The Shaping Scholarship project has newly identified a book once owned by John Dee among the earliest gifts to the Bodleian Library. His distinctive ownership inscription was immediately recognised by CELL PhD student Samantha Brown.
When Thomas Bodley re-founded Oxford University’s library in 1598, he knew he would need the help of a “great store of honourable friends” for the project to be a success. The early Bodleian Library had many colonial connections, and the public database of the early donations to the Library (c. 1600–1620) which we are producing for this project will help further research in this area.
In this first post we’ll be introducing the broad aims of the project and the team behind it.