The motto of the University of Oxford serves as a reminder - if one is needed - that the University's origins were sacred rather than secular. The motto appears on the open pages of a book on the University coat of arms and is to be found on most University buildings and as part of the coat of arms of the Oxford University Press. The words Dominus illuminatio mea (The Lord is my light) are the first words of Psalm 27.

On the wall of the building at the south-west corner of Carfax (the junction of St Aldate's and Queen Street) is an inconspicuous stone with the inscription:

This innocuous epigraph recalls one of the bloodiest episodes in the annals of Oxford, the repercussions of which can still be discerned in the relations between the City and the University.

On lOth February (St Scholastica's Day) 1355, a party of scholars who were drinking in the tavern ordered the wine-merchant to change some wine. He replied in language later described as 'saucy', as the result of which the scholars 'broke his head with a flagon'. The wine-merchant rallied the townsfolk, and in the ensuing three days of rioting, over sixty students and thirty townsfolk were killed.

The riots were in fact the culmination of a long-standing feud that had been festering during the previous hundred and fifty years. The rallying point for the townsfolk was next door to the Swindlestock Tavern, the City church of St Martin, only the tower of which now stands as Carfax Tower; whereas the University rallied at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, whose prominent spire was completed about the year 1310. It became customary for each side to summon its supporters by ringing the church bells, and the sound of either set of bells became the signal for a general riot.

Even before the St Scholastica's Day riots, the Mayor had been required to swear a formal oath 'to respect the liberties and customs of the University', but after the riots the University gained virtual control over the City's affairs. As the result of an enquiry set up by King Edward III (who happened to be staying at Woodstock at the time), the University gained control over the markets, acquired the right to decide the price of bread, ale and wine, took responsibility for cleaning the streets, inspected weights and measures, and were granted their own courts and their own system of taxation. As if these measures were not enough, the Mayor, Bailiffs and sixty citizens were required to attend an annual service of penitence on St Scholastica's Day in the University Church. It took centuries for the City to regain the powers that it had possessed prior to 1355: the Dies Scholastica ceremonies were not abolished until 1825, and the Mayor's Oath persisted until the incoming Mayor in 1859 let it be known that he would refuse to swear it. The University, after taking legal advice, decided not to pursue its claim. It was not until six hundred years had passed the the hatchet was finally and formally buried, when, on lOth February 1955, at a commemoration of the events of 1355, the Mayor was given an honorary degree and the Vice-Chancellor was made an Honorary Freeman.

The Bodleian Library takes its name from Sir Thomas Bodley (1545-1613) whose initials appear in the inscription over the entrance to the Proscholium, on the west face of the Old Schools Quadrangle:

The origins of the university library go back to the fourteenth century, but it was in the mid fifteenth century that Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (1391-1447) established and equipped the room above the Divinity School, which still bears his name. Duke Humfrey's collection was dispersed in the 1550s, and the library fell into disuse until Bodley extended and restocked it between 1598 and 1613. Since then, it has never looked back. Bodley's portrait (by Cornelius Jansen) is to be seen in the Proscholium (entry hall), and his coat of arms, with that of the University, decorates the glass entrance- doors and the vault of the Proscholium. There is a fine bust of Bodley in Duke Humfrey's Library, and a modern one over the Broad Street doorway of the New Bodleian Library. There are other portraits of him in the Bodleian and in Merton College, where he was a Fellow and where the Chapel contains his magnificent monument by Nicholas Stone. On the monument, the figures surrounding the effigy of Bodley represent the Seven Liberal Arts and the three Superior Faculties, corresponding closely with the names over the doorways in the Old Schools Quadrangle of the Bodleian Library.

Matching Bodley's monument on the west wall of Merton College Chapel is that of a contemporary of his, Sir Henry Savile (1549-1622), Warden of Merton and later Provost of Eton, who left his library of scientific books to the Bodleian. Savile's name is perpetuated in Oxford by two professorial chairs which he founded, the 'Savilian' professorships of Geometry and of Astronomy. Savile Road off Mansfield Road is also named after him. Merton has portraits of him, and his portrait by Gheeraerts is to be seen in the Proscholium of the Bodleian.

