Wadham College, situated in the centre of Oxford, on a large site with beautiful gardens opposite the Weston Library, was founded in 1610 by husband and wife Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham.

Wadham Library’s antiquarian book collections, which number around 17,000, include several medieval manuscripts, Shakespeare’s First Folio, the King James Bible and some wonderful early science writing including first editions of Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus and Newton’s Principia. The collection also contains 54 incunabula (books printed before 1500), some of which appear in the MEI database (Material Evidence in Incunabula [CERL]), and a specialist collection of over 900 Persian manuscripts. The Persian manuscripts are being added to the online Fihrist catalogue that shows the Islamic manuscript holdings of a number of UK and Irish institutions (https://www.fihrist.org.uk).

The first Wadham item published in Digital Bodleian is a collection of woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer depicting the Passion of the Christ, accompanied by verses by Benedict Chelidonius.

Wadham Library has an online exhibition showcasing some of its treasures which you can view at the Wadham library website.

There is also a collection of over 40 specially commissioned YouTube films featuring experts discussing items in Wadham’s collection – just search YouTube for ‘Wadham Library films’.

You may reproduce Wadham images on Digital Bodleian under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) licence, unless otherwise stated. Please include the permalink and the correct citation. You do not need to request permission, but in case of enquiries, please contact library@wadham.ox.ac.uk.

Academic researchers are welcome to make an appointment to consult any of the items in Wadham’s special collections by emailing library@wadham.ox.ac.uk.