The UniversityLibrary is a living

bank of ideas and avigorous embodiment of the traditions ofscholarship that havecharacterised theUniversity since its earliestdays. Here, Cambridgeexhibits its deep roots in the past even as itrenews itself intellectually in the present.

Professor Alison RichardVice-Chancellor

“

c. 1278 Nigel de Thornton, Cambridge physician • 1416 William Hunden, Canon of

Exeter and Lincoln • 1416 William Loring, Canon of Salisbury and Lincoln • 1453

Walter Crome, Fellow of Gonville Hall • 1475 Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York

and Chancellor of England • 1529 Cuthbert Tunstal, Bishop of London • 1574

Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury • 1574 Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of

the Great Seal • 1581 Theodore Beza • 1591 Thomas Lorkyn, Regius Professor of

Physic • 1632 Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Buckingham • 1649 Richard

Holdsworth, Master of Emmanuel College • 1663 Henry Lucas, Member of Parliament

for the University • 1666 Tobias Rustat, Yeoman of the Robes to Charles II • 1670 John

Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry • 1709 William Worts, St Catharine’s College • 1715

King George I • 1726 George Lewis, Archdeacon of Meath • 1740 Thomas Baker, St John’s College

• 1754 King George II • 1809 Claudius Buchanan, Vice Provost of the College of Fort William, India • 1817

Jean Louis Burckhardt • 1861 John Percy Baumgartner, of Milton Hall, Cambridgeshire • 1868–1886 Henry

Bradshaw, University Librarian • 1869–1894 Samuel Sandars, Trinity College • 1872 Isaac Newton Wallop, fifth Earl of Portsmouth • 1884 Edward

Grey Hancock, St John’s College • 1886 Sir Thomas Francis Wade, Professor of Chinese • 1888 John Venn, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College •

1891–1923 Francis Jenkinson, University Librarian • 1892 John Couch Adams, Lowndean Professor of Astronomy • 1895 The friends and widow of

Robert Lubbock Bensly, Lord Almoner’s Professor of Arabic • 1898 Solomon Schechter, Reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature • 1898 Charles Taylor,

Master of St John’s College • 1901 Maud Isabel Buxton • 1902 John Morley, Viscount Morley of Blackburn • 1903 Edward Byles Cowell, Professor of

Sanskrit • 1909–1943 Sir Stephen Gaselee, Fellow of Magdalene College • 1910 John Willis Clark, University Registrary • 1910–1938 John Charrington,

Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College • 1918 Charles Fairfax Murray • 1923 Milicent, Lady Moore and Sir Alan Hilary Moore • 1924 Edward Gordon

Duff • 1925 Walter William Rouse Ball, Trinity College • 1925 The family of Frederic Seebohm • 1926 Edward Granville Browne, Sir Thomas Adams

Professor of Arabic • 1926 Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College • 1928 James Whitbread Lee Glaisher, Fellow of Trinity

College • 1928 The Rockefeller Foundation • 1928–1969 Alwyn Faber Scholfield, University Librarian • 1929 Arthur Bromby Wilson-Barkworth,

King’s College • 1930 Sir Perceval Maitland Laurence, Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College • 1932–1984 Frederick John Norton, Reader in

Historical Bibliography • 1933 Sir Robert Forsyth Scott, Master of St John’s College • 1933 Arthur William Young, Trinity College • 1935 Jardine,

Matheson & Co Ltd • 1936 Sir Joseph Larmor, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics • 1936 Karl Pearson, King’s College • 1936 Arthur William Young,

Trinity College • 1938 Olga Schnitzler • 1941 Philip Henry George Gosse, Fellow Commoner of Trinity College • 1942 The Darwin Family • 1942 The

Pilgrim Trust • 1944 Franck Thomas Arnold, Trinity College • 1946 Robert Edward Hart, Pembroke College • 1947 Stanley Baldwin, first Earl Baldwin

of Bewdley • 1952 Lionel Charles Hopkins • 1954 The Pilgrim Trust • 1955 C K Mill • 1955 Frank Ricardo, Trinity College • 1960 Maud, Viscountess

Templewood • 1964 Francis Puryer White, Fellow of St John’s College • 1964 Sir Harold Williams, Christ’s College • 1968 Sir Allen Lane • 1975 Nora,

Lady Barlow • 1978 John Patrick William Ehrman, Trinity College • 1980 Pamela, Lady Butterfield • 1988 The Andrew W Mellon Foundation • 1991

George Pember Darwin, Trinity College • 1991 Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co Ltd • 1991 Timothy Moore, Trinity College • 1992 Dr Stefan Heym

• 1995 Tadao Aoi • 1995 Dorothea Oschinsky • 1996 Norman Waddleton, Honorary Keeper of Illustrated Books • 1996 The Wellcome Trust • 1997

Heritage Lottery Fund • 1997 The Fund to Acquire the Royal Commonwealth Society Library for the Nation • 1998 Nancy, Dowager Countess of

Enniskillen • 1998 Dr Gordon E Moore • 1998 Vickers plc • 1999 Heritage Lottery Fund • 2000 The Andrew W Mellon Foundation • 2000 Dr Mark

Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College • 2001 The Andrew W Mellon Foundation • 2001 The Wellcome Trust • 2004 Dr Catherine Cooke, Clare Hall

Benefactors of Cambridge University Library

A JourneyAround theWorld Mind

A JourneyAround theWorld Mind

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Pilgrim Trust • 1944 Franck Thomas Arnold, Trinity College • 1946 Robert Edward Hart, Pembroke College • 1947 Stanley Baldwin, first Earl Baldwin

of Bewdley • 1952 Lionel Charles Hopkins • 1954 The Pilgrim Trust • 1955 C K Mill • 1955 Frank Ricardo, Trinity College • 1960 Maud, Viscountess

Templewood • 1964 Francis Puryer White, Fellow of St John’s College • 1964 Sir Harold Williams, Christ’s College • 1968 Sir Allen Lane • 1975 Nora,

Lady Barlow • 1978 John Patrick William Ehrman, Trinity College • 1980 Pamela, Lady Butterfield • 1988 The Andrew W Mellon Foundation • 1991

George Pember Darwin, Trinity College • 1991 Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co Ltd • 1991 Timothy Moore, Trinity College • 1992 Dr Stefan Heym

• 1995 Tadao Aoi • 1995 Dorothea Oschinsky • 1996 Norman Waddleton, Honorary Keeper of Illustrated Books • 1996 The Wellcome Trust • 1997

Heritage Lottery Fund • 1997 The Fund to Acquire the Royal Commonwealth Society Library for the Nation • 1998 Nancy, Dowager Countess of

Enniskillen • 1998 Dr Gordon E Moore • 1998 Vickers plc • 1999 Heritage Lottery Fund • 2000 The Andrew W Mellon Foundation • 2000 Dr Mark

Kaplanoff, Fellow of Pembroke College • 2001 The Andrew W Mellon Foundation • 2001 The Wellcome Trust • 2004 Dr Catherine Cooke, Clare Hall

Browsing among the stacks ofCambridge University Library has beendescribed as ‘walking around the worldmind’ – this is one of the great librariesof the world. Our collections range inage from 3,000-year-old handwrittentexts to current electronic articles, andin material from bone, papyrus, animalskin and palm leaf to paper and plastic.They are written in over 2,000 languagesand originate from every continent onthe planet. In this book we can giveonly a flavour of the variety of materialscollected, preserved and made availableto readers who themselves come fromall parts of the globe.

The Library contains major collectionsfrom the past, which are used by today’sscholars to illuminate the present andhelp shape the world. We are alsoplanning for the future, by collectingnot just the writings of great figureslike Newton and Darwin, Sir RobertWalpole and Siegfried Sassoon, but alsothe electronic scholarship of StephenHawking and other researchers oftoday. However, while we have learned

how to conserve the past, we are stillwrestling with the problems createdby the overwhelming output of the‘information age’. Handling newelectronic media in particular brings a fresh set of challenges in storage andretrieval, as the pace of technologicalprogress quickens. As always, theLibrary has to think centuries ahead,safeguarding our intellectual heritagefor the benefit of generations to come.

Cambridge University Library providesstunning resources that have inspiredscholars and visitors for centuries. Itscollections embody sweeping contrasts:ancient and modern, banal and arcane,pragmatic and creative. Its great legacyto the future is the evidence it containsof human innovation and endeavour,and the ways in which these havechanged, and will change, the worldaround us.

We hope you will enjoy this book asan encouragement to come and see theLibrary for yourself and as a mementoof your visit.

Cambridge University Library 1

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s design for the East Elevation of the University Library

Peter FoxUniversity Librarian

The soothsayer who painstakinglycarved inscriptions on the oracle bonesover 3,000 years ago could never havepredicted their fate. Once used todivine the future, now these earliestknown specimens of Chinese writingare consulted by scholars from all over the world who are seeking answers to questions about China’s past.

The bequest of Lionel Charles Hopkins(1854–1952), the 800 Chinese oraclebones dating from 1400 to 1200 BC,are by far the oldest items in theLibrary. Heat was applied to hollowschiselled out on the reverse of speciallyprepared ox scapulae and turtle shellsand this produced characteristic cracks.The cracks were then interpreted asanswers to questions that had beenposed of the ancestral spirits. Exactlyhow this was done was obviously keptsecret by the diviners themselves, but itis known that questions were posed inboth positive and negative form, so asto ensure that the answer was correct.For instance: is it going to raintomorrow? Is it not going to rain

tomorrow? – the same answer to bothquestions would be incorrect.

