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All Souls College Library, known until 2020 as the Codrington Library, is an
academic library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...
in the city of
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England. It is the library of
All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...
, a graduate constituent college of the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
. The library in its current form was endowed by
Christopher Codrington Christopher Codrington (1668 – 7 April 1710) was a Barbadian-born colonial administrator, planter, book collector and military officer. He is sometimes known as Christopher Codrington the Younger to distinguish him from his father. Codrington ...
(1668–1710), a fellow of the college who amassed his fortune through his sugar plantation in the West Indies which was worked by enslaved people of African descent. Codrington bequeathed books worth £6,000, in addition to £10,000 in currency (the equivalent of approximately £1.2 million in modern terms). The library, designed by
Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
, begun in 1716, was completed in 1751 and has been in continuous use by scholars since then. It is
Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
on the
National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
. The modern collection comprises some 185,000 items, about a third of which were produced before 1800. The library's collections are particularly strong in Law, European History, Ecclesiastical History, Military History, and Classics. There is an expanding collection devoted to sociological topics and the History of Science. Unusually for an Oxford college library, access to the Codrington is open to all members of the university (subject to registration). The library contains a significant collection of manuscripts and early printed books, and attracts scholars from around the world. The first woman to be admitted as a reader to the library was
Cornelia Sorabji Cornelia Sorabji (15 November 1866 – 6 July 1954) was an Indian lawyer, social reformer and writer. She was the first female graduate from Bombay University, and the first woman to study law at Oxford University. Returning to India after her ...
from
Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iri ...
, at the invitation of
Sir William Anson, 3rd Baronet Sir William Reynell Anson, 3rd Baronet, (14 November 18434 June 1914) was a British jurist and Liberal Unionist turned Conservative politician from the Anson family. Background and education Anson was born at Walberton, Sussex, the eldest son ...
in 1890. In November 2020, the college took the decision to stop referring to the library as the Codrington Library, as part of a set of "steps to address the problematic nature of the Codrington legacy", which derives from exploitation of slave plantations.


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External links

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The Unseen University: The Codrington Library
short film) {{coord , 51.7538, -1.2533, type:edu_region:GB, display=title 1751 establishments in England All Souls College, Oxford
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
Grade I listed library buildings Infrastructure completed in 1751 Library buildings completed in the 18th century Libraries of the University of Oxford Nicholas Hawksmoor buildings Slavery in the British West Indies Codrington family Name changes due to the George Floyd protests