Cosin's Library | |
---|---|
54°46′29″N1°34′34″W / 54.7747°N 1.5762°W | |
Location | Palace Green, Durham, England, United Kingdom |
Type | Academic library |
Established | 1669 |
Branch of | Durham University Library |
Collection | |
Items collected | Books, maps, prints, drawings and manuscripts |
Size | 5,000 |
Other information | |
Website | cosinslibrary.webspace.durham.ac.uk |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Cosin's Library (University Library) |
Designated | 19 October 1962 |
Reference no. | 1121382 [1] |
Bishop Cosin's Library, originally the Episcopal Library or Bibliotheca Episcopalis Dunelmensis, is an historic library founded in 1669 in Durham, England. Owned by the University of Durham, the library is open to the public.
John Cosin, a monarchist who was then master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, went into exile in Paris during the English Civil War, where he became acquainted with the Bibliothèque Mazarine, one of the earliest public libraries. [2]
On the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Cosin returned to England, and shortly afterwards was appointed Bishop of Durham.
In Durham, he began a programme of improvements around Palace Green, including building the library, one of the first public libraries in northern England, for the use of clergy and gentlemen of the diocese. [3]
It was constructed in 1667-8 by Cosin's Quaker architect, John Longstaffe, [2] [1] at a cost of £2500 (equivalent to £510,000in 2023). [4]
Its initial collection consisted of over 5,000 books collected by Bishop Cosin, including his own collection previously stored at Peterhouse. These books included a copy of William Shakespeare's First Folio, [4] which Cosin had probably bought new in 1623 and is the only copy to have remained in the same personal collection since it was first purchased. [5]
The original portrait panels located above the bookshelves were painted by Jan Baptist van Eerssell in 1668–1669. Further portraits hang in the library, including half portraits of English politicians.
At its foundation in 1833, Durham University was granted use of the library, and received a donation of books from Bishop William Van Mildert as the founding collection of the Durham University Library. A gallery was constructed in Cosin's Library to accommodate this collection. The roof was raised, and the parapet also raised and altered from battlements to conceal the heightened roof. [1] A two-storey porch was added to the front of the library at this time to give access to the gallery. [1]
In 1937, the library came under the sole trusteeship of Durham University. [6]
In 1998, a group of manuscripts was stolen from the library, including Bishop Cosin's copy of the Shakespeare First Folio. The folio was recovered in 2008 after it was taken to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC to be valued, though it had sustained damage from attempts to hide its provenance. It returned to display at the library in 2010. [7]
In October 2005, the collections in the library were included in the first group given designated status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council as having an "outstanding national and international significance". [8]
In 2019, the university received an £85,000 grant to catalogue and digitise the contents of the library. [9]
Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate students, and 54 fellows.
University College, informally known as Castle, is the oldest constituent college of Durham University in England. Centred on Durham Castle on Palace Green, it was founded in 1832 by William van Mildert, Bishop of Durham. As a constituent college of Durham University, it is listed as a higher education institution under section 216 of the Education Reform Act 1988. Almost all academic activities, such as research and tutoring, occur at a university level.
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period (1500–1750) in Britain and Europe. The library was established by Henry Clay Folger in association with his wife, Emily Jordan Folger. It opened in 1932, two years after his death.
John Cosin was an English bishop.
Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is considered one of the most influential books ever published.
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The Durham University Library is the centrally administered library of Durham University in England and is part of the university's Library and Collections department. Its two main libraries are Palace Green Library and the Bill Bryson Library. It was founded in January 1833 at Palace Green by a 160 volume donation by the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert, and now holds over 1.6 million printed items. Since 1937, the university library has incorporated the historic Cosin's Library, founded by Bishop Cosin in 1669. Cosin's Library and the Sudan Archive held at Palace Green Library are designated collections under Arts Council England's Designation Scheme for collections of national and international significance; two collections at Durham University Oriental Museum, the Chinese collection and the Egyptian collection, are also designated.
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The Cobbe portrait is an early Jacobean panel painting of a gentleman which has been argued to be a life portrait of William Shakespeare. It is displayed at Hatchlands Park in Surrey, a National Trust property, and the portrait is so-called because of its ownership by Charles Cobbe, Church of Ireland (Anglican) Archbishop of Dublin (1686–1765). There are numerous early copies of the painting, most of which were once identified as Shakespeare.
Edmund Keene was an English churchman and academic, who was Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge and later served first as Bishop of Chester, then Bishop of Ely.
The King's Library was one of the most important collections of books and pamphlets of the Age of Enlightenment. Assembled by George III (r.1760–1820), this scholarly library of over 65,000 volumes was subsequently given to the British nation by his son, George IV. It was housed in a specially built gallery in the British Museum from 1827 to 1997 and now forms part of the British Library. The term "King's Library" was until recently also used to refer to the gallery in the British Museum built for the collection, which is now called the "Enlightenment Gallery" and displays a wide range of objects relating to the Enlightenment.
Durham University is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge, and is thus the third-oldest university in England. As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and its 17 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide teaching to students, while the colleges are responsible for their domestic arrangements and welfare.
Denis Granville was an English non-juring cleric, Dean of Durham and then Jacobite exile.
Stephan Loewentheil is an American antiquarian and a rare book and photograph collector. He is the founder and president of the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, located in New York, New York and Baltimore, Maryland. Over a career spanning four decades, Loewentheil "has excelled … in unearthing obscure bibliographic details leading to the acquisition of under-appreciated rarities, seminal documents and early historic photographic images." Loewentheil has been described as a "super-collector," whose clients include celebrities, heads of state, American presidents, and some of the most prominent private collectors and institutional clients of rare books and photographs.
Bishop Cosin's Hall was a college of the University of Durham, opened in 1851 as the university's third college and named after 17th century Bishop of Durham John Cosin. It closed in 1864 due to a fall in student recruitment at the university.