Taylor Institution

The Taylor Institution is the Oxford University library dedicated to the study of the European Languages. Its building also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford. Since 1889 a prestigious Annual Lecture on a subject of Foreign Literature has been given at the Taylorian Institution.HistoryThe Taylor Institution was established in 1845, funded largely by a bequest from the estate of the notable architect Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788). Modern European languages were not then taught at the University. (Not until 1903 were a Faculty and Honours School instituted in Oxford.) Since the Bodleian lacked space, the Taylorian was initially used to house things as varied as Stubbs's lectures on English history and the Hope collection of butterflies.