The texts provide rare insights intowhat concerned people most; in anagrarian society engaged in frequentwars with neighbouring tribes theywould be interested in such mattersas the weather, the failure of crops,hunting and military expeditions. Itwas believed that the deceased ancestorscould influence the outcome of events.If something went wrong, this wasbecause the ancestral spirits weredispleased, so they would be askedthrough the medium of the oraclebones what sacrifice could be madeto placate them.

Chronicling strange landsand interesting times The ancient oracle bones are just apart of one of the most outstandingChinese collections outside China. Itincludes about 100,000 volumes ofprinted books, the earliest of whichdate from the 12th century AD, withrarities such as the unique Illustrated

Tablets of boneTablets of bone

2 Cambridge University Library Tablets of bone

The cover (an incised Imperial dragon)from Yu bi Baita shan wu ji (Five views of White Dagoba Hill): 1773. Jade bookswere reserved for the exclusive use of the Emperor of China.

The only known copy of Zhu yao xi wen(Proclamation on the extermination ofdemons), a publication of 1861, at theheight of the Taiping Rebellion, whichcost over 10 million lives.

Fo shuo da cheng guan xiang man na luo jing zhu e qu jing (a Buddhist text, translatedinto Chinese from Sanskrit). The oldest printed book in the Library: 1107.

chronicle of strange lands (I yu tu zhi)(c.1489); pamphlets and ephemerarelating to the mid-19th centuryTaiping insurrection (most of thosein China were subsequently destroyed);a set of the Imperial encyclopaedia (Qinding Gu jin tu shu ji cheng), depositedon loan by the China Society ofLondon; microfilms of nearly 3,000rare titles from the National Libraryof China in Beijing; and two of the11,095 fascicles (volumes) whichoriginally constituted the encyclopaedicwork Yongle da dian, salvaged from thefire in Beijing which in 1900 destroyedmost of what then remained of thesole surviving copy.

These and other rare items, such asthe gigantic examination papers fromthe Chinese civil service, some as bigas a baby’s blanket and which musthave daunted many a candidate, or the only complete bound set in the UK of Renmin Ribao (the People’s Dailynewspaper) from 1946 to the present,which therefore dates back to before theestablishment of the People’s Republic

of China, offer fascinating glimpses intoeveryday life in China over the centuries.

Thanks to a generous donation, the Aoi Pavilion was constructed to ensurethat these and other East Asian materialscould be kept in one place for the firsttime, with 180,000 books on openaccess. This ease of accessibility attractsmany scholars from all over the world,including China.

Cambridge University LibraryTablets of bone 3

A Chinese oracle bone of about 1200 BC.

When Théodore de Bèze (normallyknown by the Latin form of his name,Beza) sent his ‘dangerous’ gift to theUniversity of Cambridge in 1581, hisaccompanying letter advised that it was‘better hidden than published’. It wasone of the earliest texts of the Gospelsand the Acts of the Apostles in Greekand Latin, and it differed significantlyin places from the accepted version.The French reformer suspected its ‘corrupt’ text was the work of earlyheretics, and feared its influence.

If Beza hoped that this volume wouldbe safely lost to view in its new home,he entrusted it to the wrong institution:even half a millennium ago the Librarysupported the dissemination ofknowledge and believed that intellectualaccess to its treasures should not bedenied. Within 50 years of theUniversity’s gracious acceptance of thegift, the Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensiswas the focus of intense interest, which has continued to the present day. What was it about this deviantmanuscript that had so alarmed Beza?

Written in majuscule (capital) letters in about the year 400, some 406 outof the original 534 parchment leaves(most of the four Gospels and Acts)have survived, with the Greek text onthe left page (verso) and a Latin versionof it on the right (recto).

Uncertainty and debate surrounds theCodex Bezae’s place of origin. Whatis indisputable is that the extensivemanuscript was frequently correctedand annotated. Every corrector but theearliest one worked principally on theGreek text. There are numerousvariations in the text of the Gospels,particularly Mark and Luke, and ofActs. These involve the addition oromission of words, sentences and evenwhole incidents. The additions are mostconspicuous in Acts, which is nearly atenth longer than the standard text.

Not surprisingly, the question ofwhether the Codex Bezae preserves theoriginal authentic text or is a hopelesslycorrupt version of the Gospels and Actshas been the subject of endless scholarly

‘Better hidden than published’ ‘Better hidden than published’

This Libraryis one of

the gems of thecivilised world: ithouses treasuretroves of great andrare manuscripts; itrestores and conservesdamaged pages withimmaculate care; itopens its vast and everincreasing collections to all who love books. It serves the writtenform of language, from the most humdrum to the most intriguinglyarcane, withunsurpassed dedication.

Joan BakewellWriter and broadcaster

“

4 Cambridge University Library ‘Better hidden than published’

debate over the centuries, and no doubtwill be into the future. All would agree,though, that the Codex Bezae offersmore substantial variation from thenormal text of the New Testament than any other surviving manuscript.

An impure witnessTo some extent Beza’s wishes mightappear to have been fulfilled in thattoday the original manuscript is usuallyhidden from view: animal skin is astrong and durable substance but itcannot be expected to survive for 1,500years unscathed. The metallic-based inkwhich the scribes used has released anacid which has slowly eaten through the fine parchment, weakening it. Thevery fineness leads to the pages curlingsharply as soon as the pressure thatkeeps the volumes safely closed andpreserved in their dark green boxes isreleased. However, the existence of an excellent published facsimile and ofmicrofilm copies already means that thebenefactor’s apparent intentions havebeen thwarted. The Library also plansto digitise the entire manuscript and

make it available on the internet, whichwill not only make it much more widelyaccessible but will reduce the need tohandle the original.

The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis maynot be the oldest, nor the most beautiful,and certainly not the most pure witnessto the New Testament, but there canbe few other manuscripts in existenceabout which more has been written.It is one of the most intriguingmanuscripts of antiquity.

Cambridge University Library‘Better hidden than published’ 5

Codex Bezae.

Codex Bezae: opening with the Greek text on the verso and the Latin on the recto. The text is Luke 6,1–9, and the hole is a flaw in the parchment, already there when the scribe wrote the page.

From a 16th-century Persian treatiseon astrology by al-Zayhaqi al-Kashifi.

Many manuscripts in the Libraryreached this oasis of scholarly calm via long and often nomadic routes,and it is a curious coincidence thatsome of the Islamic-Oriental materialshad particularly eventful journeys.

Dictionaries…When Abraham Whelock becameUniversity Librarian in 1629, he foundthat although hopes were high, fundswere low, and the organisation chaotic.For 30 years previously the Libraryhad hardly acquired any books ofconsequence, and its Islamic-Orientalcollection (Whelock’s special area ofinterest) was negligible. Whelock, aman of modest and nervous dispositionbut a good scholar and passionatelycommitted to the Library, set aboutchange. His abilities won him areputation in the learned world beyondCambridge and the friendship especiallyof Sir Henry Spelman and Sir ThomasAdams, on whom he prevailed toestablish the University’s first lectureshipsin Anglo-Saxon and Arabic, the latterbeing given to Whelock.

Whelock’s skilful custodianship not onlygave the Library a certain respectablestatus in the world of scholarship butalso attracted to it donations of booksit was too impoverished to buy. But itwas, inevitably, to the procuring of Islamic-Oriental books that Whelockfirst addressed himself.

In 1631 Whelock obtained fromWilliam Bedwell a Qur`an, havingshrewdly informed him that Bedwell’sold college, Trinity, already possessedone. Bedwell had spent much of hislife compiling the first Arabic-Latin lexicon in nine volumes – consistingof nearly 4,000 leaves of paper andnumerous slips of addenda. WhenBedwell died in 1632, he bequeathedthe manuscript lexicon to the Library,along with a fount of Arabic typeimported from Leiden for its printing.However, Whelock had a considerablestruggle to obtain them from Bedwell’sson-in-law, who saw them ascommercial assets. The lexicon wasnever published!

Nomadic journeysNomadic journeys

6 Cambridge University Library Nomadic journeys

A page from a Qur`an in Kufic scriptwritten in the 9th or 10th century inIraq or North Africa.

Late 18th-century Urdu manuscriptof Mır Hasan’s poem ‘Sihr ul-bayan’(‘Enchanting story’).

Detail: The combat of Afrasiyab andKayKhrusraw, from the 16th- or early17th-century Persian manuscript‘Shahnamah’ (Book of Kings) of Firdawsi.

…and daggersAnother significant gift of manuscriptsalso arrived by a circuitous route,delayed this time by the inconvenienceof an assassination. The Duke ofBuckingham, elected Chancellor of theUniversity in 1626, secretly bought alibrary of Islamic-Oriental manuscriptsfrom the widow of Thomas Erpenius,professor of Oriental languages at theUniversity of Leiden. Buckingham’savowed intention was to donate thecollection to the University Library,but his politically motivated murderin 1628 held up matters somewhat.It took four years before RichardHoldsworth, Master of EmmanuelCollege (himself a significant benefactor),personally managed to persuade theDuchess to fulfil her late husband’spromise. Erpenius’s library numbered87 volumes and included some of theoldest surviving Islamic manuscripts inMalay. Others were in Arabic, Coptic,Javanese, Hebrew, Syriac and Persian.One of the most important Persianmanuscripts of this collection is thesecond half of a commentary of the

Qur`an in old Persian alongside theArabic text. This is the oldest Persianmanuscript held in the Library.

