assembled by Thomas Bodley of Merton College.

On this day, November 8, in 1602, Oxford’s Bodelian Library opened, in the upgraded facilities of the former library of Duke Humphrey. They were accessible to anyone, but the books and manuscripts were not allowed to leave the building.

By 1619 Bodley made an arrangement with the Stationer’s Company of London, that published and registered every book written in London in the 1700s that the library received a copy of. Immediately, this resulted in an overwhelming collection of books, requiring the library to expand (and expand again 20 years later). But its sizable collection attracted other donations of rare manuscripts, most of which survive still for the current generation of scholars to peruse.