BODLEIAN LIBRARY

From Agepedia

BODLEIAN LIBRARY. (See Libraries.) BODLEY, sir Thomas; the founder of the Bodleian library at Oxford. He was bom at Exeter, in 1544, and educated partly at Geneva, whither his parents, who were Protestants, had retired in the reign of queen Mary. On the accession of Elizabeth, they returned home, and he completed his studies at Magdalen college, Oxford. He afterwards became a fellow of Merton college, and read lectures on the Greek language and philosophy. He went to the continent in 1576, and spent four years in travelling. He was afterwards employed in various embassies to Denmark, Germany, France and Holland. In 1597, he returned home, and dedicated the remainder of his life to the reestablishment and augmentation of the public library at Oxford. This he accomplished, procuring books and manuscripts himself, both at home and abroad, at a great expense, and, by his influence and persuasions, inducing his friends and acquaintance to assist in his undertaking. Sir Robert Cotton, sir Henry Savile, and Thomas Allen, the mathematician, were among the principal contributors on this occasion. The library was so much augmented, that sir Thomas B., who was knighted at the accession of James I, was induced to erect an additional structure for the reception of the increasing quantity of valuable books and manuscripts. He died in London, 1612, and was interred in the chapel of Merton college, in the university. He bequeathed nearly the whole of his property to the support and augmentation of the library, which has been so much enriched by subsequent benefactions, that it is, at present, one of the most magnificent institutions of the kind in Europe. (See Reliquiae Bodleianw, London, 1703.) BOPMER, John Jacob; a celebrated Ger man poet and scholar, bom at Greifensee, near Zurich, July 19, 1698. Although he produced nothing remarkable of his own in poetry, he helped to open the way for the new German literature in this department. He was the antagonist of Gottsched, in Leipsic, who aspired to be the literary dictator of the day, and had embraced the French theory of taste, while B. inclined to the English. He has the honor of having had Klopstock and Wieland among his scholars. B. was, for a longtime, professor of history in Switzerland. He was a copious and indefatigable writer, entertained many incorrect views, but was of service, as we have already said, to the German literature, which was then in a low and barbarous state. He died at Zurich, 1783.