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57-538: Described by the British art historian John Boardman as perhaps the first conscious art movement in the western tradition, historians had included a number of artists in the group, including Epiktetos , Euphronios , Euthymides , Oltos , Phintias , Smikros , Hypsis, and the Dikaios Painter. Archaeologist John Beazley was the first to identify these artists as a coherent group in his works published in

114-499: A mulberry tree planted in the early 17th century, an armillary sundial , an extensive lawn, a Herma statue, and the old Fellows' Summer House (now used as a music room and rehearsal space). Merton admits both undergraduate and graduate students. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and was the second former male college to elect a female head of house (in 1994). Merton has traditionally had single-sex accommodation for first-year undergraduates, with female students going into

171-457: A score of 82.9. At the 'Time Ceremony', students dressed in formal academic dress walk backwards around the Fellows' Quad drinking port . Traditionally participants also held candles, but this practice has been abandoned in recent years. Many students have now adopted the habit of linking arms and twirling around at each corner of the quad. The alleged purpose of this tradition is to maintain

228-518: A slightly different version of the Latin text of these verses is painted around Old Hall in Queens' College, Cambridge , and is "commonly in use at other Cambridge colleges". Merton alumni (Mertonians) and fellows have pursued careers in a variety of disciplines. Among the earliest people that have been claimed as Merton fellows are William of Ockham and Duns Scotus , outstanding academic figures from

285-560: A troubled existence, and the Secretary noted on 1 November 1900 a motion of censure 'against a person or persons unknown who were responsible for the undoubted blackness which is creeping over the Bodley Club.' Nevertheless, the club has continued in one form or another to the present day. Among the notable papers delivered to the Bodley Club are those by Frederic Harrison , Harold Henry Joachim , Henry Hamilton Fyfe (brother of

342-580: Is distinctive for its simple rendering of dress, bold handling of anatomy, experimental use of foreshortening and a thematic preference for representations of symposia . John Boardman (art historian) Sir John Boardman , OBE FBA ( / ˈ b ɔːr d m ə n / ; 20 August 1927 – 23 May 2024) was a British classical archaeologist and art historian of ancient Greek art . Educated at Chigwell School in Essex and at Magdalene College, Cambridge , Boardman worked as assistant director of

399-433: Is illuminated by a lighting display representing three constellations that were visible on the night of 14 September 1264, the day the college was founded. The garden fills the southeastern corner of the old walled city of Oxford. The walls may be seen from Christ Church Meadows and Merton Field (now used by Magdalen College School, Oxford as a playing field for cricket, rugby, and football). The gardens are notable for

456-423: Is that it was the first college to be provided with statutes , a constitution governing the college set out at its founding. Merton's statutes date back to 1264, whereas neither Balliol nor University College had statutes until the 1280s. Merton has an unbroken line of wardens dating back to 1264. Of these, many had great influence over the development of the college. Henry Savile was one notable leader who led

513-672: The British School at Athens between 1952 and 1955 before taking up a position as an assistant keeper at the Ashmolean Museum , part of the University of Oxford . He succeeded John Beazley as Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at the university in 1978, remaining in post until his retirement in 1994. Boardman's academic work focused on the art and archaeology of ancient Greece, with particular focus on Greek colonisation , jewellery and vase-painting. He

570-665: The Royalists and used to house much of Charles I 's court when Oxford was the Royalists' capital. This included the King's French wife, Queen Henrietta Maria , who was housed in or near what is now the Queen's Room, the room above the arch between Front and Fellows' Quads. A portrait of Charles I hangs near the Queen's Room as a reminder of the role it played in his court. Brent gave evidence against Laud in his trial in 1644. After Laud

627-401: The University of Oxford , and in 1963 was appointed a Fellow of Merton College . There he remained until his appointment as Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology , a position previously held by John Beazley , and the concomitant Fellowship of Lincoln College in 1978. He was knighted in 1989 and retired in 1994, and was thereafter Emeritus Professor. Boardman was a Fellow of