Today the range of Islamic-Orientalmanuscripts in the Library’s safekeepingis considerable: as well as the beautifullyilluminated Qur`ans, there are historicaltexts such as al-Ya`qubi’s History of theworld since Adam, which was longbelieved to be a unique copy; Persianmanuscripts of poetry; a medical

treatise in Arabic consisting oftranslations of Hippocrates and Galen,with commentaries from the 13thcentury; and texts of Islamic theology,sciences and arts. Assembled together,they demonstrate that early Orientalscholars were long ago makingintellectual connections with othercultures, connections that were lostsight of in the intervening ‘desert’years, and which can only now bepainstakingly rebuilt.

Cambridge University LibraryNomadic journeys 7

The opening surahof the Qur`an: amagnificent copy,probably c.1600.

Every book. Every periodical. Everyprinted map. Every piece of sheetmusic. Throughout its history, theLibrary has depended on purchases,donations and bequests – and, since1662, on being one of Britain’s librariesof ‘legal deposit’ entitled to claim acopy of every item published in the UKand Ireland. At first, this was part oflegislation intended for the control andcensorship of the press. Then, in 1710,the Act for the Encouragement ofLearning by Vesting the Copies of PrintedBooks in the Authors or Purchasers of suchCopies During the Times ThereinMentioned confirmed the Library’s status. It gave publishers copyrightprotection on certain conditions – onebeing that they had to send copies oftheir books to a number of privilegedlibraries, Cambridge among them.

The Act initially was only partlysuccessful. Resentful publishers eitherignored it or devised ingenious methodsof evading their obligations, while theUniversity deemed many of the booksunsuitable for its learned shelves. It was

not until well into the 19th centurythat the Library began seriously toembrace its responsibilities as arepository of national literature. TodayCambridge University Library takes itsspecial role as a legal deposit library(previously called a copyright library)very seriously indeed: it forms part ofthe national published archive. Manylibraries regard the printed text as areplaceable item: they keep multiplecopies of the latest editions of booksand dispose of superseded editions.Cambridge generally keeps only onecopy of each edition and aims to preserve it for ever. In addition, formany publishers it represents their ownarchives; at times they approach theLibrary to refer to copies of their ownpublications which they no longer have.

Uniquely among the six legal depositlibraries, Cambridge stores two millionof its books (about a quarter of itscollections) in open-access stacks,allowing readers the facility of browsingamong works on related subjects. It istherefore one of the largest open-access

Generations of knowledgeGenerations of knowledge

Countlesstimes,

while pursuingmy research inCambridgeUniversity Library,I have stumbled ona crucial source, twobooks away on the shelf from the one I had set out to consult.There is no greaterluxury for the scholarthan a great open-stacklibrary.

Lisa JardineProfessor of RenaissanceStudies, Queen Mary,University of London

“

8 Cambridge University Library Generations of knowledge

Most copies of this 1936 book were destroyed in a warehouse fire: this is one of only two copiesknown to exist with its original dust jacket.

From Catherine Sinclair, Picture letters(Edinburgh 1864), received underlegal deposit.

libraries in the world. Users of all kinds,from Cambridge, from other parts ofBritain, and from other countries, haverepeatedly expressed their appreciationfor the ways in which easy access to theshelves has helped their work.

The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003brought electronic publications andother non-print material into the scopeof the previous legislation. However inspite of all the predictions of the deathof the book, the increasing availabilityof electronic resources is not yet beingmatched by any decrease in traditionalpaper publishing. Each year, nearly two miles of extra shelving has to beprovided for the 120,000 booksreceived by the Library, not to mentionthe 150,000 issues of serial titles andthousands of maps and otherdocuments. That represents about thesame distance as a visitor would travelin a taxi from Cambridge railwaystation to the Library itself.

This puts immense pressure on restrictedresources, but the legal deposit collection,

which represents about two-thirds ofthe annual intake, is one of the Library’sgreatest strengths. In the 21st century,it continues to fulfil its obligation toreceive, catalogue, store and makeavailable the widest possible coverage ofmaterial in conditions suitable not onlyfor preservation, but also for the benefitof its users, both present and future.

Cambridge University LibraryGenerations of knowledge 9

Legal deposit intake of the 1920s;these shelves contain mainly novels,stored in the Library tower in theiroriginal dust jackets.

The Library makes extensive use of mobile stacks to maximise its storage capacity; each of thesestacks contains several tons of books but can be moved easily thanks to sophisticated gearing.

The identity of the man whosecollection, more than anything else,transformed the University Library intoa true working library for study andresearch, is hidden behind an elaborateroyal bookplate. 1715 was the date ofone of the greatest benefactions in theLibrary’s history, when King George Irepaid the University’s loyalty during theyear of the Jacobite rising by presentingit with the library of the late Bishop ofEly, John Moore, who had died in 1714.The University’s address of thanks wasappropriately fulsome: the donationenhanced the Library’s collections ina spectacular way.

‘The noble Collection of Books &Manuscripts gatherd in many Yearsby the Great Industry & AccurateJudgement of the late Bp of Ely, tho’ in itself exceeding valuable, is uponno account so Welcome to Yr University,as it is a Testimony of Yr Royal Favour;the Memory of wch will be constantlypreserv’d by this Ample Benefaction,worthy to bear the Title of the Donor,& to be for ever styled the Royal Library.’

Moore’s vast collection of books datedback to his undergraduate years, butlittle is known about how and whenhe acquired them. Certain themes arediscernible however, medicine being one.As early as 1663 he wrote his name(and the price) on the flyleaf of WilliamHarvey’s Exercitationes de generationeanimalium (Amsterdam 1651). Lawwas another interest, and there are alsoremarkable examples of early Englishprinting including over 40 Caxtons,some of them unique. The Library’spreviously sparse coverage ofcomparatively recent publications washighlighted by the fact that books suchas Newton’s Principia mathematica(London 1687) and Opticks (London1704), Halley’s Miscellanea curiosa(London 1705–7), Boyle’s Scepticalchymist (Oxford 1680), and John Wallis’sOpera (Oxford 1657) were only nowreceived for the first time.

Arguably the greatest treasures in theRoyal Library, though, are the notableearly manuscripts, many with stunningilluminations. Those from the 8th

Munificentia Regia 1715Munificentia Regia 1715The specialcollections

of the UL are anextraordinarytreasure trove and when I firstencountered themas a research studentand later as a ResearchFellow, I discoveredgems of informationthat transformedknowledge and my own approaches to it.

Dr David StarkeyHistorian

“

10 Cambridge University Library Munificentia Regia 1715

An ear inspection, from ‘Le gouvernementde corps domme’, an early 15th-centurymanuscript that belonged to King Henry VII.

and 9th centuries include the earliestEnglish text of Caedmon’s Hymn inBede’s Ecclesiastical history of the Englishpeople, the Book of Cerne, with itstechnically amateurish yet markedlyintellectual images and bold, fancifullyformed capital letters; and the Bookof Deer, only ‘discovered’ in the 1860sby the then University Librarian, the‘lynx-eyed’ Henry Bradshaw.

‘Grotesque and barbarous crudeness’The Book of Deer contains parts of theGospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke,and the whole of John. Its diminutivescale (15.4cm by 10.7cm) and theinclusion after St Mark of a litany forthe visitation of the sick, link it to aninteresting Irish series of private pocketGospel books.

The importance of the Gaelic notesadded to the book in the north-east ofScotland in the 12th century has beenwidely recognised, and the manuscript’ssignificance in linguistic and socialhistory long appreciated.

However even in the 1970s the strangecharm of its illuminated pages wascastigated by an editor of the Gaelicnotes as being ‘of the most grotesqueand barbarous crudeness’. Nothingcould be further from the truth: thedecorations belong to a well-definedInsular tradition of figurative art that canbe related to ornament and calligraphy.

In fact the ingenuity of its design andsophisticated physical constructionmakes it reasonable to suspect that, far from being crude, the Book of Deerreflects richly decorated Insular Gospelbooks of around 800 AD, now lost.

Cambridge University LibraryMunificentia Regia 1715 11

Book of Deer: frontispiece of theGospel of St John.

The 12th-centuryWinchester Pontifical,showing Mass for abishop on the day ofhis consecration.

Detail: Book of Cerne: frontispieceof the Gospel of St Mark, with hissymbol the lion.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was the greatest natural philosopher of his age – and perhaps of any age – butthe workings of such an extraordinary mind are difficult to unravel. Newtonconsistently concealed his methodsuntil they had produced definite results,and he hid his assumptions frominvestigation by others until they hadproved themselves trustworthy. One ofNewton’s younger contemporaries, theSwiss mathematician Johann Bernoulli,once ruefully remarked that Newton’smethods were so startlingly original that on their own they were enough toidentify him, ‘as a lion can be recognisedfrom his footprint’. Such ‘lion’sfootprints’, the most concrete traces ofNewton at work, can be found in hismanuscripts, books and papers. These tella far more complicated and remarkablestory than the easy tale of genius.

