The Library Orders

Originally posted [Posting date] by the Library, All Souls College; last modified on

The Library Orders: 'Nov. 8. 1751. It was then agreed by ye Warden and Fellows that the Codrington Library shall be under ye following Regulations for one whole year ensuing from the Date hereof: viz 1. That all ye Books be ranged in Classes according to their several Sciences, and that particular Parts of the Library be allotted to each Class. 2. That when the Books are ranged, a Classical Catalogue be immediately taken of them, in the Order in which they stand with proper Blanks for future Accessions of Books, and that an Alphabetical Catalogue be compiled from the Classical one in an interleaved Copy of ye Bodleian Catalogue. 3. That the Warden, Subwarden, Deans, Bursars, the Senior Artist, Senior Jurist then resident in College, if Graduates, shall be at all Times a standing Committee for the Library, and regulate all Matters relating to the same, according to ye Opinion of ye Majority of the said Committee. 4. That two Fellows or Chaplains of ye College be appointed by ye said Committee to be principal Librarians, who shall be removable at ye Discretion of the said Committee, and receive a Salary of twenty Shillings for every Month in which they shall officiate.'

If the Library at All Souls College has a birthday, then it is surely the day on which, in 1751, the Library Orders were signed. They were drawn up by the Warden and Fellows, to be the regulations governing the use of the newly built Library. The Library came into being as the result of two occurrences: the desperate need for a larger library, and the bequest of the money and books left to the College by former Fellow, Christopher Codrington. When he died in April, 1710, his will made public his charitable intentions: he left £6,000 to All Souls to pay for the building of a new library, with a further gift of £4,000 to be spent on books. He also bequeathed his own collection of 12,000 books. A large part of Codrington’s wealth derived from his estates in Barbados and Barbuda, which were worked by enslaved people of African origin; and for this reason the College decided in November 2020 no longer to refer to the Library as the Codrington. Shortly after receiving the bequest All Souls commissioned Nicholas Hawksmoor to redesign the north side of the Great Quadrangle to house a library (instead of the common room and rooms that had originally been envisaged). The Orders state that the books should be arranged in subjects, and that particular parts of the Library be allotted to each subject; that a catalogue should immediately be drawn up; and that two principal librarians should be appointed to classify all newly purchased books, and to maintain a register of donors. It is evident from the Orders that locks on each bookcase were part of the original design. Only the appointed librarians had access to the keys, and they fetched books for the Fellows. There was to be “no Fire or Candle to be carried into the Library on any Account whatsoever”. Each Fellow signed the Library Minute Book to comply with the above Orders:
“We whose names are underwritten do hold ourselves strictly bound in conscience and honour not to take any Book out of the Library, but under the Restrictions and according to the Rules prescrib’d in the Codrington Orders. And we do farther promise, each one for himself respectively, that we will at all times be very carefull of any key, or keys, entrusted to us; and if any such Key, or Keys, shall happen to be lost by our neglect, we will readily submit to the Penalties enjoin’d by the said Orders.”