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684-725: The 1890s and was Secretary of the Myrmidon Club . Merton has also produced notable alumni and fellows in more recent times. In science, Merton is associated with four Nobel prize winners: chemist Frederick Soddy (1921), zoologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1973), physicist Anthony Leggett (2003) and physicist Anton Zeilinger (2022). Other Mertonians in science include Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield , mathematician Andrew Wiles who proved Fermat's Last Theorem , computer scientist Tony Hoare , chemist George Radda , economist Catherine Tucker , geneticist Alec Jeffreys and cryptographer Artur Ekert . Notable Mertonians within

741-418: The 1940s, in which he developed a taxonomy of ancient Greek pottery by style. No documentary evidence remains of the artists, and everything we know about them was deduced from their surviving work. The Pioneer Group were not innovators of the red-figure technique but rather late adopters of the practice developed by bilingual vase painters such as Andokides and Psiax , who produced pottery featuring both

798-613: The Assistant Director of the British School at Athens . He married Sheila Stanford in 1952 (died 2005), and had two children, Julia and Mark. He died on 23 May 2024, at the age of 96. On his return to England in 1955, Boardman took up the post of Assistant Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , thus beginning his lifelong affiliation with it. In 1959 he was appointed Reader in Classical Archaeology in

855-821: The British Academy , from which he received the Kenyon Medal in 1995. He was awarded the Onassis Prize for Humanities in 2009. He was an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and of Merton and Lincoln Colleges in Oxford, as well as the holder of many other academic distinctions. He carried out archaeological excavations at many sites, including in Smyrna , Crete, Emporio on Chios and at Tocra in Libya. His voluminous publications focus primarily on

912-548: The Latin text are based on verses 15 and 16 of Psalm 145 . Oculi omnium in te respiciunt, Domine. Tu das escam illis tempore opportuno. Aperis manum tuam, et imples omne animal benedictione tua. Benedicas nobis, Deus, omnibus donis quae de tua beneficentia accepturi simus. Per Jesum Christum dominum nostrum, Amen. Roughly translated it means: The eyes of the world look up to thee, O Lord. Thou givest them food in due season. Thou openest thy hand and fillest every creature with thy blessing. Bless us, O God, with all

969-512: The Library in 1373–1378. But Merton's own Front Quad was probably enclosed earlier, albeit with a less unified design. Other colleges can point to similarly old and unaltered quadrangles, for example Old Court at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge , built c .1353–1377. The grandest quadrangle in Merton is the Fellows' Quadrangle, immediately south of the hall. The quad was the culmination of

1026-624: The River in Summer Eights once; its men's 1st VIII held the headship in 1951. Merton's women have done better in recent years, gaining the headship in Torpids in 2003 and rowing over to defend the title in 2004. The college preprandial grace is amongst the longest in Oxford, and is always recited before formal dinners in Hall, usually by the senior postmaster present. The first two lines of

1083-689: The Rose Lane buildings and most male students going into three houses on Merton Street . This policy was abandoned in 2007, with all accommodation now mixed by sex and course. Undergraduate admission to the college, like other Oxford colleges, is based solely on academic potential. In 2010, it was (incorrectly) reported that Merton had not admitted a black student in the previous five years. A university spokeswoman commented that black students were more likely to apply for particularly oversubscribed subjects. The university also reported that Merton had admitted at least one black undergraduate since 2005. Since

1140-501: The UK stayed one hour ahead of GMT all year round. There are three toasts associated with the ceremony. The first is "to a good old time!"; the second, a joint toast to the sundial and the nearby mulberry tree ( morus nigra ), " o tempora, o more "; and the third, "long live the counter-revolution!". Merton is the only college in Oxford to hold a triennial winter ball , instead of the more common Commemoration ball . The most recent of these

1197-562: The United Kingdom in September and October 2022. Merton is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford and held funds totalling £298 million as of July 2020. Merton College was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton , Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester . It has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford, a claim which is disputed between Merton College, Balliol College and University College . One argument for Merton's claim

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1254-517: The University of Oxford ) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton , chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I , first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college"

1311-590: The Warden, Nathaniel Brent , and the Visitor of Merton and Archbishop of Canterbury , William Laud . Brent had been Vicar-General to Laud, who had held a visitation of Merton College in 1638, and insisted on many radical reforms: his letters to Brent were couched in haughty and decisive language. Brent, a parliamentarian, moved to London at the start of the Civil War: the college's buildings were commandeered by