Although widely known for his law ofuniversal gravitation, Newton’s scientificand intellectual interests were vast, andthis range of creative thinking is reflectedin the Macclesfield Collection. The 950

manuscript notebooks, letters andbundles of unbound papers in thiscollection document the writings ofNewton and his associates on gravitation,fluxions (calculus), the Principia,mathematics, optics, astronomy andother subjects. They provide compellinginsights into Newton’s thinking. Yet untilthe Library was able to purchase theCollection from the Earl of Macclesfieldin 2000, after a highly successfulfundraising campaign, little of thisrevealing material had been published,and access to it had been severelyrestricted because one of the mostimportant and valuable collections of scientific papers in Britain hadbeen in private hands.

Even before the acquisition of theMacclesfield Collection, the Library heldby far the largest group of Newton’sscientific papers, chiefly in thePortsmouth Collection, which had beenpresented by the fifth Earl of Portsmouthin 1872 to join manuscripts of Newton’slectures as Lucasian Professor andrecords of his Cambridge career.

‘An ocean of truth’‘An ocean of truth’

A library is a basic

facility in a researchoperation. It’s theway that you seewhat other peoplehave done so thatyou can build uponthe foundation that’sbeen laid by otherinvestigators. Libraries,of course, are not what they used to be – they’re not merelycollections of books and other documents.Increasingly, they’re the means of electronicaccess to the knowledgeof the world.

Dr Gordon E MooreFounder of the IntelCorporation

“

12 Cambridge University Library ‘An ocean of truth’

Letter from Newton to Robert Boyle (28 February 1679) about the nature of the æther and the possible mechanical causes of the behaviour of light.

The Macclesfield and PortsmouthCollections are closely interrelated.Material on some topics, such as thedispute with Leibniz over priority in theinvention of the infinitesimal calculus,is spread over both collections and, insome cases, replies to letters in onecollection are to be found in the other.Now the two major sections of the IsaacNewton archive, separated following hisdeath, are reunited in Cambridge forthe benefit of scholars and the public,and many of the documents have alreadybeen digitised and made accessible toeveryone via the internet.

It is said that Newton once remarked, ‘I seem to have been only like a boyplaying on the sea-shore and divertingmyself in now and then finding asmoother pebble or a prettier shell thanordinary, while the great ocean of truthlay all undiscovered before me’. Allthose who have the chance to study the‘lion’s footprints’ and the developmentof Newton’s scientific theories throughthe collections at the Library wouldprobably want to disagree.

Cambridge University Library‘An ocean of truth’ 13

Newton’s record of observations ofthe comet of 1682, now known asHalley’s Comet, written on a scrap of paper perhaps torn from a letter.

Newton’s experiment with a bodkinpressed behind his eye.

Drawing by Newton of his reflecting telescope and its parts.

The sense of tactile pleasure uponopening a book, whether it be a brandnew one, a well-loved copy, or onethat has been sitting on the Library’sshelves waiting patiently for its timeto come, is something that will neverbe gained from turning on a computer.When that book is bound in softcrimson velvet embroidered withsilken threads or encased in smoothmorocco with gold tooling, and printedon fine parchment or heavy vellum,the epithet of bibliophile or book-lovercan be all the more easily understood.

Such beautiful volumes werebequeathed to the Library by SamuelSandars in 1894. Sandars, a memberof Trinity College, was the greatestbenefactor of his time. He had beenwooed by two University Librarians,Henry Bradshaw and Francis Jenkinson,and much of his collecting taste hadbeen moulded by their advice: headded 203 incunabula (books printedduring the 15th century) to theLibrary’s collection. Throughout hislife he gave money, manuscripts and

printed books, and when he died heleft 1,500 valuable items as well as afurther sum of money to be spent on‘rare English books’. The SandarsReadership in Bibliography, institutedin 1895 and continuing today in theannual series of Sandars Lectures, is anenduring monument to his generosity.

Silver threads on crimson velvetSilver threads on crimson velvet

CambridgeUniversity

Library, with itsopen shelves andits profound richesin manuscriptsand rare books,encourages boundary-crossing, conversation,and lateral connections.It has made myinterdisciplinarywork possible.

Dame Gillian BeerEmerita King Edward VIIProfessor of English Literature,University of Cambridge

“

14 Cambridge University Library Silver threads on crimson velvet

Marcus Tullius Cicero, De officiis (Mainz1465). The first printed edition of aclassical text. Copy printed on vellum.

Sandars’s gift not only enriched theLibrary with exquisite examples of rarebooks and illuminated manuscripts,but also had an additional and long-lasting impact. For the first few centuriesof its existence, the Library lacked itspresent pre-eminence in the minds ofvisitors and alumni. In the eyes oftourists searching for grandeur, itsbuildings were unimpressive while, witha few notable exceptions, many alumniwho considered bequeathing theirlibraries tended to think first of theircolleges. Sandars’s decision to leave thecream of his collection to the UniversityLibrary changed that habit. WhereSandars led, others followed, and bythe beginning of the 20th century, thetradition of giving to the Library wasfirmly established.

Page from a French translation of Virgil’sEclogues (Paris 1516), printed on vellum and evidently designed to look as much like a manuscript as possible.

Early 12th-century manuscript of RabanusMaurus, ‘De laudibus sanctae crucis’ showingthe third figured poem in the series, ‘Salvesancta salus Christi’, with the words ‘Salus crux’highlighted in the form of a cross.

Cambridge University LibrarySilver threads on crimson velvet 15

John Udall, Certaine sermons (London1596). Contemporary crimson velvetbinding, embroidered in silver threadand silks with the arms of Elizabeth I.

Sisto Poncello da Caravonica, Le sacrehistorie del’Antico Testamento (Padua 1569). Dedication copy to Cosimo de Medici(1519–74), Grand Duke of Tuscany, whosearms – featuring the ducal crown and thecollar of the Order of the Golden Fleece –are painted on the black morocco binding.

A Judeo-Arabic letter of recommendation,in autograph, written for a friend by MosesMaimonides (1138–1204), a leading figureof the medieval Jewish world.

Solomon Schechter’s great excitementwas justified. In 1896 the widowedtwin Scottish sisters, Mrs Agnes Lewisand Mrs Margaret Gibson, gave theUniversity’s Reader in TalmudicLiterature some ancient scraps of paperthey had purchased. These proved tobe just some of the 140,000 fragmentsof Hebrew and Jewish literature anddocuments from the Ben EzraSynagogue, founded in Fustat (orOld Cairo) in the 11th century.Schechter realised he had an astoundingbibliographical discovery on his hands.On 13 May 1896 he wrote to the sisters‘in haste and great excitement’, urgingthem to initial secrecy, for ‘the fragmentI took with me represents a piece ofthe original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus.It is the first time that such a thingwas discovered.’

Encouraged, recommended andfinanced by the Master of St John’sCollege, Charles Taylor, Schechter spentthe following winter in Cairo negotiatingover interminable cups of coffee andcigarettes with the Chief Rabbi. He

finally obtained permission to examineand then to remove to Cambridge whatbecame the unique Genizah Collection.

The officials of the Ben Ezra Synagoguehad followed the widespread Jewishcustom of not destroying texts on whichthe name of God or sections of thescripture were recorded. Instead, suchmaterials were consigned to a genizah,or storage place, where they woulddisintegrate through natural processesor from which they could be taken forburial in a communal cemetery. In thisparticular case, however, a wide varietyof everyday texts and writings were alsodeposited and the result is a fascinatingcollection of information ranging acrossevery aspect of life in the Mediterraneanarea, spanning 13 centuries, and writtenin a dozen languages and dialectsincluding Arabic.

The sacred and the mundaneThe containers that transported thefragile fragments back to the UniversityLibrary held a cornucopia of scholarlyriches. The Genizah Collection has

‘In haste and great excitement’‘In haste and great excitement’

16 Cambridge University Library ‘In haste and great excitement’

revealed tantalising insights into bothordinary daily life a thousand years ago,and important clues for answeringprofound religious, ideological andhistorical questions. Children’s schoolbooks and school reports, dowry listsand wedding contracts, early chequesfrom the 12th century with the familiarwording ‘I promise to pay the bearer...’,verses of the only known medievalwoman poet writing in Hebrew, legalpapers and musical notations have allbeen recovered from the Cairo genizah.Many lost Hebrew books and pricelesssacred texts have been resurrected fromthe fragments including the originalHebrew version of the Wisdom of BenSira or Ecclesiasticus, a work datingback to the 2nd century BC, and theDamascus Document (or ZadokiteFragment), the first and fullest versionof one of the Dead Sea sect’s majorreligious tracts, which came to light50 years before the Scrolls made theirsensational impact on Jewish andChristian history. Famous personalitiesappear among the tattered texts, notjust as distinguished authors but as

writers of personal letters, creditorsrequesting the payment of debts, andtravellers waiting for a fair wind tobegin their voyage.

