The Savilian Library was the library set up by Sir Henry Savile (see the Dictionary of National Biography) to serve the Savilian Chairs of Astronomy and Geometry at Oxford. They were for the private use of these professors, and were kept in the the gate tower of the Schools Quadrangle, which was used as an observatory. The library was handed over to the Bodleian in 1884.

Stephen Peter Rigaud (1774-1839), astronomer, was Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University, 1810-1839, and also Radcliffe Observer from 1827. He came of a French Protestant family, and was the son of Stephen Rigaud, Observer at Kew. He was educated at Richmond and Exeter College, Oxford (matriculated 15 April 1791, BA 1797, MA 1799, Fellow of the College, 1794-1810). He was especially interested in the historical side of science, and is best known for his editions of Miscellaneous works and correspondence of the Rev. James Bradley (Oxford, 1832) and of Correspondence of Scientific Men of the Seventeenth Century, a posthumous work (Oxford, 1841). Further details are given in the Dictionary of National Biography.