View, England, Oxford, Corpus Christi and Bodleian Quadrangle, Oxonia Illustrata, Antique Print Pair, London, 1675

Description

The Schools Quadrangle, completed in 1624, was initiated by Oxford benefactor Sir Thomas Bodley (1545-1613), who had donated the funds to refurbish and expand the university’s library, which became known as the Bodleian Library. The quadrangle buildings were designed to house lecture and examination rooms for the different disciplines, then referred to as “schools,” as well as rooms to store books, a public museum and a picture gallery. A numbered key in the lower margin notes the entrances to the various schools (law, philosophy, history, Hebrew and Greek language, geometry and mathematics, metaphysics, logic, astronomy, rhetoric, music, natural philosophy, and medicine). In the lower margin is a dedication to James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, who served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1669 to 1688, and dedication to Charles II, King of England.

In the view of Corpus Christi, the college shield is depicted upper left. Within an elaborate cartouche, upper right, the engraving is dedicated to Sir Coplestone Bampfylde, 2nd Baronet of Poltimore in Devon, who had studied at Corpus Christi. A lettered key beneath the cartouche notes the locations of the chapel, library, refectory, and “Praesidis Hospitiu.” As the Latin caption notes, the college was founded in 1515-16 by Richard Fox (sometimes spelled Foxe) (1448-1528), a Roman Catholic clergyman who served as Bishop of Winchester (1501-1528) and Lord Privy Seal (1487-1516) among other positions during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Fox instituted a curriculum in theology that emphasized study of Greek and Latin sources, which introduced Renaissance ideas to Oxford.

David Loggan was a British engraver, draughtsman and painter. Descended from an Anglo-Scottish family, he first studied in Danzig under Willem Hondius and then in Amsterdam, before arriving in London in the 1650s. He mainly produced engravings, though was also well known for his miniature portrait drawings in graphite on parchment. In 1662, he engraved the title page for the folio Book of Common Prayer. By 1669, he was living in Oxford, and was appointed “public sculptor” (in the sense of the Latin meaning of the word “sculptor,” i.e. “engraver”) to the university. He then proceeded to draw and engrave all the Oxford colleges in bird’s-eye views for his famous folio Oxonia Illustrata, published in 1675, the year that he was made a British citizen. He later published Cantabrigia Illustrata, a collection documenting Cambridge University, and held the position of engraver to the university.

Condition: Each generally very good, recently professionally cleaned and deacidified, with only light remaining toning, wear, handling. Each with vertical center folds, as issued professionally flattened.

References:

“David Loggan.” The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/05/0515/T051566.asp (20 October 2004).

“History of the Bodleian.” Bodleian Library & Radcliffe Camera, University of Oxford. 2020. https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/about-us/history (3 March 2021).

Pollard, A.F. “Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester.” Luminarium Encyclopedia Project. 1996-2018. http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/richardfox.htm (3 March 2021).

“Sir Coplestone Bampfylde, 2nd Baronet.” Wikipedia. 30 October 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Coplestone_Bampfylde,_2nd_Baronet (3 March 2021).