Portrait of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510–1579), by an unknown artist.
1579; oil on wood; bequeathed by Sir Geoffrey Keynes.

Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, gave a large brass sphere to the University in 1584–85—probably an armillary sphere, a model of the cosmos. It was moved to the Library by 1671–72, along with two globes, and the Library’s accounts show almost annual payments until 1720 for ‘scouring’ the sphere and cleaning, mending or varnishing the globes. They are not mentioned after that date.