The Bodley Medal is awarded by the
Bodleian Library at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
to individuals who have made "outstanding contributions ... to the worlds of communications and literature" and who have helped the library achieve "the vision of its founder,
Sir Thomas Bodley, to be a library not just to Oxford University but also to the world".
Description of the Medal
The medal's obverse shows the right profile of Thomas Bodley and bears the Latin inscription "TH BODLY EQ AVR PVBL BIBLIOTH OXON FVNDATOR", which translates "Sir Thomas Bodley, Founder of the Public Library at Oxford". The reverse reads "R P LITERARIAE AETERNITAS", which means "The Eternity of the Republic of Letters". It shows a female figure, probably representing the
Republic of Letters
The Republic of Letters (''Respublica literaria'') is the long-distance intellectual community in the late 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and the Americas. It fostered communication among the intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment, or ''phil ...
, bearing a head in each hand. The medal is signed "Warin" on the obverse.
History
The original medal was engraved in 1646 to honour
Sir Thomas Bodley who rebuilt the first public library at Oxford in 1602, now called the
Bodleian Library. It was designed by Claude Warin, a leading medal-maker of the seventeenth century. Library accounts for 1646 contain the following entry: "Item, to ye painter that drew Sir Thomas Bodley's picture, and to Mr. Warren that made his medale, to each of them 2s". The original medal is gilt, probably on bronze. In 2002, on the 400th anniversary of the Bodleian Library, the copper metal saved from a renovation of the library's original roof was given to the
Royal Mint to create a set of one hundred replicas of the original medal.
After a hiatus of nearly 400 years, the library started granting awards of the Bodley Medal, beginning with Sir
Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web), Baroness
P.D. James
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring t ...
(author), and Sir
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
(Chairman of
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
).
Laureates
, the restruck Bodley Medal has been awarded to only 27 individuals.
References
{{Authority control
Awards and prizes of the University of Oxford
Bodleian Library