The city received a royal visit when the Duchess of Cornwall undertook a tour of the Weston Library, part of the Bodleian Library, yesterday morning.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall stepped out onto Broad Street wearing a navy blue woollen coat and black, knee-high boots.
Her Royal Highness was there to view the library's new exhibition, ‘Melancholy: A New Anatomy’, and the Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxfordshire - which is on display for the first time in a century.
READ MORE: Sir Philip Pullman praises Camilla for promoting reading
The Duchess also met library staff and students, as well as the organisers of Oxford Literary Festival.
During her visit Her Royal Highness was accompanied by author Sir Philip Pullman and was shown a number of demonstrations in the library’s Conservation Studio, before looking at a selection ‘special treasures’.
Virginia M. Lladó-Buisán, head of conservation and collections at the Bodleian Libraries, said it was "lovely” to meet the Duchess and described her as “very personable” and “interested in what she was seeing”.
The Duchess of Cornwall loves reading and is passionate about the importance of literacy. She regularly promotes the benefits of reading through her ‘Reading Room’ book club on Instagram, which was inspired by the popularity of her reading lists shared during the pandemic in 2020.
Ms Lladó-Buisán said the Duchess had "really interesting questions" for the staff about the items they were looking at.
She added: "[The Duchess] was fascinated by what she was seeing and that is always a boost for us. It is always fantastic when someone is so engaged with what they are seeing.
“I could tell there was a genuine interest in, of course, books but indeed in the items we selected.”
This view was also shared by His Dark Materials author, Sir Philip, who also noted her interest in literature.
He described the Duchess’s work to promote reading as “a great initiative” and said he enjoyed “meeting the Duchess and being able to say to her how much I agree with what she is doing with books and reading.”
READ MORE: Oxford vice-president "glad" Camilla met “diversity” of students
While in the Conservation Studio the Duchess of Cornwall was shown an anonymous 17th century French book, featuring “very famous” illustrations, and a series of rare Japanese manuscripts.
Ms Lladó-Buisán said: “When you have a royal visiting you scratch your head and think ‘what am I going to choose and what are we going to show’.
“We have a very long list of things we could show but we had a feeling that this could interest Her Royal Highness.
“I think she really was pleased and that makes me very happy.”
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