The architect C.R. Cockerell (1788-1863) was commissioned to design the Taylor Institution, together with its neighbour the Ashmolean Museum, as two separate units within a visually coherent building. The result was a handsome neoclassical building on the corner of Beaumont Street and St Giles’, completed in 1844.
The sculptures on the façade by W. G. Nicholl represent four European languages – Italian, French, Spanish and German. The inscriptions on the sculpture’s plinths list the names of those considered at the time to be most the influential writers in each respective language: Dante, Guicciardini and Tasso representing Italy; Racine, Molière and Montesquieu representing France; Goether, Herder and Schiller representing Germany; and Calderón, Cervantes and Mariana representing Spain.
