The Arms of the University of Oxford show an open book with the inscription 'Dominus illuminatio mea' (The Lord is my light), surrounded by three golden crowns.
A blazon of this would be:
Azure, upon a book open proper, leathered gules, garnished or, having on the dexter side seven seals of the last, the words DOMINVS ILLVMINATIO MEA; all between three open crowns, two and one, or.
The arms have been in existence since around 1400, varying in appearance over the centuries. The number of seals and the text, for example, have both varied. The modern version of the arms in which they are not borne on a shield, but rather surrounded by a garter bearing the text 'UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD' was designed in 1993 and is a registered trademark.
Famous quotes containing the words arms, university and/or oxford:
“When my arms wrap you round I press
My heart upon the loveliness
That has long faded from the world....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I was now at a university in New York, a professor of existential psychology with the not inconsiderable thesis that magic, dread, and the perception of death were the roots of motivation.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learning, and from that irreverence love may spring.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)