How did a library founded over 400 years ago grow to become the world-renowned institution it is today, home to over thirteen million items? From its foundation by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1598 to the opening of the Weston Library in 2015, this illustrated account shows how the Library’s history was involved with the British monarchy and political events throughout the centuries. The history of the Library is also a history of collectors and collections, and this book traces the story of major donations and purchases, making use of the Library’s own substantial archives to show how it came to house key items such as early confirmations of Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s First Folio and the manuscript of Jane Austen’s earliest writings, among many others. Beautifully illustrated with prints, portraits, manuscripts and archival material, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of libraries and collections.

This edition makes available for the first time a complete text and criticism of the so-called Compton Census, a count of conformists, papists and nonconformists for many of the parishes of England and Wales, which has long been of interest to demographers and ecclesiastical historians.