Falconer Madan

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Falconer Madan (15 April 1851-22 May 1935) was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

Entrance to the Bodleian Library.
Entrance to the Bodleian Library.

Falconer was the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan, born in Cam Gloucestershire. He was educated at Marlborough College and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he took part in Oxford and Cambridge Chess matches in 1873 and 1874, and won the University Singles Fives prize in 1874. He was Fellow of Brasenose from 1875 until 1880, when he was appointed sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library. In 1890 he was given the task of the creating a Summary Catalogue of the manuscripts of the Bodleian beginning with those not included. in the catalogue of 1697 The completion of the Summary Catalogue is the chief monument of his work. In 1889 Madan became a Fellow again and lecturer in Palaeography until 1913.

In 1912 Madan became Librarian of the Bodleian. During this time, a new underground book-store under Radcliffe Square was opened, the Library records were put into systematic arrangement, and the Bodleian Quarterly Record, a periodical of more than local interest, was started. He resigned the Librarianship in 1919.

He was president of the Library Association in 1914 and 1915, President of the Bibliographical Society from 1919 to 1921, and President of the Oxford Bibliographic Society in 1924 and 1925. He published many library related works, and in 1932 received the Bibliographical Society's Gold Medal

Falconer Madan married Frances Jane Hayter (1862-1938) second daughter of Harrison Hayter the engineer. His daughter Ethel married Charles Fox Burney and his granddaughter Venetia Burney is credited with proposing the name Pluto for the erstwhile planet[1].


[edit] Publications

  • Books in Manuscript (1899)
  • The Gresleys of Drakelowe
  • History of the Madan Family
  • The Daniel Press
  • Oxford Outside the Guide-Books


Academic offices
Preceded by
E. W. B. Nicholson		 Bodley's Librarian
1912–1919		 Succeeded by
Arthur Cowley

[edit] References

  • Who’s Who
  • Times Obituaries May 1935
  1. ^ The girl who named a planet, BBC News.