Plundered Books Helped Create Oxford’s Renowned Bodleian Library

Portuguese bishop’s 16th-century library was war booty

Old Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Source: imgur.com)

Oxford University’s Bodleian Library is one of Europe’s oldest libraries and one of the world’s eminent research libraries. Yet, some of its books carry a taint of unscrupulousness given the time of its founding. One of its founding collections is plunder from…