Oxford Inscriptions: Bodleian Library: Earl of Pembroke and Bodley
Statue of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (1580–1630)
This bronze statue of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke stands in front of the main entrance to the Old Bodleian Library, looking east across the Schools Quadrangle. Until 1723 it stood in the Earl's family seat of Wilton House in Wiltshire.
It is Grade II listed, weighs about 1600 lb, and was sculpted by Hubert Le Sueur (d.1658), who also sculpted the equestrian statue of Charles I at Charing Cross.
The 3rd Earl of Pembroke was Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1617 until his death at the age of 50 on 10 April 1630. As well as promoting in 1624 the foundation of Pembroke College, he donated many manuscripts to the Bodleian Library in 1629.
In 1723 Thomas Herbert, the 8th Earl of Pembroke, transferred this statue to the Bodleian Library. Originally it was placed indoors on the third floor of the Bodleian Picture Gallery: this photograph shows it there in the 1890s, and this one in 1929.
According to a talk given on 21 February 1874 by Bodley’s Librarian, the Revd H. O. Coxe, the statue of the Earl originally wore spurs, but these were broken off many years earlier by an undergraduate of Christ Church who had had his own spurs taken away from him when he entered the Bodleian.
The statue was moved to its present position outdoors in 1950.
The four sides of the plinth have two inscriptions and two crests.
The inscription starts on side behind the statue and reads:
GULIELMUS PEMBROCHIAE
COMES
REGNANTIBUS JACOBO ET CAROLO PRIMIS
HOSPITII REGII
CAMERARIUS ET SENESCALLUS
ACADEMIAE OXONIENSIS
CANCELLARIUS MUNIFICENTISSIMUS
William, [3rd] Earl of Pembroke, Chamberlain and Steward of the Royal Household in the reign of James I and Charles I, and most munificent Chancellor of the University of Oxford
The inscription continues on the front of the plinth, thereby giving more prominence to the donor (the 8th Earl) than the actual honorand (the 3rd Earl):
HANC
PATRUI SUI MAGNI EFFIGIEM
AD FORMAM QUAM TINXIT
PETRUS PAULUS RUBENS
AERE FUSO EXPRESSAM
ACADEMIAE OXONIENSI
D.D. [= dedit et dedicavit]
THOMAS PEMBROCHIAE ET MONTGOM.
COMES
HONORUM ET VIRTUTUM
HAERES
A.D. MDCCXXIII
Thomas, [8th] Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, inheritor of his [the 3rd Earl's] titles and qualities, gave and dedicated to the University of Oxford this statue of his great-uncle cast in bronze in the form that Peter Paul Rubens had painted. A.D. 1723
The dog-eared book
On the left-hand side of the plinth are the arms of the University, with the motto DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA (“the Lord is my light”), which are the first words of Psalm 27.
The open book on the crest is a curiosity, as the top-right corner of the page is turned down in a dog-ear.
On the right-hand side of the plinth is this escutcheon of the Earl of Pembroke, with sixteen quarterings, ensigned with an Earl's Coronet, and encircled with the Garter bearing the motto “HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE” (“Evil to him who evil thinks”)
Inscriptions to Sir Thomas Bodley (1545–1613)
The memorial to Sir Thomas Bodley himself is less eye-catching: it is a plaque over the main entrance to the Old Bodleian Library, behind the statue:
Under the arms of the University and Sir Thomas Bodley, the text reads:
QUOD FELICITER VORTAT
ACADEMICI OXONIENS[ES]
BIBLIOTHECAM HANC
VOBIS REIPUBLICAEQUE
LITERATORUM
T. B. P. [= THOMAS BODLEY POSUIT]
"Thomas Bodley placed this library here
for you, Oxford academics,
and for the commonwealth
of the educated:
may it turn out happily"
A less obvious tribute to Sir Thomas Bodley is the drainpipe (right) in the Schools Quadrangle reading TB 1618. This date is five years after his death, but it seems unlikely that the drainpipe is that old.
Thomas Bodley, who was a Fellow of Merton College from 1564, was buried in its chapel, and his half effigy (below), which was sculpted in alabaster and marble by Nicholas Stone, is on the wall there. Athena stands over Bodley's arms, and the text below his effigy reads:
MEMORIAE
THOMAE. BODLEY. MILITIS. PUBLICAE
BIBLIOTHECAE FUNDATORIS. SACRU'.
OBIIT 28 IAN: 1612.
(“Sacred to the memory of Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of a public library. He died on 28 January 1612.”)
The female figure on the left holds a book inscribed “NON DELEBO NOMEN EIUS DE LIBRO VITAE” (I will not blot out his name from the book of life”) from Revelation 3:5.
See also the inscription on the Bodleian Library's Tower of the Five Orders