Christ Church Library is a Georgian building that forms the south side of Peckwater Quadrangle in Christ Church, Oxford, England. To the east is Canterbury Quadrangle. The library houses the college's modern lending library and early printed books on two floors.
The first library at Christ Church was established in 1562 in what had been the refectory of St Frideswide's Priory. The books, of which around 140 remain in the library, were originally chained to wooden lecterns.
A new library was designed in the eighteenth century, with the intention of attracting aristocratic students to the college by equalling the great classical library buildings of Trinity College, Cambridge and Trinity College, Dublin. The most likely candidate for the architect is Dr George Clarke of All Souls; the master mason was William Townsend/Townesend. Building work started in 1717 and was only completed in 1772.
The books were housed on the first floor to avoid damp and flooding, while the ground floor was designed as an open loggia. However, a bequest of paintings from General John Guise during the protracted construction of the library led to the enclosure of the ground floor to display them. The Christ Church Picture Gallery has since moved to a separate, modernist, building.
The collections incorporate substantial bequests of books from, amongst others, Robert Burton; Henry Aldrich, Dean of Christ Church; William Stratford, a canon of the cathedral; William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury; and Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery.
Christ Church Library contains one of the largest collections of early printed books in Oxford outside the Bodleian Library. The library was described in 1946 as 'a heterogeneous collection of about 100,000 works' [1] and this is the figure which has generally been quoted since. For comparison, the modern collection holds around 72,000 books as of 2006 [update] .
The library also hosts exhibitions; these have ranged from the art and photography of Lewis Carroll (curated by Edward Wakeling, Allan Chapman, Janet McMullin and Cristina Neagu) to a commemoration of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (curated by Amy Smith, Katherine Harloe and Cristina Neagu). [2] [3] [4]
Balliol College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a rich landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the foundation and endowment for the college. When de Balliol died in 1269 his widow, Dervorguilla, a woman whose wealth far exceeded that of her husband, continued his work in setting up the college, providing a further endowment and writing the statutes. She is considered a co‑founder of the college.
Christ Church is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Christ Church is a joint foundation of the college and the cathedral of the Oxford diocese, which serves as the college chapel and whose dean is ex officio the college head.
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979. Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to provide a source of educated Roman Catholic clerics to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Mary.
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. Situated on Yale University's Hewitt Quadrangle, the building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1963. Established by a gift of the Beinecke family and given its own endowment, the library is financially independent from the university and is co-governed by the University Library and Yale Corporation. It is one of the largest buildings in the world entirely dedicated to rare books and manuscripts.
Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, 400 yards south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses the Houses of Parliament, on the opposite bank.
The Wren Library is the library of Trinity College in Cambridge. It was designed by Christopher Wren in 1676 and completed in 1695.
George Clarke, of All Souls, Oxford, was an English architect, print collector and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1702 and 1736.
Merton College Library is one of the earliest libraries in England and the oldest academic library in the world still in continuous daily use. The library is located in several parts of the college, and houses a priceless collection of early printed books and more than 300 medieval manuscripts. The historic collection was initially built through benefactions, including manuscripts donated by the medieval clergyman William Reade. The library also contains early printed books from the personal libraries of Griffin Higgs and Henry Kent, who originally donated approximately 600 and 800 volumes respectively. The main collection runs to approximately 70,000 volumes.
The Peckwater Quadrangle is one of the quadrangles of Christ Church, Oxford, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
The Meadow Building is part of Christ Church, Oxford, England, one of the Oxford colleges, looking out south onto Christ Church Meadow on Broad Walk and then along the straight tree-lined Poplar Walk to the River Thames.
The Parker Library is the rare books and manuscripts library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It is known throughout the world due to its invaluable collection of over 600 manuscripts, particularly medieval texts, the majority of which were bequeathed to the College by Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker, a former Master of Corpus Christi College.
Thomas Plume was an English churchman and philanthropist, and founder of a library in Maldon, Essex which still exists. The Plume School in Maldon is named after him.
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or a courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles are also found in other buildings such as palaces. Most quadrangles are open-air, though a few have been roofed over, to provide additional space for social meeting areas or coffee shops for students.
John Reginald Homer Weaver was a British historian, academic and architectural photographer. He was President of Trinity College, Oxford from 1938 to 1954.
Duke Humfrey's Library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Until 2015, it functioned primarily as a reading room for maps, music, and pre-1641 rare books; following the opening of the new Weston Library, it is now an additional reading room for all users of the Bodleian, as the Weston Library operates a reading room for special collections. It consists of the original medieval section (1487), the Arts End (1612), and the Selden End (1637). It houses collections of maps, music, Western manuscripts, and theology and arts materials. It is the main reading room for researchers of codicology, bibliography, and local history. It is also the location of the University Archives and the Conservative Party Archive.
The Baillieu Library is the largest of the eleven branches which constitute the University of Melbourne Library. Its impressive collections are central to teaching, learning, and research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It is located on the west side of the University's inner city Parkville campus, near the corner of Grattan Street and Royal Parade. The building, designed by John Scarborough and opened in 1959, is named after the Baillieu family, who funded the library through the William Lawrence Baillieu Trust.
The Canterbury Quadrangle is one of the quadrangles of Christ Church, Oxford, England. It stands on the site of the former Canterbury College.
St Andrew the Great is a Church of England parish church in central Cambridge. Rebuilt in late Gothic style in 1843, it is a Grade II listed building. The church has a conservative evangelical tradition and participates in the Anglican Reform movement. The congregation includes Cambridge residents, overseas visitors and students.
Amy C. Smith is the current Curator of the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology and Professor of Classical Archaeology at Reading University. She is known for her work on iconography, the history of collections, and digital museology.
Katherine Harloe is Professor of Classics at the University of Reading. She is an expert on the history of classical scholarship, the reception of Greek and Roman antiquity, and the eighteenth-century German classicist and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann.