Prominently placed in the Old Schools Quadrangle is a bronze statue designed by Rubens and executed by Le Sueur of William Herbert,3rd Earl of Pembroke (1580-1630), a former Chancellor of the University and benefactor of the Bodleian Library, after whom Pembroke College is named. For nearly a century after the 3rd Earl's death, his statue stood in the family home of Wilton House near Salisbury, but Thomas, the 8th Earl, presented it to the University in 1723. For the next two centuries it was kept inside the Bodleian Library and it was moved out into the quadrangle only in 1950.

If public statues were to reflect the true importance of their subjects, the Bodleian Quadrangle should rather contain one of Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645) who, as Chancellor, was a more generous benefactor than the 3rd Earl of Pembroke. Laud's career, which was to end on the scaffold on Tower Hill, had begun at Oxford where he was an undergraduate at St John's College. He was responsible for the building of the Canterbury Quadrangle at St John's, and his gifts to the Bodleian included a large and priceless collection of manuscripts. There are portraits of him at St John's (including a copy of one by Van Dyck in the Hall) and in the Bodleian.

Translations of the other Latin texts in the Old Schools Quadrangle are as follows:

Below the figure of James I on the Schools Tower (East side)

(The letter 'D' which precedes the name 'JACOBO' probably stands for 'DIVO' which has been translated as 'godlike')

James I holds two books. On the one being handed to the figure of Fame (with her attribute of a trumpet) is written HAEC HABEO QUAE SCRIPSI ('Here are my writings'), and on the other, which is being handed to the figure representing the University, are the words HAEC HABEO QUAE DEDI ('Here are my gifts').

A. D. 1723)

West face:

The Sheldonian Theatre

The ceremonial entrance to the Sheldonian Theatre is on the south side, facing the Divinity School in whose north wall Sir Christopher Wren made a door through which processions could pass from the Divinity School to his new Theatre. Above the door from the Divinity School is a monogram of Wren's initials, and under the arch an inscription in Greek painted on an open book, taken from St Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2, verse 46, the English translation of which reads:

Across the south facade of the Sheldonian Theatre itself is a Latin inscription in honour of the man after whom the building is named:

(Erected for the University of Oxford and for the promotion of sound learning by Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University A.D. 1668)

and on the Broad Street side:

Archbishop Sheldon's generosity in providing most of the money for the building was prompted by the unseemly ceremonies that had previously taken place in the University Church of St :Mary's where buffoonery had by tradition accompanied the annual Encaenia. The Theatre - so called because its design is similar to that of a Roman theatre - provided a secular setting for university ceremonies as well as providing Oxford with a good, if uncomfortable, concert-hall.

The Sheldonian was Sir Christopher Wren's first major architectural work and the reputation that he gained in Oxford prepared him for his greatest opportunity, which arose after the Great Fire of London in 1666 when he was chosen as the architect of the new St Paul's Cathedral and of more than fifty London churches to replace those destroyed in the Fire. His other major architectural monument in Oxford is Tom Tower, completed in 1682 as the main entrance to Christ Church.

The most accessible portraits of Wren are in the Sheldonian Theatre and in the Ashmolean Museum where there is a marble bust by Edward Pierce. Other portraits in Oxford include a copy of the Sheldonian portrait in Wren's old college of Wadham, a bust by Rysbrack in The Queen's College, and various likenesses in All Souls where he was a Fellow. North Oxford has a Wren Road named after him.

Portraits of Sheldon are to be found in his old college of Trinity, in the Sheldonian Theatre, and in All Souls, of which he was Warden before his appointment as a bishop.

