author
Falconer Madan
1851–1935
Best known as Bodley’s Librarian at Oxford, he devoted his life to the world of books, manuscripts, and bibliography. His work helped shape how scholars study and catalogue historic collections.
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About the author
Born in Cam, Gloucestershire, in 1851, Falconer Madan was an English librarian, bibliographer, and scholar whose career was closely tied to Oxford. He studied at Marlborough College and Brasenose College, Oxford, and later became a fellow there.
Madan spent much of his working life at the Bodleian Library, eventually serving as Bodley’s Librarian from 1912 to 1919. He was known for his deep knowledge of manuscripts and printed books, and he played a major part in cataloguing the Bodleian’s collections, including work on the Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts.
Alongside his library work, he wrote and edited books on bibliography, manuscripts, and literary history. His reputation rests on careful scholarship and a lifelong commitment to making great libraries more useful to readers and researchers.