1368-515: The ancient structure has survived the successive reconstruction efforts; first by James Wyatt in the 1790s and then again by Gilbert Scott in 1874, whose work included the “handsome oak roof”. The hall is still used daily for meals in term time. It is not usually open to visitors. Front quad itself is probably the earliest collegiate quadrangle , but its informal, almost haphazard, pattern cannot be said to have influenced designers elsewhere. A reminder of its original domestic nature can be seen in

1425-725: The art and architecture of ancient Greece , particularly sculpture, engraved gems and painted vases. Boardman wrote the book The Greeks Overseas , on the ancient Greek diaspora throughout the Mediterranean, in which Greek populations from the Aegean region, Greek coastal mainland and Western Turkey settled the coastal regions of Italy, North Africa, southern France, reaching as far as southern Spain. The book has now undergone four editions, as new archaeological research emerges. Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in

1482-409: The black-figure and red-figure techniques. Coming some ten years after the earliest work in red-figure style, Euphronios' first works are thought to have been produced circa 520 BC. As a group, their work makes frequent reference to one another, often in a playful competitive spirit; Euthymides boasts on one of his signed pots (Munich 2307): hos oudepote Euphronios ("as never Euphronios"). Their work

1539-500: The club has changed form over the years, and was reformed in the 1980s as a speaker society. All members of the college, and usually members of the university as a whole, are invited to their events. The club began on 19 May 1894 (though it was not christened 'The Bodley Club' until June). The initial constitution contained a rule (Rule 7) which stated that 'a written paper is preferred, but any member may speak on any literary subject instead or may propose that any literary work be read at

1596-419: The college to flourish in the early 17th century by extending its buildings and recruiting new fellows. In 1333, masters from Merton were among those who left Oxford in an attempt to found a new university at Stamford . The leader of the rebels was reported to be one William de Barnby , a Yorkshireman who had been fellow and bursar of Merton College. St Alban Hall was an independent academic hall owned by

1653-442: The college. TS Eliot Lecture Theatre is a new lecture theatre named after T. S. Eliot , a former member of the college, opened in 2010. It has a bust of the writer by Jacob Epstein , presented by Frank Brenchley , a former member and Fellow of the college. Brenchley presented his collection of Eliot first editions and ephemera to the college, which is believed to be the second largest collection of such material worldwide. The foyer

1710-487: The convent of Littlemore until it was purchased by Merton College in 1548 following the dissolution of the convent . It continued as a separate institution until it was finally annexed by the college in 1881, on the resignation of its last principal, William Charles Salter . During the English Civil War , Merton was the only Oxford college to side with Parliament . This was due to an earlier dispute between

1767-587: The early 14th century (however, these claims are disputed). Other early fellows include the Oxford Calculators , a group of 14th-century thinkers associated with Merton who took a logico-mathematical approach to philosophical problems. Theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe was another early fellow of the college. Founder of the Bodleian Library , Thomas Bodley , was admitted as fellow in 1564. Another significant figure, Henry Savile ,

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1824-407: The east of the church which now form the north range of Front Quad. Walter also obtained permission from the king to extend from these properties south to the old city wall to form an approximately square site. The college continued to acquire other properties as they became available on both sides of Merton Street. At one time, the college owned all the land from the site that is now Christ Church to

1881-588: The end of the 13th century. Mob Quad , one of Merton's quadrangles , was constructed between 1288 and 1378, and is claimed to be the oldest quadrangle in Oxford, while Merton College Library , located in Mob Quad and dating from 1373, is the oldest continuously functioning library for university academics and students in the world. Like many of Oxford's colleges, Merton admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after over seven centuries as an institution for men only. Merton's second female warden, Irene Tracey ,

1938-967: The field of literature include poet T. S. Eliot , who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, and author J. R. R. Tolkien who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton from 1945 to 1959. Jamaican-British Professor of Sociology Stuart Hall was a pioneer in the academic field of cultural studies and director of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies . Former students with careers as politicians include British politicians Reginald Maudling , Airey Neave , Jesse Norman , Ed Vaizey , Denis MacShane , Liz Truss and Peter Tapsell , while international alumni include Bob Krueger , former U.S. Senator from Texas , and Arthur Mutambara , former Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe . In business, former Director-General of

