Acquisitions & Donations

Since the foundation of St John's College in 1511, its Library has owed much to generations of generous benefactors. Bishop John Fisher, one of the principal founders of the College, gave several books of theology and canon law to fill the infant Library's empty shelves, and a succession of benefactors, great and small, followed suit with gifts of books or money. The magnificent Old Library building would not have existed without the generosity of members of the College, Bishop John Williams chief among them. In the 1630s the College embarked upon an appeal to fill its shelves, sending out a Latin letter to members past and present.

The appeal worked and the Library's shelves quickly filled. Today the flowery Latin may have gone but the generosity of members of the College and others means that we continue to receive 'suitable nuts' to add to our existing treasures. This webpage celebrates recent acquisitions, which continue to ensure that our Special Collections are very special indeed.

Edward Ward, A step to Stir-Bitch-Fair: with remarks upon the University of Cambridge (London: J. How, 1700). Purchased Nov. 2009.

Stourbridge fair, held annually in late August and September in a field near Barnwell Abbey outside Cambridge, was one of the great medieval fairs of Europe and was run by the University from 1589. This delightfully bawdy pamphlet tells of Edward Ward's trip to the fair in 1700, travelling from London via Ware (where he feasted on eels), Barley (where the 'bouncing Maiden-Landlady' entertained him with 'blunt conversation'), Audley End ('a famous pile of stone building'), and Trumpington (the name of which he humorously derives from trumping/farting). After admiring the Cambridge colleges, Ward gives a colourful description of the fair: 'I beheld such a number of wooden edifices, and such a multitude of gentry, scholars, tradesmen, whores, hawkers, pedlars, and pick-pockets, that it seem'd to me like an abstract of all sorts of mankind ... to show the world in epitomy.' After taking in the fishmongers, drinking dens, seamstresses and perfumiers, Ward comes to the booksellers, where he finds the famous auctioneer Edward Millington selling 'books by the hammer' and providing merry entertainment for the scholars.

A handsome volume from the library of the Earls of Macclesfield, including John Dee's General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect arte of navigation. Kindly donated by Mr Brian Fenwick-Smith (BA 1959), June 2009.

The Library is extremely fortunate to have received this highly significant volume through the generosity of Mr Fenwick-Smith, a member of the College. The volume, which has been placed in the Upper Library, contains five printed works, of which the jewel is a copy of John Dee's General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect arte of navigation, published in London by John Day in September 1577. Dee acted as advisor to a number of Elizabethan explorers, including John Davis and Humphrey Gilbert, and advised Elizabeth I on her rights over foreign lands, emanating from her alleged descent from the Trojan Brutus and King Arthur. In his General and rare memorials, Dee urged the establishment of a strong navy to defend the country and aid expansion. This message is backed by the magnificent pictorial title-page, designed by Dee himself, showing Elizabeth at the helm of the ship of Christendom, with ships and armed men defending the land. Perhaps as few as fifty copies of this work were printed, and Dee's editorial control over his text is apparent in manuscript corrections in his own hand. Dee was an alumnus of St John's and this year marks the 400th anniversary of his death. The acquisition of this work is thus of double significance to the College.

In addition to Dee's work, the volume contains copies of Henry Hexham's A briefe treatise of the founding, making and practise of ordnance (London, 1641), with engravings and an apparently unique cancel title-page; of Johann Sturm's Scientia cosmica (Altdorf, 1670), with plates; of Caspar Bussingius's Mathematica universa (Hamburg, 1695); and of William Lloyd's Series chronologica (Oxford, 1700), which records victors at the Olympic and other ancient games.