The Clarendon Building

Next to the Sheldonian Theatre is the Clarendon Building, named after Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609-74) whose statue by Francis Bird, in the robes of Chancellor of the University, occupies a niche facing west (towards the Sheldonian). The inscription beneath the statue reads:

(Edward, Earl of Clarendon, a great Chancellor of England and a great Chancellor of the University)

The Clarendon Building was designed as a printing house to accommodate the University Press which had been spreading itself into the Sheldonian and into rooms round the Schools Quadrangle of the Bodleian, and it continued to be known as The Printing House until 1831 when the Press moved into its present premises in Walton Street. The moving of the Press enabled the University to adapt the old Printing House for use as a registry, and the building was thereafter known as the Clarendon Building. The University continued to use it as a registry until they transferred to new offices in Wellington Square in 1975, when the Clarendon Building was taken over by the Bodleian Library.

Edward Hyde had been a supporter and adviser of Charles I and had accompanied Charles II into exile. At the restoration of the ,monarchy, he was rewarded with an earldom and with the chancellorship of Oxford University. Seven years later, he was impeached for high treason and was again forced into exile, spending the remaining six years of his life in France. He occupied his years of exile by writing the history of his times, notably the History of the (Cromwellian) Rebellion in England. The three-volume History was not published until thirty years after Clarendon's death and it became a standard work. Clarendon's son presented the copyright of the work to the University, and it was the profits from its sale that enabled the University to erect the Printing House in 1711-13.

An Act of Parliament was needed to grant perpetual copyright of Clarendon's History to the University. [A similar course of action was mooted in 1988 to enable the Hospital for Children in Great Ormond Street to continue to enjoy the royalties from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan which came out of copyright in 1987, fifty years after Barrie's death].

By the nineteenth century, the Clarendon Trustees still had funds in hand, which had accumulated sufficiently for another building venture. In 1870-71, the Clarendon Laboratory was built as an addition to the recently-completed University Museum. The Laboratory was taken over by the Department of Geology and Mineralogy in 1940 when the present Clarendon Laboratory was built under the direction of Professor F.A. Lindemann (1866-1957), the future Viscount Cherwell.

The building now known as the Museum of the History of Science was erected between 1679 and 1683 to house a collection which Elias Ashmole had acquired from the Tradescant family and had presented to the University. Only the the top floor was used for Ashmole's benefaction; the middle floor (at entrance level) was a lecture room for a so-called School of Natural History, and the basement was a chemical laboratory. For over two centuries the building was known as the Ashmolean Museum, and for most of that time it was the centre of science teaching in the University.

During those two centuries, new acquisitions of scientific, ethnographic and archaeological material produced such an accumulation of exhibits that additional space became essential. The museum's need for space coincided with the expansion of both physical and natural sciences in the mid-nineteenth century, and between 1855 and 1860 the University Museum was built in Parks Road, largely at the instigation of Sir Henry Acland. The new museum enabled the Ashmolean to off-Ioad its scientific and ethnographic material while retaining its growing archaeological collection.

Meanwhile, the University had received an unexpected benefaction which enabled it to erect a building where its collection of pictures and of classical statuary could be displayed. The money came largely from the estate of The Rev. Francis Randolph (1714-97) who had been Principal of St Alban Hall (a college since incorporated with Merton College), and the University commissioned the architect C.R. Cockerell to design what was then known as the Randolph Gallery (for the statuary) and the University Galleries (for the pictures) in Beaumont Street. The new Galleries were completed in 1845.

Coinciding with the legacy from Francis Randolph was another from the sculptor-cum-architect, Sir Robert Taylor, who bequeathed money to build a centre for the teaching of European languages in the University. The Taylor Institution was built at the same time as the new Galleries and was joined on to them. A dedicatory inscription is to be found inside the building above an archway at the top of the first flight of stairs leading from the entrance:

THIS INSTITUTION FOUNDED UNDER THE WILL OF THE ARCHITECT SIR ROBERT TAYLOR (1714-1788) "for the teaching and improving of the European languages" WAS CONSTRUCTED TO THE DESIGNS OF C. R. COCKERELL AND OPENED IN 1845

The name INSTITUTIO TAYLORIANA is inscribed on either side of the entrance from St Giles. The four Ionic columns on the St Giles side of the building are topped with statues which represent France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