Over the last hundred years, throughactive programmes of conservation,research and publication, these ‘tornand stained testimonies to bygone ages’have led to exciting discoveries about

Jewish religious, communal and personallife, Hebrew and Arab culture, settlementin the land of Israel, and relations withMuslims and Christians from as earlyas the 9th and 10th centuries.

Much still remains to be done and nodoubt as the work of the Taylor-SchechterGenizah Research Unit proceeds, yetmore secrets will be unfurled.

Cambridge University Library‘In haste and great excitement’ 17

An Arabic tale of a lioness and a lion cub,with accompanying illustration, from aboutthe 14th century.

A child’s Hebrewalphabetical exercisebook from about the 10th century.

The Damascus Document, containing part ofthe religious ideology of the Dead Sea sect.

To the user or visitor, what makes a greatlibrary are the strength and breadth ofthe collections – manuscript, printand, increasingly in the 21st century,electronic – and the quality and speedof the service provided by the staff.

What the user sees is just the tip of theiceberg. To ensure that all runs smoothlyon the surface, the University Libraryemploys over 350 members of staff,with the great majority working‘behind the shelves’, helping to managethe collections and integrate traditionaland emerging formats.

• About 500 books and the samenumber of journal issues arrive onaverage every working day, eitherunder legal deposit legislation or bypurchase from all corners of the globe.

• It took the Library 500 years toacquire its first million books; 75years to acquire the next 5 millionand now it is adding books at therate of a million every 8–10 years.

• There are over 100 miles (160 km)of occupied shelves – enough tostretch from Cambridge to Brighton,or half way from New York to Boston.

• As well as all its traditional books andmagazines, the Library provides accessto over 10,000 electronic journals.

• Around a quarter of a million ofthe rarer and more precious itemsare fetched every year from closedstacks to the various reading roomsfor readers’ use. The average time a reader has to wait is about 30minutes – much less than in manylarge libraries where 12–24 hourscan be the norm.

• The service is increasingly 24/7,with over 60,000 hits on the Library’swebsite every day, 365 days a year.

• The Library is in all senses a worldresource. Its users come from everycontinent, and many plan their visitsto the UK so that they can spendweeks at a time working among the

Behind the shelvesI rememberwonderful

days spent in theUniversity Library – reading in thestacks when I was particularlyinterested in medievalJewish life in southernFrance, and alsohaving extraordinaryconversations in theTea Room when Iallowed myself a break.Even though I go thererarely now, the smell ofthe place still bringsback those glorious daysspent working, thinking,and sometimes justgazing at the beautifulceiling in the ReadingRoom.

Baroness NeubergerDBE

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18 Cambridge University Library Behind the shelves

A letter from the Macclesfield Collection before and after conservation.

collections. The catalogues can beconsulted via the internet from anycomputer anywhere in the world.More and more parts of the collectionsare being digitised, so that users canhave access to them without havingto travel to Cambridge.

• The Library is committed to sharingits treasures – items have recentlybeen on view in exhibitions in NewYork, Chicago, Los Angeles, Bruges,Berlin, Mannheim, Nancy, Tokyoand Canberra, as well as Londonand other UK venues.

• The Friends of the UniversityLibrary foster contacts between theLibrary and those interested in itscollections, its history, its currentactivities and its future. They alsoraise funds for the purchase ofsignificant additions to the Library’scollections, and for the conservationof those collections.

Conserving wisdomSome of the Library’s contents werewritten several thousand years ago,some much more recently, but in manycases the paper is of poor quality; somehave suffered from ill treatment beforethey came to Cambridge; and some havesuffered from heavy use by present-dayreaders. The Library employs a teamof conservators whose role is to ensurethat the collections assembled in the pastand used today will still be available toscholars in the future.

The Macclesfield Collection of scientificpapers, which was bought in 2000, is agood example of the work undertakenby the Library’s conservators. Thecollection consists of a wide range ofmaterials including bound items andnotebooks, items pasted into ‘guard-books’, loose single leaves, drawings andprinted items. The bound volumes ofletters (whose writers include Sir IsaacNewton, Robert Boyle, John Flamsteed,and Edmond Halley) contained someof the most important material andwere in the worst condition. The original

structures, format and binding providedno suitable support or protection forthe letters that had been pasted intothem, and so they had to be removedand treated according to individualneeds. Each letter was then pasted ontosheets of special paper and these weresewn and bound into volumes. Thepapers had frequently been folded,leading to lines of weakness; in somecases, the iron gall ink had burnt into thepaper and caused it to tear. This damagehas now been repaired and the collectioncan be safely used by scholars.

Cambridge University LibraryBehind the shelves 19

A letter from the MacclesfieldCollection before conservation.

The bound volumes.

Charles Darwin is a figure of suchtranscendent cultural importance andthe object of such great scholarly andpublic interest that any documentwritten in his hand is a treasure to itspossessor. The Darwin archive, with itshundreds of manuscripts and thousandsof letters, is the documentary record ofDarwin’s entire working life and is oneof the most important collections ofscientific papers in existence. No briefdescription can do justice to it. Thecollection includes early correspondencewith his family, letters sent while onHMS Beagle, autobiographical papers,Darwin’s own library of books andjournals, and his working notes andexperiment books. The archive hasmade Cambridge the world centre forDarwin studies and a major centre ofresearch in the history of science in the19th century.

The voyage of the BeagleIt was, of course, the five-yearcircumnavigational voyage of HMSBeagle which determined Darwin’swhole career, and the manuscripts and

material related to that period makeup more than 20 substantial boundvolumes. They include almost dailyrecords of observations made evenwhen Darwin was sea-sick or in badhealth. The archive includes Darwin’sextensive notes on the zoology andgeology of the voyage, his lists ofspecimens collected, diagrams ofgeological sections, and many lettersto family and scientific colleagues.The archive also includes the sketchbooks of Conrad Martens, who sailedwith Darwin during part of the Beaglevoyage; these are now extensivelyconsulted by picture researchers; theyhave been digitised and mounted onthe Library’s web pages.

The lettersMost of the material in the archivehas been donated over the years byDarwin’s family and friends, ‘to keeptogether in the University Library... inorder that it may be available to anyfuture student of Darwin & his work’.It has arrived at the Library in varyingstates of preservation. Fifteen parcels of

The evolution of ideasThe evolution of ideasThe first trip I took

when making ‘Lifeon Earth’ was inDarwin’s footstepsto the Galapagos, to film the tortoisesthat inspired Origin of species. Darwin’s influence permeates our entire culture and the repository of his letters at the University Library provides a remarkably detailed insight into how he arrived at his theories. They are of immeasurablevalue to modern biologicalstudy – I know of no pleasure deeper than that which comes from contemplating the natural world and tryingto understand it.

Sir David AttenboroughNaturalist and broadcaster

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20 Cambridge University Library The evolution of ideas

Charles Darwin.A leaf from the manuscript of Origin of species.

letters to Darwin dating from the yearsfollowing the publication of Origin ofspecies were rescued from a bonfire byDarwin’s great grandson, Robin. Theletters had been stored in cardboardboxes under damp conditions, and theones at the bottom had unfortunatelybeen reduced to compressed pulp. Incontrast, other manuscripts were receivedin parcels wrapped in tissue paper onwhich the subjects had been noted inDarwin’s own hand, and were presumablyjust as Darwin had left them.

Darwin’s later work was unusuallydependent upon correspondence, inpart owing to his ill health and thereclusive life he consequently led, andin part owing to the nature of the workitself, which required communicationwith scientists all over the world, aswell as with less eminent figures suchas gardeners, army officers, diamondprospectors and pigeon fanciers. Theletters also shed light on life among the Victorian gentry, and on the widespread and often hostile reactionsto Darwin’s theories.

Since 1974 the University Library hasbeen the headquarters of the DarwinCorrespondence Project, which ispublishing a definitive edition of all theletters to and from Darwin that havebeen located to date. The letters totalalmost 15,000, of which around 7,500are in the Darwin archive. They providea remarkably complete picture of thedevelopment of Darwin’s ideas.

Cambridge University LibraryThe evolution of ideas 21

Sketch made in Port Desire, Argentina, in 1833 by Conrad Martensduring the voyage of HMS Beagle.

A sketch of Darwin beetling while a Cambridge undergraduate.

Ancient paper scrolls of Japanese music,fragile as flower petals, curled up infragrant cedarwood boxes, and delicatemanuscripts with exquisitely drawncharacters and musical instruments,neatly protected by traditional indigo-coloured cloth bindings andsecured with bone pegs… these are partof one of the most exotic gifts to theLibrary: Laurence Picken’s collectionon the musics of Asia, which hepresented in 1976.

The archetypal Cambridge polymath,Picken was the Assistant Director ofResearch in Zoology at the University,a speaker of several Near and Far Easternlanguages, and driven by a lifelong andextraordinary passion for music andmusical instruments. His friendshipin the late 1930s and 1940s with PaulHirsch, the refugee German banker whohad brought his already famous musiccollection to Cambridge, promptedPicken to embark on his initialcollecting enterprise: 18th-centurymusic treatises including examples fromthe works of J S Bach before the first

publication of Das wohltemperierteKlavier in 1800. Then a British Councilscientific mission to China in 1944 ledhim to study Chinese, explore Chineseart and music, and learn to play the qin(board zither).

