Portal:Library and information science/Selected biography/12
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Sir Thomas Bodley (March 2, 1545 – January 28, 1613), was an English diplomat and scholar, founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. He determined, he said, "to take his farewell of state employments and to set up his staff at the library door in Oxford." In 1598 his offer to restore the old library was accepted by the university. Bodley not only used his private fortune in this undertaking, but induced many of his friends to make valuable gifts of books. In 1611 he began its permanent endowment, and at his death, the greater part of his fortune was left to it.
