Oxford’s treasures, from Magna Carta to the Titanic

The most treasured historical documents are often special not just because they are unique, but also because they have changed the way we think about the world.

Oxford’s Bodleian Library, one of the oldest and greatest libraries in Europe, contains a fabulous collection of such treasures. The cultural and chronological scope of its collection is vast, and many of its artifacts are truly world class. They represent seminal events – historical, intellectual, artistic – in the history of this country and the history of the world.

Over five days, five members of the Channel 4 newsroom have selected a single object from the library’s current exhibition, Treasures of the Bodleian, and explained its significance to them as working journalists.

Matthew Cain on William Shakespeare’s First Folio
The Bodleian’s First Folio is one of only several hundred remaining copies. The library originally decided to dispose of it in the 17th century, but re-acquired it in 1905. Matthew Cain says: “If we’re trying to get back to as reliable an account of what Shkespeare wrote, this is it.”

Tom Clarke on Robert Hooke’s Micrographia
Micrographia, a book featuring a selection of microscopic images of insects and other organisms, was the ultimate coffee table book of its day. Tom Clarke describes it as “one of the most important science books ever published” because it introduced the world to “the new universe of the microscopic”.

Jon Snow on Purcell’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day
Henry Purcell’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, the manuscript for which was acquired by the Bodleian Library in 1801, is among the English composer’s finest works. Jon Snow, who sang the piece as a Winchester Cathedral chorister, calls Purcell “the greatest cathedral music composer of all time”.

Cathy Newman on souvenirs from a 1908 Suffragette rally
The Bodleian Library holds a range of souvenirs, including tickets and official programmes, from a huge Suffragette demonstration in London demanding equal voting rights for women. “What struck me,” says Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, “was the sheer scale of that 1908 Hyde Park rally.”

Faisal Islam on the first Anglo-Japanese trade deal
The first-ever Anglo-Japanese business agreement, granting the East India Company trading privileges in Japan, was drawn up in 1613 – but was only discovered in the Bodleian by accident in 1985. Faisal Islam says it is “of incredible importance to Britain’s political and economic history”.

Gallery: from Shakespeare to the Suffragettes
A selection from the exhibits at the Treasures of the Bodleian exhibition in Oxford, including the Magna Carta, an early manuscript by Jane Austen, and detailed images of all of the documents and artefacts selected by Channel 4 News presenters and correspondents.

Below, Richard Ovenden, the Bodleian’s deputy librarian, introduces our series and explains why the Bodleian’s collection is so important.

Refounded by Sir Thomas Bodley at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Bodleian Libraries are one of the world's greatest research institutions and a key part of Oxford's scholarly and cultural resources, writes Richard Ovenden, the Bodleian Libraries' deputy librarian.

The Bodleian's outstanding historical collections embrace a vast range of academic disciplines and world cultures, and form part of an integrated research resource with the contemporary holdings of printed and digital research materials.

As a university library, the Bodleian's primary purpose is to make information available to researchers through collecting and preserving a wide range of materials from ancient papyri to websites, and offering a huge range of information services built around them. In addition, it opens up its collections to the general public by showing selected treasures through its programme of exhibitions and related events.

Over the next three years one of the Bodleian's major buildings - the 1930s New Bodleian building - will undergo major renovation and redevelopment, and it will reopen as the Weston Library of the Bodleian in 2015. Selections of the Bodleian's greatest treasures will again be on display in a dedicated gallery, together with a series of special exhibitions.

What makes a particular book, manuscript or object - out of a collection of 9 million - a treasure? It may be its age (Shakespeare's First Folio) or its ingenuity (Robert Hooke's Micrographia) or its rarity (Purcell's handwritten score of Ode for St. Cecilia's Day) or its historical importance (Suffragette movement material or the first trade agreement between England and Japan) or its beauty; it may be of great scholarly importance, or have the ability to provoke strong emotions; or it may simply be an accidental survival, a curiosity.

The Treasures of the Bodleian exhibition and online resource rehearse ways in which the permanent exhibition gallery in the Weston Library might be arranged; but choosing one treasure over another is a subjective business, and visitors are invited to offer their own views when visiting the exhibition, or via Treasures of the Bodleian website.

Here members of the Channel 4 News team get involved in the debate and present their treasure choices.