1995-545: The gifts which by thy good works we are about to receive. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen. For the relevant verses of the Psalm, the Authorized Version has: In contrast, Merton's post-prandial grace is brief: Benedictus benedicat ("Let him who has been blessed, give blessing"). The latter grace is spoken by the senior Fellow present at the end of dinner on High Table. At the University of Cambridge ,

2052-470: The integrity of the space–time continuum during the transition from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time , which occurs in the early hours of the last Sunday in October. However, the ceremony (invented by two undergraduates in 1971) mostly serves as a spoof of other Oxford ceremonies, and historically as a celebration of the end of the experimental period of British Standard Time from 1968 to 1971 when

2109-492: The introduction of an official Norrington Table published by the university in 2004, Merton occupied one of the top three positions every year (often coming in 1st), until 2012 when it dropped to 14th. In 2014, it regained the first position, preserving its status as one of the most academically successful colleges of the last twenty years. In 2021, Merton was ranked Oxford's top college in the Norrington Table, with

2166-413: The meeting.' It was not long before this provision was required, as the minute-book reveals in its entry for 19 October 1894: 'Owing to unpardonable slackness on the part of members, the four months of vacation proved insufficient to collect coherent ideas on any particular subject...However an agreeable and instructive evening was passed in reading Tennyson's 'Maud'.' From early years the club has maintained

2223-715: The most notable being the Halsbury Society (Law) and the Chalcenterics (Classics). Other academic societies include the Neave Society, which aims to discuss and debate political issues, and the Bodley Club , founded in 1894 as a forum for undergraduate papers on literature but now a speaker society. The Bodley Club is a speaker society at Merton College, Oxford. Founded in 1894 as a forum in which undergraduates delivered academic papers on literature,

2280-437: The north east corner where one of the flagstones is marked "Well". The quad is formed of what would have been the back gardens of the three original houses that Walter acquired in the 1260s. Visitors to Merton are often told that Mob Quad is the oldest quadrangle of any Oxford or Cambridge college and set the pattern for future collegiate architecture. It was built in three phases: 1288–1291, 1304–1311, and finally completed with

2337-414: The parish church as well as the chapel until 1891. It is for this reason that it is generally referred to as Merton Church in older documents, and that there is a north door into the street as well as doors into the college. This dual role also probably explains the enormous scale of the chapel, which in its original design was to have a nave and two aisles extending to the west. A new choral foundation

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2394-590: The part that faces onto Merton Street); the Grove building, built in 1864 by William Butterfield but "chastened" in the 1930s by T.H. Hughes ; the buildings beyond the Fellows' Garden called "Rose Lane"; several buildings north of Merton Street, including a real tennis court , and the Old Warden's Lodgings (designed by Champneys in 1903); and a new quadrangle in Holywell Street , some distance away from

2451-446: The secretary, William), Northrop Frye , Alister Clavering Hardy , and Ronald Knox . Several of the club's first members went on to become significant figures, including Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell and William Hamilton Fyfe . Merton has a long-standing sporting relationship with Mansfield College , with the colleges fielding amalgamated sports teams for many major sports. In rowing, Merton College Boat Club has been Head of

2508-534: The south-eastern corner of the city. The land to the east eventually became the current Fellows' garden, while the western end was leased by Warden Richard Rawlins in 1515 for the foundation of Corpus Christi (at an annual rent of just over £4). By the late 1280s, the old church of St John the Baptist had fallen into "a ruinous condition", and the college accounts show that work on a new church began in about 1290. The present choir , with its enormous east window,

2565-488: The work undertaken by Henry Savile at the beginning of the 17th century. The foundation stone was laid shortly after breakfast on 13 September 1608 (as recorded in the college Register), and work was complete by September 1610 (although the battlements were added later). The southern gateway is surmounted by a tower of the four Orders , probably inspired by Italian examples that Warden Savile would have seen on his European travels. The main contractors were from Yorkshire (as