In 1884, a promising young archaeologist, Arthur Evans, was appointed Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Broad Street, and it was not long before he formulated a plan to erect a new building behind the University Galleries in Beaumont Street, to which the archaeological collection should be moved. It says a lot for Arthur Evans's powers of persuasion that within ten years he had persuaded the University to put his plan into effect, and the 'New Museum of Art and Archaeology' was opened in 1894. The name 'Ashmolean' was transferred from Broad Street to Beaumont Street as a condition imposed (with the connivance of Arthur Evans) by a benefactor, C.D.E.Fortnum. Under the guidance of Arthur Evans, the museum was transformed from 'a collection of curios into a modern museum of art and archaeology'. He resigned as Keeper of the Museum in 1908 (although he remained Honorary, and later Perpetual Keeper) in order to devote himself more fully to excavations at Knossos on the island of Crete where his discovery of Minoan civilsation placed him in the first rank of archaeologists. He is permanently remembered in the Ashmolean Museum by the Arthur Evans Room where his Minoan material is displayed. Over the entrance-arch of the room is a portrait (by W.B.Richmond) showing him among the ruins at Knossos. Nearby is another (by Guthrie), and there is a marble bust (by David Evans) (no relation) just outside the Hill Music Room.

Oxford has reason to be grateful to other members of the Evans family too. Sir Arthur Evans's father, Sir John Evans (1823-1908), was himself an archaeologist and numismatist and a keen collector of antiquities. Sir Arthur presented his father's collection to the Ashmolean where it is housed in the Sir John Evans Room which adjoins the Arthur Evans Room. A portrait of Sir John (by John Collier) hangs over the entrance-arch.

In 1925, Arthur's brother, Lewis Evans, presented a collection of scientific instruments to the University (the Lewis Evans Collection) which formed the nucleus of the Museum of the History of Science in the 'Old Ashmolean' in Broad Street. A portrait of Lewis Evans hangs in the Upper Gallery of the Museum

Another donor of scientific instruments was J. A. Billmeir, whose generosity is recalled in a Latin inscription in the pavement at the foot of the steps leading to the main entrance of the Museum of the History of Science:

SCALAS LAPIDAS ANTE ANNIS PAULO MINUS C DIRUTAS SUO SUMPTU RESTITUENDAS CURAVIT A. S. MCMLVII JACOBUS ALBERTUS BILLMEIR, NAVICULARIUS, EXCELLENTISSI.MI ORD. IMP. BRITANNICI COMMENDATOR, QUOD BENEVERTAT SCIENTIARUM HISTORIAM ADEUNTIBUS

(These stone steps which had been in disrepair for almost a hundred years were restored at his own expense in 1957 by the shipowner James Albert Billmeir C.B.E. in the hope of benefiting those who approach the study of the history of science)

The objects in the original collection that Ashmole had acquired from the Tradescant family eventually found their way to Beaumont Street and are on display in the Tradescant Room which is situated just beyond the so-called Founders' Room with its portraits of the Tradescants and of Ashmole. Half way up the stairs leading to the Founders' Room is a tablet, on either side of which is a list of benefactors, which includes Randolph and the Evans family, but which is headed by the words:

Ashmolean Museum, Founded 1683 by Elias Ash.mole (1617-92)

The inscription on the tablet reads:

(This building was initiated with a legacy of one thousand pounds sterling left by the Reverend Francis Randolph, Principal of St Alban's Hall, and subsequently completed at its own expense by the University of Oxford in the Year of our Lord 1845)

A short biographical account of the solicitor-cum-antiquarian, Ashmole, is contained in a booklet by C.H. Josten, obtainable at the Museum. Further references to the activities of Sir Arthur Evans will be found under Overlooking Oxford: Boars Hill below.

