The Bodleian Library was founded in 1602, to serve the University of Oxford and 'the whole republic of learning': until the foundation of the British Museum in the mid-eighteenth century it was the premier scholarly library of the English-speaking world. The present work, given as the Lyell Lectures at Oxford in 1981, traces the Library's uninterrupted development during the first two centuries of its existence. It is the first such history to be published since W. D. Macray's Annals of the Bodleian Library (1890). Drawing on previously unpublished University and Library records, and taking notice of the contributions to Library history made by scholars since Macray, the book presents a balanced account of the Library's growth, and of the often remarkable individuals-both benefactors and Librarianswho left the stamp of their personalities on it by their contributions to the wealth and character of its collections. The early benefactions to the Library were of extraordinary richness