Treasures of the Bodleian

At the beginning of 1612, the Stationers’ Company of London reaffirmed an agreement with Thomas Bodley of 1610, binding all printers to deliver to the Warden of the Company, for onward transmission to Oxford, one copy of every new book they printed, in quires (folded, but unbound sheets). To add further weight to its enforcement, eighteen members of the Court of High Commission added their signatures to the document, promising their support. Although the Bodleian throughout the seventeenth century only received a small proportion of the books registered at Stationers’ Hall, Bodley’s agreement ensured that his library’s claim to every book published was confirmed in the first Copyright Act of 1710 and all subsequent acts.