His fascination with the old music ofChina inspired Picken to track downthe repertory of music from the Tangdynasty that had crossed the sea tosurvive in Japan, where musicians haddevised a written musical notation toenable them to preserve and play it.Picken unearthed these musical materialsmainly from the collections of the royaland noble households of Japan, nowdeposited in libraries in Tokyo andKyoto. He acquired microfilms of over70 important manuscripts, which hehad printed and bound.

Picken added to his collection when heacquired 62 original gagaku manuscriptsof old Japanese music; these came fromthe Kikutei, the musicians of the‘Chrysanthemum Pavilion’, one of thenoble houses in Kyoto. This unsung

I have saidon many

occasions over the years that if I hadn’t been amusician, I wouldhave probably beenan archaeologist, a museum curator, or a librarian, as I feel strongly that thepreservation of ourrich cultural heritagemust be maintainedat all costs for futuregenerations.

Bill WymanFormer bass player withThe Rolling Stones

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22 Cambridge University Library The music of the Chrysanthemum Court

The music of theChrysanthemum Court

Some items from the Picken collection, showingthe traditional Japanese indigo bindings, theivory pegs and the cedarwood boxed scrolls.

Notational lines showing the sliding vocalornament, from the saibara song Anato,from a book entitled On-asobi (Enjoyingmusic), first performed in 864, copied in 1778.

treasure-trove includes one of theearliest known scrolls of music for thebiwa (Japanese lute), dated 1566, butnotating music of perhaps three or fourcenturies earlier.

Music, ancient and modernPicken saw music very much as a liveart, and as a musicologist he followeda forward-thinking ‘performance-basedapproach’ to the musics of other cultures.Consequently, when he first turned hisattention to the music of Turkey, in1951, it was natural that he shouldlearn to play the Turkish kunan (pluckedzither) and the baglama (lute), whilecollecting instruments and gatheringinformation on Turkish folk music forwhat would later be his monumentalwork on The folk instruments of Turkey(Oxford 1975).

During his visits to China, Japan andTurkey over many years, Picken acquireda great range of printed matter, scoresand books on the music of these andmany Asian countries, all now accessiblein the Library. However as the Picken

collection includes materials innumerous different languages, ancientand modern, it is not surprising thatmany of them are still awaitinginterpretation, both musically and

linguistically. Until then, the writtennotations will ensure that even anelement as transient as sound is safely,if for the time being silently, preserved.

Cambridge University LibraryThe music of the Chrysanthemum Court 23

Two pieces (Bato and Chogeishi) from So sofu (To play the koto [zither]).

A biwa (lute) from Dako toyo sho (How to use the dako) by Ryuhan, high priest of the Daijoin Temple, 1792.

Two former RAF officers, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant ArthurWhitten Brown, set off from St John’s,Newfoundland, in a converted FirstWorld War bomber, a Vickers Vimy,at 4pm GMT on 14 June 1919. Despite thick cloud and sleet and only‘occasional glimpses of the sun’ (asdetailed in Brown’s navigation log),some 16 hours and 1,900 miles laterthey crash-landed in an Irish bog. They had just completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight.

Documents relating to that flight formpart of the vast Vickers plc companyarchive held by the Library. As well aspapers, production reports, and legaland accounting records, the Vickerscollection includes materials such asphotographic negatives and cinefilm. It has only been comparatively recentlythat the value of such business archiveshas been recognised. From ocean linersto airliners, from machine guns tohighest quality steels, in many waysthe story of this company over the last150 years reflects important aspects of

the history of the UK. Formerly storedin the head office of Vickers plc atMillbank, London, the records chartthe rise and post-war metamorphosisof what was once one of the largestarmaments companies in the world.

Vickers had its origins in early 19th-century Sheffield. At the beginning of the 20th century the family-ownedsteelworks was producing high qualitysteel castings, but as the shadows overEurope darkened before the First WorldWar, it expanded into other areasincluding military equipment. Vickersbuilt the first British submarine and airship, and among the wide varietyof planes it developed was the VickersVimy which made that successful flightacross the Atlantic the year after peacewas declared.

The company had a voracious appetitefor expansion and was heavily involvedin the rearmament programme of theBritish forces in the lead up to theSecond World War. The archive providesfascinating insights into the work of

‘Occasional glimpses of the sun. Still climbing.’‘Occasional glimpses of the sun. Still climbing.’

24 Cambridge University Library ‘Occasional glimpses of the sun. Still climbing.’

Britannia surveys with satisfaction asummary of almost 14,000 artillery piecesproduced or repaired at the Elswick andOpenshaw works of Sir W G Armstrong,Whitworth & Co Ltd during the FirstWorld War.

some of Britain’s most talented engineersand designers such as Sir Barnes Wallis,designer of the Wellington bomber andinventor of the ‘Dambuster’ bouncingbomb, and Reginald Mitchell, whosebrilliant early work on prize-winningSupermarine seaplanes culminated inhis creation of the Battle-of-Britain-winning Spitfire.

After the Second World War, Vickerswas responsible for the production ofthe first British nuclear submarine, theValiant ‘V’- bomber, and the Viscountand VC10 airliners. When it moved toMillbank Tower in 1963, the companyhad four main areas of manufacture:aircraft, steel, shipbuilding and generalengineering. Upon leaving the Millbankpremises in the 1980s, the companyturned to Cambridge as a suitablehome for its historical records.

Other business archives held by theLibrary have comparable significance.They include records of the Far Easterntrading firm Jardine, Matheson & Co,which were transferred from Hong

Kong in 1935 and form perhaps thelargest single accumulation of companypapers relating to commerce in the FarEast during the 19th and early 20thcenturies; a substantial body of archivesof an insurance company founded in1782, Phoenix Assurance, together withrecords of a number of its subsidiarycompanies; and the archives of the morelocal Cambridge Scientific Instrument

Company. The latter collection chartsthe history of this nationally importantprecision engineering concern between1877 and 1971, and includes letter-books of the founding partnerHorace Darwin (youngest son of thenaturalist), whose practical genius fortechnological problem-solving propelledthe company to prominence in an era ofrapid advances in science and industry.

Cambridge University Library‘Occasional glimpses of the sun. Still climbing.’ 25

The Vickers Vimy taking off fromNewfoundland at the start of Alcock andBrown’s non-stop transatlantic flight.

This trademark of the Hongkong Fire Insurance Company Ltd, managed by Jardine, Matheson & Co,decorates a policy issued in 1874 insuring the premises of the Club Lusitano in Hong Kong for $30,000.

The Vickers-Saunders ‘Valentia’ flying-boatof 1921 was the product of a short-livedassociation between Vickers and the Isle of Wight concern S E Saunders & Co, andnever entered full-scale production. Thisblueprint survives in the Vickers archive.

A great library provides its users notjust with texts and information, butalso delights the senses and the spiritby displaying the craft of the men andwomen who have embodied those textsin beautiful creations. Many benefactorshave ensured that the skills of the bestcalligraphers, printers, illustrators andbinders are represented in the collections.

The fine art of printingOne such benefactor was John Dreyfus,whose fondness for Cambridge ledhim ‘to ensure that my own collectioneventually goes to the CambridgeUniversity Library, where I learnt somuch about typography while I wasan undergraduate’. His bequest, madethrough the Friends of CambridgeUniversity Library, enhanced theLibrary’s holdings of some of the finestprinting of the 20th century. Dreyfuswas a noted British typographer – herose to become the Assistant UniversityPrinter at Cambridge University Pressbefore succeeding Stanley Morison(designer of the Times New Romanfont) as typographical adviser to the

Monotype Corporation. By upbringinga cosmopolitan figure, Dreyfus built upa library that reveals his close contactswith typography and fine printing in theUSA, France, Germany and elsewhere.He knew the great typographers of histime, and many of the books from hiscollection contain personal inscriptionsfrom the authors. His gift spans modernguides for printers, and works ontypography and book design, as wellas works by earlier printers such asBaskerville.

Dreyfus’s collection includes manyexamples from American and continentalprivate presses, which often have limitedprint runs. Traditionally, books of thisgenre are both difficult to define andinfinitely variable: many private pressbooks are printed on hand-made paperwith hand presses, while others usedesk-top publishing; some are sumptuousand obviously expensive volumes,beautifully bound and illustrated, whileothers are unpretentious pamphlets oreven single sheets. They range in sizefrom the large folio to the miniature.

‘Where I learnt so much’‘Where I learnt so much’I have thehappiest

memories of theUniversity Libraryfrom two periodsof my life. First asan undergraduate,doing most of mystudies in the ReadingRoom; and more recentlythrough a specialistinterest in colourprinting. In the superbWaddleton Collectionthe Library possessesone of the world’s bestcollections of bookswith colour plates,and working amongthem is a joy.

Bamber GascoigneHistorian andbroadcaster

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26 Cambridge University Library ‘Where I learnt so much’

Chechen and Lezghin hunters, from T de Pauly’s Description ethnographique despeuples de la Russie (St Petersburg 1862).

What is common to all is their intrinsicindividuality, which can be appreciatedonly by seeing them – books such asthese are communicating far more thanthe words they contain.

