Oxford University has many libraries but the main library called the Bodleian Library. It was named after Sir Thomas Bodley. "The Bodleian Library, founded by the scholar and diplomat Sir Thomas Bodley (1545-1613), this year celebrates the 400th anniversary of its opening. Bodley's contemporaries were quick to recognise the grandeur of his vision and the vastness of his benefaction to the University." http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/2001-02/v14n2/03.shtml http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/rarebooks/rbd.html http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ http://www.ox.ac.uk/libraries/

The Bodleian Library, has many donators and different benefactors http://itotd.com/articles/341/the-bodleian-library/ It is named after Sir Thomas Bodleigh/Bodley

The Boldeian library at Oxford University is, as stated by the above answerbaggers named after Sir Thomas Bodley. However, that may not mean that Sir Bodley was the original donator of the library. "Surely not?" ask the horrified intellectuals amongst us? Well, dear sirs and madams, read on... Here's something that could be useful: "The Bodleian Library takes its name from Sir Thomas Bodley (1545-1613) whose initials appear in the inscription over the entrance to the Proscholium, on the west face of the Old Schools Quadrangle: QUOD FELICITER VORTAT ACADEMICI OXONIENSIS BIBLIOTHECAM HANC VOBIS REIPUBLICAEQUE LITERATORUM T(HOMAS). B(ODLEY). P(OSUIT). (Academicians of Oxford! Thomas Bodley has built this library for you and for the Republic of the Learned. May the gift turn out well)" So that's all latin and interesting but keep reading... "The origins of the university library go back to the fourteenth century, but it was in the mid fifteenth century that Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester (1391-1447) established and equipped the room above the Divinity School, which still bears his name. Duke Humfrey's collection was dispersed in the 1550s, and the library fell into disuse until Bodley extended and restocked it between 1598 and 1613." All information in quotation marks is taken from: http://www.oxfordinscriptions.com/oxford_university.htm So I guess the real answer was that it was ORIGINALLY donated by Duke Humfrey.