John Rouse (librarian)

[2] On 9 May 1620, he was chosen chief librarian of the Bodleian Library, a post he discharged with great vigour and acumen until his death.

To this circumstance, we owe Milton's mock-heroic ode To John Rouse (dated 23 January 1646-7) inserted in a second copy, preserved at the Bodleian.

[2][6] In 1645, he refused to lend King Charles the 'Histoire Universelle du Sieur d'Aubigné' because the statutes forbade the removal of such a book.

Rouse wrote a dedicatory preface to a collection of verses addressed to the Danish proconsul, Johan Cirenberg (Oxford, 1631).

He also issued an appendix to the Bodleian Catalogue in 1635,[2] and his portrait hangs in the Middle Common Room of Oriel College.