Richard Julian Roberts FSA (18 May 1930 – 20 October 2010) was a British librarian,

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

, and scholar.Obituary: Julian Roberts
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', 17 November 2010. Roberts was educated at

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent day school for boys in the British public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by King Edward VI in 1552, it is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Bir ...

, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he started reading Classics, but switched to

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

in his first year.

Biography

In the early 1950s, Roberts began his career at Lambeth Palace Library in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1958, he was appointed as an Assistant Keeper at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, where the collections which were later to form the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

were then located. In 1961, he became joint secretary of the Bibliographical Society with Sir Frank Francis, a post he held for 20 years. In 1974, Roberts returned to Oxford to become Keeper of Printed Books in the Bodleian Library 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 ...

. He was elected a Fellow of Wolfson College in association with his post, and became the college's Vice-gerent (deputy head of the college) during 1983–84. At the Bodleian Library, Roberts oversaw the introduction of computerised cataloguing and the acquisition of important collections such as the Dunston Collection in 1981, the Marlborough Vicars Library in 1985, and the

Opie Collection of Children's Literature Iona Margaret Balfour Opie, (13 October 1923 – 23 October 2017) and Peter Mason Opie (25 November 1918 – 5 February 1982) were an English married team of folklorists who applied modern techniques to understanding children's literature and ...

in 1988. In 1983, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London. On the premature death of John Jolliffe ( Bodley's Librarian) in 1985, he became Acting Librarian and then Deputy Librarian, a post that he held until his retirement in 1997. Jointly with Andrew Watson in the early 1970s, Roberts edited ''John Dee's Library Catalogue''. John Dee (1527–1608/9) was a consultant to

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

who devoted much of his life to the study of

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

and divination.R. Julian Roberts
Dee, John (1527–1609)
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

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, September 2004; online edition, May 2006. They published a new edition in 1990 and continued to provide amendments and corrections. Roberts also contributed to the planning of the ''New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature'', with his colleague Ian Willison.Frederick Wilse Bateson (editor),
New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature
' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

, 1974). . He provided much of the

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

section. Roberts married Anne Duce and they had two children. While working at Oxford, he lived at the village of

Tackley Tackley is a village and civil parish beside the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England. It is about west of Bicester and north of Kidlington. The village consists of two neighbourhoods: Tackley itself, and Nethercott. The 2011 Census reco ...

in Oxfordshire, north 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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Julian 1930 births 2010 deaths People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford English librarians English bibliographers Employees of the British Museum Employees of the British Library People associated with the Bodleian Library Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London