Beauty brought to bookThe kingfisher hues of natural historybooks compete with shimmeringvolumes on textiles, jewellery, ceramics,furniture and architecture. A catalogueof brightly decorated floor-tiles may bediscovered alongside gift-books withcoloured engravings. An illuminatedbreviary can be found next to achapbook of Tom Thumb, probablyonce sold by a pedlar. Bibliophile andbenefactor, Norman Waddleton’s aim issimple yet ambitious: to ‘assemble andrecord all books having colour-printedillustrations or decorations up to 1893’,a date when major changes occurred tothe process of printing in colour.

Early woodcuts, wood-engravings,intaglio printing from copper or steelplates, and chromolithography – theWaddleton Collection contains

stunning examples from all four methodsof printing used to produce colourillustrations from the late 15th centuryto the late 19th. Norman Waddleton’sdazzling collection is gradually beingtransferred to the University Library,even while he is still adding to it.

Cambridge University Library‘Where I learnt so much’ 27

Woman operating a book-folding machine,from T MacKellar’s The American printer: amanual of typography (Philadelphia 1887).

The station at Orizaba, from Album del ferrocarril mexicano (Mexico 1877).

Detail: The cover of Rappaccini’sdaughter: reflections on Hawthorneby Edgar Allan Poe, AnthonyTrollope and Henry James (AllenPress, Greenbrae, California 1991?),one of an edition of 115 copies.

The idiosyncratic nature of a librarycan be its great strength, and of all thecollections in the University Library,perhaps this most accurately describesthat of the Royal CommonwealthSociety (RCS), assembled over nearly140 years. Not only does it offer oneof the largest assortments of books ona European empire, including themagnificent Cobham Collection ofmaterials on Cyprus, but also ephemera,official papers, illustrations of all sorts,photographs, private papers, diaries andeven artefacts. Anti-convict petitions,emigration pamphlets, informationon the many Imperial exhibitions andtimetables for the Canadian PacificRailway jostle with great illustratedtravel works like William J Burchell’sTravels in the interior of southern Africa.Rare newspapers include the JamaicaGazette of 1788 and the only knownsurviving copy of the Royal Gold CoastGazette and Commercial Advertiser of1822–1823, a paper founded by SirCharles McCarthy during his ill-fatedgovernorship of the Gold Coastsettlements. Most valuably, there is

an almost complete run of the MafekingMail, ‘issued daily, shells permitting’,throughout the Boer War siege in1899–1900; the price of one shilling aweek was, cannily, payable in advance.

The visual materials in this astonishingcollection range from the extremelyvaluable to the humble. In the formercategory is George French Angas’svolume of 60 stunning colour platesin The New Zealanders illustrated, whilethe latter includes a wonderful collectionof early 20th-century picture postcardsof Zanzibar, Southern Rhodesia,Nyasaland, the Seychelles and Mauritius.The role played by women in thecolonial era is not neglected: considerMrs Tawse Jollie’s articles on the ‘Backof beyond in Rhodesia’ and ‘Somehumours of housekeeping in Rhodesia’and the spectacular panorama of Simlain the 1860s by Lady Elizabeth Tennant.And then there are the extraordinaryartefacts: a feather from the crown ofthe Zulu king Cetshwayo, an 18th-century pocket globe, a south Pacificmusical instrument, a slave shackle,

‘Issued daily, shells permitting’‘Issued daily, shells permitting’

The rich

Commonwealthcollections atCambridgeUniversity Libraryare a window intothe life, history andheritage of the countriesof the Commonwealth,which make up such animportant part of theworld and its people.When I use thesecollections I appreciatethe importance of greatlibraries such as thisone in preserving thememory of mankind.

YBhg Tan Sri Dato’Seri Ahmad Sarji binAbdul HamidChief Secretary tothe Government ofMalaysia 1990–96

“

28 Cambridge University Library ‘Issued daily, shells permitting’

One of a set of postcards of about 1900showing scenes in Khartoum, issued by Sudan Government Railways and Steamers.The Mafeking Mail of 27 November 1899.

and even a statue of the Virgin Marythat survived the 1902 eruption ofMount Pelée, Martinique.

Breathing life into ‘a dead thing’With over 300,000 printed items and100,000 photographs, by the late 1980sthis giant ‘cuckoo’ had outgrown itsoriginal home at the RoyalCommonwealth Society. Severe financialpressures led to a report condemning itas ‘a dead thing’ and advising that itshould be sold off. After a public outcryand successful fundraising appeal to saveit for the nation, the RCS collection

came to the University Library in 1993.It offers an almost unrivalled resourcefor scholars pursuing global studies,but is also consulted by many others,including relatives of POWs using theBritish Association of Malaysia andSingapore archives to verify pensionapplications, and teachers of history,citizenship and related courses.

One challenge is how to respond to the increasing number of requests fromall over the world. The collection is fartoo big for open access, and manyfragile items are in danger of gradual

deterioration. Many of the archivecollections have been catalogued andcan be consulted via the internet.Sometimes this has led to enquiriesbeing received the day after itemsare first catalogued.

The RCS library has survived bombing,fire, flood, theft, endemic financialcrises, and the threat that it would bebroken up and sold off. Securelyhoused in the University Library, it willnow survive for many more years as avast and vital resource for the study ofEuropean imperialism.

Cambridge University Library‘Issued daily, shells permitting’ 29

A panoramic view of the Singapore River, taken in the 1920s.

Documents and ephemera, letters andaccounts – not to mention 750 years’worth of records, reports and royalcharters – the University Archives areone of the less well-known parts ofthe Library’s holdings. They includeinformation on University societies,and recently the spotlight was focusedon the Footlights Dramatic Club,renowned for its witty revues whichhave featured so many subsequentlyfamous actors and comedians.

An astonishing accumulation ofmemorabilia, the Footlights archivewas amassed by Dr Harry Porter, fordecades a prominent figure in thesociety. It includes an almost completecollection of production records (everything from posters to photographs,and scripts to set designs) for Footlightsperformances, as well as newspaperreviews, committee minutes andaccounts. Dr Porter added to theprimary sources with his own andothers’ historical research material:photocopies and notes of relatedrecords elsewhere, and news cuttings.

The Footlights material came to theLibrary following his death in 2003.

The archives date back to the firstproduction of the Footlights DramaticClub in May Week 1883, when a group of undergraduates put on amusical comedy – a burlesque – calledOrlando Furioso by William BarnesRhodes. Footlights’ early shows wereexisting musical comedies and farces,but, in 1892, the Club began its sinceunbroken tradition of presenting anoriginal show for May Week, composedof an eclectic mix of burlesque, comedysketches, satire, songs and instrumentalmusic. Since the 1950s, it has beenusual to follow the Cambridge runwith performances in London, theSouth East and the Midlands, at theEdinburgh Festival and occasionallyoverseas. The archives document it all.

Star materialsOne of the fascinations of the Footlightscollection is the way it records the ‘firstentrances’ of many of the great namesof the British media – actors, writers,

A spotlight on FootlightsA spotlight on FootlightsThedesultory

pleasure ofbrowsing theUniversity Library,indulging a passionfor wanderingthrough stacks ofunknown treasures andmarvelling at the oceanof knowledge that layundiscovered before mewas one of the mostgratifying experiencesof my University days.If you think the internethas the answers andnobody needs librariesany more, just visit theUL and see how librariesstill stand as civilisation’sgreatest monuments.

Stephen FryWriter, actor and comedian

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30 Cambridge University Library A spotlight on Footlights

satirists and comedians who havebecome famous internationally. Downthe decades the cast lists have includedJonathan Miller, David Frost, Peter Cook,Clive James, ‘Pythons’ John Cleese,Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, andStephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Womenfirst appeared in a production in 1932and again in 1957. From 1959 theywere regular players, and were accordedfull Club membership in 1964. EleanorBron, Miriam Margolyes, GermaineGreer and Emma Thompson have allfeatured in productions.

The collection has already beencatalogued and the records can besearched on the Library’s Janus archivewebserver. These invaluable materialsare proving as popular with studentsof theatre and comedy history, as withTV production companies.

John Cleese in the 1963 review‘Cambridge Circus’.

Griff Rhys Jones, Geoffrey McGivern and Clive Anderson in the 1974 review ‘Chox’.

Germaine Greer (at the back) and Eric Idle(second from left) in the 1965 review ‘Mygirl Herbert’.

Cambridge University LibraryA spotlight on Footlights 31

Some of the cast of the 1964 review doingsilly things on the Backs (‘Goodie’ GraemeGarden is second from the right).

‘In the Spring of 1958 I wascommanding a Field SurveyDetachment which was carrying out sheet-by-sheet rapid revision ofold one-inch maps of southern Johoreprior to operations designed to clearthe last groups of terrorists fromsouthern Malaya. Apart from our ownexplorations we were working closelywith the local police, the SAS, andthe intelligence rooms of the brigadesof the Gurkha Division who wouldbe doing the fighting. One day I heardthat the police had ambushed andkilled a terrorist courier a little wayfrom our camp and when I spoke to afriendly police officer about it he saidthat they had found some maps in hisknapsack. He showed them to me andwhen he saw my interest allowed meto keep them. I think that, as theymay be unique, the UL might be agood permanent home for them –if you are willing to have them.’

