Meet the Muse of Epic Poetry, Calliope, and her sisters Clio and Polyhymnia!
In 2023, these statues descended from the roof of Oxford's Clarendon Building for restoration, and will soon return to make it look as it did at the beginning of the 18th century.
Drop into Oxford's Weston Library before Friday 4 September, and you can enjoy for a once-in-many-lifetimes opportunity to see them up close.
John Rolfe is an art historian and advisor on the restoration project. He follows the Morellian school of art history, the analytical method said to have inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes.
By applying this technique of detecting clues overlooked by others, he has revealed the identities of sitters in portraits at the Ashmolean, Tate, and other UK collections; rediscovered a forgotten 'masterpiece' hidden in the National Gallery of Canada's basement; and, most recently, identified the missing Muse that once held pride of place on Oxford's Clarendon Building.
We're taking a sneak peek at the Gruffalo being drawn by its illustrator at his home. Axel Scheffler was the recipient of the 2026 Bodley Medal from the Bodleian Libraries for services to children's literature.
Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/1hUs7iWXH90
How does Axel Scheffler, the illustrator behind the Gruffalo, Zog, Stick Man and more, create his drawings? How does he get his ideas? Why does he think his collaboration with children's author Julia Donaldson is so successful?
Discover more about the Axel's background, creative process and get a sneak peak of how he draws the Gruffalo in this behind-the-scenes interview, filmed to mark his joint 2026 Bodley Medal award with Julia Donaldson from the Bodleian Libraries for services to children's literature.
Dr Agata Pawlina, a turkologist from @JagiellonianUniversity in Kraków, Poland, puts the spotlight on Ali Ufki/Bobovius/Wojciech Bobowski, a 17th C. polymath and multilinguist. She was the 2026 Queen Jadwiga Visiting Fellow in Polish Studies at the Bodleian Libraries.
Bindings have always been essential for making books work, and beyond that they have sometimes been striking works of craftsmanship. They are also integral to the histories of the individual books they cover, and there is much to explore beyond mere beauty. Bindings have been made of all kinds of materials – leather, parchment, vellum, ivory, precious metals – to satisfy the needs of owners from students to monarchs. The ways they were made and decorated have evolved steadily over time, and many countries have their own distinctive traditions.
David Pearson gives an illustrated talk based on his new book, Bookbindings: an Illustrated History, showcasing the Bodleian's outstanding bookbinding collections and exploring their interest and value.
Speaker
David Pearson is a leading authority on the history of books, after a lifetime spent working with them, writing about them and owning them. His books include Provenance Research in Book History (2019), Speaking Volumes: Books with Histories (2022) and now Bookbindings: an Illustrated History, all from Bodleian Library Publishing. He is Editor of The Book Collector.
To celebrate Pride Month 2026 we are looking into past examples of expressions of LGBTQ+ love, sometimes in unexpected places and times. Nicholas Kontovas, Bodleian Curator for Central Asia, puts the spotlight on the poetic works of Sultan Husayn Bayqara, who - over 500 years ago - ruled the Timurid Empire with its capital in Herat, in modern Afghanistan.
Source: Bodleian Library MS. S. Digby Or. 210
Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) discusses the unique large-format print of the General Map of the Qing Empire by Li Mingche (李明徹, 1751–1832) in Göttingen: tracing its cartographical origins and journey to a German university.
Watch the Friends of the Bodleian Annual Lecture featuring Richard Ovenden OBE, Bodley’s Librarian, as he explores the deliberate destruction of knowledge throughout history and its urgent relevance today.
Drawing from his acclaimed book Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack, Richard will discuss how libraries, librarians, and archivists bear the profound responsibility of preserving and transparently sharing information, and their critical role in safeguarding knowledge for future generations.
“Why are books destroyed? It’s about control—controlling knowledge to control societies, to control the way people behave, the way people think, the way people spend money.” – Richard Ovenden
Speaker
Richard Ovenden OBE is the 25th Bodley’s Librarian and the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries at the University of Oxford. He holds this post together with being Head of Gardens, Libraries & Museums. Richard serves as President of the Digital Preservation Coalition, and as a member of the Advisory Council of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. He has written extensively on the history of the book and current concerns in the library, archive and information worlds. He is the author of Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack.
We have experienced (endured? enjoyed?) the hottest May day on record. It was a weird, but a memorable one at the Bodleian, with visitors and readers moving swiftly across the quads in search of the precious shade. Our lush lawn around the Radcliffe Camera, so beautifully cut into a now famous pattern, started to fade and turn yellow. And it was becoming unbearably hot in our old buildings, so whoever could, moved over to the Weston Library, which is offering its cool space of Blackwell Hall and even cooler free exhibition areas, not to be missed on a grey, let alone a scorching day. Bring on hot Wednesday!
Removed for conservation in 2023, several of the muses have been conserved or newly cast in lead. As part of The Muddle of the Muses, three of the statues will be on display in Blackwell Hall: Clio representing History (original lead statue), Calliope representing Epic Poetry (lead reproduction) and Polyhymnia representing Rhetoric (original statue). Don't miss this rare chance to see these remarkable sculptures at eye level and discover the intriguing story behind their conservation. Starting Saturday 23rd of May 2026.
Inspired by John J. Audubon’s Birds of America, one of the most famous and most valuable books, James Freemantle, the Bodleian Printer in Residence 2025–26, is working on a project, creating a birdwatcher’s notebook referencing some of the better known pages from the Audubon. The book will record so-called ‘vagrant birds,’ those sighted outside their normal range. To see the original Birds of America, visit our free exhibition Wonder of Birds in the Weston Library.
Adam Lowe talks about his journey from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art to the creation of ARCHiOx. This collaboration between Factum Foundation and the Bodleian Libraries focuses on how new technologies can expand access and research into collections. Adam reflects on his approach to cultural heritage, and how 25 years of working at the intersection of art, technology, and preservation shape his view of how to safeguard it for future generations.
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