Christ Church Library is a Georgian building that forms the south side of

Peckwater Quadrangle The Peckwater Quadrangle (known as "Peck" to students) is one of the quadrangles of Christ Church, Oxford, England. It is a Grade I listed building. Christ Church Library is on the south side of the quad. To the southeast is Canterbury Quad ...

in Christ Church, Oxford,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. To the east is

Canterbury Quadrangle The Canterbury Quadrangle is one of the quadrangles of Christ Church, Oxford, England. It stands on the site of the former Canterbury College. A Brief History of Christ Church p.8 On the west side is Christ Church Library, whose north façade ...

. The library houses the college's modern

lending library A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a library ...

and early printed books on two floors.

History

The first library at Christ Church was established in 1562 in what had been the refectory of

St Frideswide's Priory St Frideswide's Priory was established as a priory of Augustinian canons regular, in 1122. The priory was established by Gwymund, chaplain to Henry I of England. Among its most illustrious priors were the writers Robert of Cricklade and Phi ...

. The books, of which around 140 remain in the library, were originally chained to wooden lecterns. A new library was designed in the eighteenth century, with the intention of attracting aristocratic students to the college by equalling the great classical library buildings of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

and

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. The most likely candidate for the architect is Dr

George Clarke George Clarke (7 May 1661 – 22 October 1736), of All Souls, Oxford, was an English architect, print collector and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1702 and 1736. Life The son of Sir William Clark ...

of All Souls; the master mason was William Townsend/Townesend. Building work started in 1717 and was only completed in 1772. The books were housed on the first floor to avoid damp and flooding, while the ground floor was designed as an open

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

. However, a bequest of paintings from General John Guise during the protracted construction of the library led to the enclosure of the ground floor to display them. The

Christ Church Picture Gallery Christ Church Picture Gallery is an art gallery located inside Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The gallery holds an important collection of about 300 Old Master paintings and nearly 2,000 drawings. The ...

has since moved to a separate, modernist, building. The collections incorporate substantial bequests of books from, amongst others,

Robert Burton Robert Burton (8 February 1577 – 25 January 1640) was an English author and fellow of Oxford University, who wrote the encyclopedic tome ''The Anatomy of Melancholy''. Born in 1577 to a comfortably well-off family of the landed gentry, Burto ...

;

Henry Aldrich Henry Aldrich (15 January 1648 – 14 December 1710) was an English theologian, philosopher, and composer. Life Aldrich was educated at Westminster School under Dr Richard Busby. In 1662, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1689 was ma ...

, Dean of Christ Church; William Stratford, a canon of the cathedral;

William Wake William Wake (26 January 165724 January 1737) was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737. Life Wake was born in Blandford Forum, Dorset, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He too ...

, Archbishop of Canterbury; and

Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery KT PC FRS (28 July 1674 – 28 August 1731) was an English nobleman, statesman and patron of the sciences. Early life The second son of Roger Boyle, 2nd Earl of Orrery, and his wife Lady Mary Sackville (1 ...

Collections

Christ Church Library contains one of the largest collections of early printed books in Oxford outside the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the sec ...

. The library was described in 1946 as 'a heterogeneous collection of about 100,000 works' and this is the figure which has generally been quoted since. For comparison, the modern collection holds around 72,000 books .

Exhibitions

The library also hosts exhibitions; these have ranged from the art and photography of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

(curated by Edward Wakeling, Allan Chapman, Janet McMullin and Cristina Neagu) to a commemoration of

Johann Joachim Winckelmann Johann Joachim Winckelmann (; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and founding ...

(curated by Amy Smith,

Katherine Harloe Katherine Harloe is Professor of Classics and Director of the Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Previously she was Professor of Classics at the University of Reading. She is an expert on the history ...

and Cristina Neagu).

References

Bibliography

* Christ Church Library
Books and articles about the Library

External links

Christ Church Library

Outline of the collections in ''Handbuch deutscher historischer Buchbestände in Europa''
{{coord , 51.7510, -1.2549, type:edu_region:GB, display=title 1562 establishments in England 1717 establishments in England

Library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

Libraries of the University of Oxford Infrastructure completed in 1772 Library buildings completed in the 18th century