The Library responded to Tony Baggs’sletter of April 2004 with a swift ‘yes’.The collection of the Map Department

comprises more than 1.2 million mapsheets and over 32,000 atlases and books.These include printed and manuscriptmaps, charts and topographic views,plus atlases and gazetteers from the16th century to the present. However,as this is probably the best collectionof modern maps in the British Isles thatis available to the general public, theDepartment is keen to ensure that itscollection includes not only rare andobscure items from the past, but alsomore recent maps which may besignificant in their own right. TonyBaggs’s gift of the Malayan maps fallsinto this latter category. Although thepaper is poor, the printing qualityis remarkably good. A question-markhangs over where they were printed:they are certainly beyond the resourcesof the jungle camps in which the ‘terrorists’ lived.

These are not the only unusual militarymaps in the Map Department: othersinclude John Luffman’s ‘A map intendedto illustrate the threatened invasion ofEngland by Bonaparte’ (1803), trench

Maps of warTheCambridge

University Libraryis an essentialresource forsomeone withdiverse interestssuch as myself. I useits journals for currentresearch in planetary sciences, its mapcollections as anhistorical source (forexample to help locateHMS Beagle, myspacecraft’s antecedent,on the Essex marshes)and its comprehensivenewspaper archives inconnection with the public understandingof science.

Colin PillingerProfessor of PlanetaryScience, Open University,and leader of the Beagle 2 project

“

32 Cambridge University Library Maps of war

1:500,000 scale Soviet General Staffmap of East Anglia, published in 1985and clearly indicating the many militaryand civilian airfields.

One of the four maps of part of Malaya presented to the Library by Tony Baggs.The Pahang River, the country’s main river,flows east to the South China Sea.

A map intended to illustrate the threatenedinvasion of England by Bonaparte (London1803). The borders show plans of 18 ‘ports of the enemy’. Also shown are the distancesbetween these and British ports.

maps from the First World War, andmany more-recent maps donated bythe Ministry of Defence, such as thoseproduced during the conflict in theFalkland Islands. Most chillingly, thecollection includes a fascinating seriesof Soviet military maps that have beenpurchased on a continuing basis sincethe demise of the Soviet Union. TheSoviet military machine seems to havemapped most of the world during aperiod spanning the Cold War. Its mapsof the UK are extraordinary detailed:the cartographers even marked whichroads were wide enough and whichbridges high enough to allow tanksaccess. Every building of strategicimportance was accurately shown (even those such as naval dockyardsthat had been deliberately omittedfrom Ordnance Survey maps), andsome 80 town plans were produced.What makes the familiar so strange isthat place names and other words areprinted in the Cyrillic script. Phoneticpronunciations are given – ������(Noridzh) for Norwich for instance –so that the invading Soviet soldier

could check that he had arrived at theright destination. Most of the mapsare labelled ‘Top secret’. Now theyare regularly consulted by studentsof military history and others who areseeking to chart the reach of one ofthe world’s former superpowers.

Cambridge University LibraryMaps of war 33

Extract from 1:25,000 Soviet General Staff map of London published in 1985; the Houses ofParliament, the Treasury and Buckingham Palace are marked in the top right in purple toindicate their significance. ����� means Secret.

Occasionally the Library receives newbooks from the publisher before theyare officially published; sometimes ithas to wait rather longer – in the caseof one particular item, nearly half amillennium after its publication in1455. So it was not surprising thatwhen Arthur William Young, a graduateof Trinity College, made his generousgift of 150 Bibles in 1933, the AnnualReport noted that ‘many of these arebooks which the Library had longgiven up hope of acquiring’.

His gift included many valuable andunusual Bibles, but perhaps the mostoutstanding was the rare ‘Gutenberg’Bible. Only 50 copies of this editionsurvive, and not all of them arecomplete. Printed anonymously atMainz about 1455 by the inventor ofprinting in Western Europe, JohannGutenberg, along with Johann Fustand Peter Schoeffer, this monumentalwork represents a remarkable advancein technology. Also known as the ‘42-line Bible’ because each page has twocolumns of text with 42 lines to a

column, it was the first substantialbook printed from movable metal type.The design allowed for human artistry,however; spaces were left on the printedpages so coloured hand-lettering andornament could be added. Thisparticular copy has an additionalimportance in that it is notable formarkings made in a Strassburg printinghouse around 1469, when it was usedas copy for a later edition producedby Heinrich Eggestein. It is one ofonly two dozen or so examples of 15th-century printer’s copy to survive – an exceptionally rare document ofearly printing practices.

Technology’s inexorable advanceTime and technology refuse to standstill. Some five centuries later JohannGutenberg would probably have beenamazed to learn that the Bible he so‘swiftly’ printed was translated into1,300 digital photographic images bya team from Keio University, Japan, injust four days. Their equipment includeda ‘one-shot’ super-high-definition digitalcamera and a special cradle with low-

‘In the beginning’ ‘In the beginning’

34 Cambridge University Library ‘In the beginning’

The Library’s digitisation studio.

Gutenberg Bible: Prologue to Isaiah.

pressure page support. These digitalfacsimiles mean that Gutenberg’s Biblecan now be admired and studied allover the world via the internet.

Through the Library’s effective use of thevery latest technology, even the earliestprinted items can be made available tomeet 21st-century international scholarlyneeds and practices. The Library has aprogramme to create digital imagesfrom its collections, so that they canbe made more widely accessible. Theseimages will be stored in a digitalrepository called DSpace@Cambridge.This is a ground-breaking venture,managed by the Library and theUniversity Computing Service andinitially funded through a grant fromthe Cambridge-MIT Institute as acollaboration with MIT Libraries andHewlett-Packard Laboratories. DSpaceis designed to have the ability tocapture, index, store, disseminate andpreserve digital materials created in anypart of the University. The Library isleading the work to develop further thedigital preservation capabilities of the

system and support for virtual learningenvironments, and is planning the useof DSpace as a service to the Universityand beyond.

Once again the nature of ‘the materialsof learning’ is being transformed,widening access to rare and fragilearchives and enlarging the Library’suser community.

It is salutary to contemplate, however,that in another 500 years (indeed inanother 50!) today’s state-of-the-arttechnology may be totallyincomprehensible to the readers ofthe future. They will, however, stillrecognise and delight in the nature of Johann Gutenberg’s creation, and its millions of companions that line the Library’s shelves – the book.

Cambridge University Library‘In the beginning’ 35

Gutenberg Bible: Jerome’s Epistle.

Some significant dates in the Library’s history

36 Cambridge University Library

c.1278Nigel de Thornton gives the University land on which the Schools (the first University buildings) would be built

1416Two wills contain the first mention of a University Library

c.1420–1438Building of the western range of the Schools with the Library in its upper storey

1424The Library’s first catalogue (now in theUniversity Archives)

1473The Library’s second catalogue, listing 330 volumes

c.1475Completion of the eastern range of theSchools, with Library above, at the expense of Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York

1574Notable gifts from Matthew Parker,Archbishop of Canterbury, and Sir Nicholas Bacon

1581Theodore Beza sends from Geneva his 5th-century manuscript of the Gospels and Acts in Greek and Latin, now famous as the Codex Bezae

1632The Duchess of Buckingham presents thecollection of Arabic and other manuscriptsformed by Thomas Erpenius of Leiden

1647Lambeth Palace Library granted to Cambridge(but returned after the Restoration)

1664The library of Richard Holdsworth, Master of Emmanuel College, containing 10,000volumes, adjudged to the University

1710The Library’s privilege of legal depositconfirmed under the Copyright Act

1715King George I presents the renowned libraryof John Moore, Bishop of Ely, subsequentlyknown as the Royal Library

1867The distinguished collector and scholar Henry Bradshaw appointed Librarian

1894Death of Samuel Sandars, one of the Library’s greatest benefactors

1898Arrival of the Taylor-Schechter fragmentsfrom the Cairo genizah

1933The bequest of AW Young, including a copyof the Gutenberg Bible

1934Move of the Library from the Old Schools site to its present building designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott

1993Acquisition of the collections of the RoyalCommonwealth Society after a public appeal

2000Purchase of the Macclesfield Collection ofscientific papers, including manuscripts by Sir Isaac Newton

2003New Legal Deposit Libraries Act extends legal deposit to include electronic materials

2005Completion of the penultimate stage of the Library’s current building programme

Acknowledgments

ISBN: 0-902205-60-9

Published by Cambridge University LibraryWest Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DR, Englandwww.lib.cam.ac.uk

© Cambridge University Library 2005

Concept: Peter Fox and Brian JenkinsText: Josephine Warrior and othersDesign: Publications Office, University of CambridgePrint: Cambridge Printing, the printing business of Cambridge University Press

Front cover: The Schools Quadrangle, showing Rotherham’s eastern front, with the original University Library above.

Photographs reproduced by permission of the copyright holders: M H Blamey (Singapore panorama); Footlights Dramatic Club; Matheson & Co. Ltd,London; Vickers Archives. All other photographs reproduced by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library. At the time of goingto press we were unable to ascertain the present copyright holder of the Soviet military maps and the Malayan map, and we would welcome thisinformation for inclusion in any subsequent printing.

Photograph of Sir David Attenborough by Cliff Kent, courtesy of Rex Features; Photograph of Dame Gillian Beer by Michael Cameron; Photograph of Stephen Fry by Johnny Boylan; Photograph of Dame Julia Neuberger by Derek Tamea.