Falconer Madan

Falconer Madan (15 April 1851 – 22 May 1935) was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

Early life and education

Falconer Madan was born in Cam, Gloucestershire, the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan. He was educated at Marlborough College and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he took part in Oxford and Cambridge chess matches in 1873 and 1874, and won the University Singles fives prize in 1874.

Career

Madan was a fellow of Brasenose from 1875 until 1880, when he was appointed sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library. In 1890, he was given the task of the creating a summary catalogue of the manuscripts of the Bodleian beginning with those not included in the catalogue of 1697. The completion of the Summary Catalogue is the chief monument of his work. In 1889, Madan became a Fellow again and lecturer in palaeography until 1913. Another significant publication of this period is his The Early Oxford Press: a bibliography of printing and publishing at Oxford, 1468–1640 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895).

In 1909 Madan gave the Sandars Lectures on bibliography at Cambridge, choosing as his topic the localisation and dating of manuscripts.

In 1912, Madan became Librarian of the Bodleian. During this time, a new underground book-store under Radcliffe Square was opened, the library records were put into systematic arrangement, and the Bodleian Quarterly Record, a periodical of more than local interest, was started. He resigned the librarianship in 1919.

He was president of the Library Association in 1914 and 1915, President of the Bibliographical Society from 1919 to 1921, and President of the Oxford Bibliographic Society in 1924 and 1925. He published many library-related works. In 1932, he received the Gold Medal of the Bibliographical Society.