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163 Thomas Bodley, whose lasting monument, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is one of the most marked of the Literary Landmarks of the world, was graduated from Magdalen in 1563, to become a Probationary Fellow of Merton. In 1564 he was an actual Fellow. The next year he began a series of Greek lectures in the College Hall, without stipend, but so much to the benefit of his pupils and to the satisfaction of his peers, that the Society granted him an annual fee of four marks, and made the lectureship permanent. He received his degree of M. A. in 1566, and he lectured on Natural Philosophy in the University Schools. In 1569 he became a Proctor; and as such he closed his active participation in university life.

In 1597–98 he offered to restore to its former use that room which was then all that remained of the old Public Library. "And thus I concluded," he said, "to set up my staff at the Library door in Oxon, being thoroughly persuaded that, in my solitude and surcease from the Commonwealth affairs, I could not busy myself to any better purpose than by converting the place to the public use of students."

It is recorded that so long as Bodley remained in Oxford he passed whole days in that Library, for books could not be taken out; but the Library was open to all scholars for seven or eight hours