12 million books
On 10 November 2015, members of the University and wider community gathered to mark the acquisition of the Bodleian Libraries’ 12 millionth printed item, a previously unseen copy of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things (1811).
Joined by Vanessa Redgrave, CBE, and Simon Armitage, CBE and Professor of Poetry, the Libraries celebrated not only this important literary text but also more than 400 years of contributions to the world of learning.
The Bodleian Libraries are extremely grateful to Mr Brian Fenwick-Smith and Mr Antonio Bonchristiano for their generous support of this project.
Shelley’s Poetical Essay is available to the public in digital form (including as a text-encoded XML file).
Selected press
- Bodleian Libraries (10/11/15): Lost, revolutionary Shelley poem acquired by Bodleian Libraries marks 12 millionth book for historic collections in UK’s largest academic library
- Bodleian Libraries (12/11/15): Vanessa Redgrave and special guests reveal Bodleian’s 12 millionth book
- BBC (10/11/15): Percy Bysshe Shelley’s lost poem acquired by Oxford University
- The Financial Times (10/11/15): Bodleian puts rediscovered Shelley poem on display
- The Guardian (10/11/15): Lost Shelley poem execrating ‘rank corruption’ of ruling class made public
- The TLS (10/11/15): Shelley’s Poetical Essay goes back to Oxford
- The Irish Times (10/11/15): Lost Shelley poem defending jailed Irish journalist unveiled
- The Times (11/11/15): Bodleian publishes unseen ‘poetical essay’ by Shelley
- The Independent (11/11/15): Lost Percy Bysshe Shelley poem and
Percy Bysshe Shelley lost poem to go public at University of Oxford - The Daily Telegraph (10/11/15): ‘Lost’ Shelley poem which helped get him expelled from Oxford to be seen at last
- The Atlantic (11/11/15): ‘Misery’s Sharpest Fang’: Protesting War in Poetry
- The Economist (11/11/15): A new Shelley poem
- The New York Times (11/11/15): Shelley Poem, 200 Years Later, Returns to Oxford
- The Paris Review (11/11/15): The Existing State of Things, and Other News
- The Financial Times (12/11/15): The rediscovery of Shelley