The University Museum, Parks Road

The University Museum was opened in 1860 as the centre for the teaching of science in the University. Its comprehensive collection of natural objects was intended both as a basis for the teaching of science and as a proof of the theory of evolution then being propounded by Charles Darwin, whose Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection was published in 1859. The foundation stone of the Museum is to be found just inside the main entrance near the sales counter. According to Jan Morris, in her book Oxford (1978 edition), the inscription dates only from 1906 when the stone was rediscovered after having been forgotten about since it was laid in 1855:

This first stone of an enterprise that will benefit posterity was laid on 20th June 1855 by the most honourable Edward Geoffrey, Earl of Derby, the Chancellor of the University)

[Lord Derby had succeeded the Duke of Wellington as Chancellor in 1852. His installation as Chancellor is depicted on a plaque on the pedestal of his statue in Parliament Square.]

Messrs Deane and Woodward were a Dublin firm of architects. Woodward also designed the Debating Room (now the Old Library) of the Oxford Union in St Michael's Street, but the Museum remains his chef d 'oeuvre. He died in 1861 soon after its completion, and is commemorated there by a fine sculptured head in relief by Alexander Munro, which is displayed in the main Court.

Thomas N. Deane went on to design the Meadow Buildings of Christ Church (1866), described in a Visitor's Guide to Oxford of 1883 as a "handsome and lofty pile" and by Pevsner (1974) as "that big, heavy, Gothic Chinese Wall shutting off the meadow'.

An inscription recording a famous confrontation is to be found in the Upper West Gallery of the University Museum at the side of a door leading to what is now the Bird Room of the Zoological Collection. It reads:

A meeting of the British Association held 30 June 1860 within this door was the scene of the memorable debate on evolution between Sa.muel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and Thomas Henry Huxley.

Samuel Wilberforce (1805-73) was the third son of the man mainly responsible for the abolition of the slave-trade, William Wilberforce. Samuel, who acquired the unfortunate nickname of Soapy Sam, was Bishop of Oxford from 1845 to 1869. (His likeness can be seen in Christ Church Cathedral above the door leading to the cloisters from the south aisle, where there is a carved wooden head of him wearing his mitre and wielding a broken pastoral crook). There is a Wilberforce Street at the south end of New High Street in Headington. He left Oxford on his appointment as Bishop of Winchester where he was killed by a fall from his horse. He is commemorated in the south transept of Winchester Cathedral by an impressive canopied monument designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

His protagonist at the Museum, T. H. Huxley (1825-95), scientist and expounder of Darwin's theory of evolution, was the founder of a distinguished family through his son Leonard whose children included Sir Julian Huxley (1887-1975) the scientist, Aldous Huxley (1894- 1963) the novelist (both Balliol men), and Sir Andrew Huxley (1917-) the physiologist and Nobel prizewinner.

A fascinating description of the debate, 'Reminiscences of a grandmother', is given in Macmillan's Magazine 1898, quoted in Jan Morris's The Oxford Book of Oxford (1978):

The debate generated another choice remark quoted by M. F. Ashley Montague in Man and Aggression (OUP 1968):

The Examination Schools, completed in 1886, was the first of many buildings in Oxford designed by Sir Thomas G. Jackson (1835-1924). Over the imposing main entrance in High Street are carved panels representing the examination of a student and the conferring of a degree.

The nearest equivalent of a foundation-stone in the Schools is an inconspicuous inscription at the base of a marble pillar near the entrance to Rooms 9 and 10. Here with difficulty may be discerned the words

AMJ was Jackson's newly married wife, Alice Mary. who laid the stone.

In addition to its main function as an examination hall, the building is a portrait gallery for the University. Portraits of royalty there include Sir Thomas Lawrence's huge canvas of George IV (on the Grand Staircase), painted to celebrate his visit to Oxford for the premature peace celebrations in 1814. At the top of the Grand Staircase are Sir Godfrey Kneller's portraits of William and Mary: in the South Writing School (lst floor) is Allan Ramsay's portrait of George III; and in the passage between Rooms 1 and 2 (lst floor) are Sir David Wilkie's portraits of William IV and Queen Adelaide. There is also a portrtait of Edward VII as Prince of Wales by Sir John Gordon.

Reference has been made elsewhere in the text to a few other objects inside the building.