2622-436: Was Savile); John Ackroyd and John Bentley of Halifax supervised the stonework, and Thomas Holt the timber. This group were also later employed to work on the Bodleian Library and Wadham College . Most of the other buildings are Victorian or later and include: St. Alban's Quad (or "Stubbins"), designed by Basil Champneys , built on the site of the medieval St Alban Hall (elements of the older façade are incorporated into

2679-616: Was appointed Warden some years later in 1585 (held the position until 1621) and had great influence of the development of the college. William Harvey , who was the first to describe in detail the systemic circulation , was warden from 1645 to 1646. Lord Randolph Churchill , Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons (and father of Winston Churchill ), matriculated in October 1867, while Max Beerbohm , an English essayist, parodist , and caricaturist studied at Merton in

2736-414: Was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2022, and Professor Jennifer Payne was subsequently elected as acting warden in 2022 and as warden in 2023. Alumni and academics past and present include five Nobel laureates , the writer J. R. R. Tolkien , who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959, and Liz Truss , who served as Prime Minister of

2793-524: Was complete by 1294. The window is an important example (because it is so well dated) of how the strict geometrical conventions of the Early English Period of architecture were beginning to be relaxed at the end of the 13th century. The south transept was built in the 14th century, the north transept in the early years of the 15th. The great tower was complete by 1450. The chapel replaced the parish church of St. John and continued to serve as

2850-471: Was completed. The chapel is known for its acoustics. A spire from the chapel has resided in Pavilion Garden VI of the University of Virginia since 1928, when "it was given to the University to honor Jefferson 's educational ideals." The hall is the oldest surviving college building, originally completed before 1277, but apart from the fine medieval ironwork on the door, almost no trace of

2907-522: Was established in 2007, providing for a choir of sixteen undergraduate and graduate choral scholars singing from October 2008. The choir was formerly directed by Peter Phillips , director of the Tallis Scholars , and is now directed by Benjamin Nicholas, a former director of music at Tewkesbury Abbey . In 2013, the installation of a new organ, designed and built by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders ,

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2964-505: Was executed on 10 January 1645, John Greaves , one of the subwardens of Merton and Savilian Professor of Astronomy , drew up a petition for Brent's removal from office; Brent was deposed by Charles I on 27 January 1646 and replaced by William Harvey . Thomas Fairfax captured Oxford for the Parliamentarians after its third siege in 1646 and Brent returned from London. However, in 1647, a parliamentary commission (visitation)

3021-402: Was held on 26 November 2022. Merton has a number of drinking and dining societies, along the lines of other colleges. These include the all-male Myrmidons , the female-equivalent Myrmaids and L'Ancien Régime. The Myrmidon club is open to all members of the college in the present day, male or female, and hosts termly black tie events. Merton is host to a number of subject-specific societies,

3078-636: Was made a Fellow of the British Academy , which awarded him its Kenyon Medal in 1995. He was also awarded the Onassis Prize for Humanities in 2009. Boardman was born in Essex on 20 August 1927. He was educated at Chigwell School (1938–1945); then Magdalene College, Cambridge , where he read Classics beginning in 1945. After completing two years' national service in the Intelligence Corps he spent three years in Greece, from 1952 to 1955, as

3135-411: Was not until the mid-1260s that Walter de Merton acquired the core of the present site in Oxford, along the south side of what was then St John's Street (now Merton Street ). The college was consolidated on this site by 1274, when Walter made his final revisions to the college statutes. The initial acquisition included the parish church of St John (which was superseded by the chapel) and three houses to

3192-572: Was set up by Parliament "for the correction of offences, abuses, and disorders" in the University of Oxford. Nathaniel Brent was the president of the visitors. Greaves was accused of sequestrating the college's plate and funds for King Charles I . Despite a deposition from his brother Thomas , Greaves had lost both his Merton fellowship and his Savilian chair by 9 November 1648. The "House of Scholars of Merton" originally had properties in Surrey (in present-day Old Malden ) as well as in Oxford, but it

3249-420: Was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows. By 1274, when Walter retired from royal service and made his final revisions to the college statutes, the community was consolidated at its present site in the south east corner of the city of Oxford , and a rapid programme of building commenced. The hall and the chapel and the rest of the front quad were complete before

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