John Rogers, Journal. English, 1820-4

John Rogers, of St John's College, Cambridge (1799-1843): private journal, 23 Oct. 1820 - 15 Nov. 1825 (1824?). Kept intermittently, and covering in some detail his years as an undergraduate of St John's. A curious and self-revealing chronicle of the author's ambitions, his sense of religion and morality, his unsuccessful attempt to win the Hulsean Prize, his time management, his gradual disillusionment with Cambridge, his intense dislike of 'Popery', and his relations with his family.

Alfred Bender, Life of General Garibaldi. English, c. 1890

Alfred Philipp Bender, of St John's College (1863-1937): 'General Garibaldi: his life and work. An Essay', no date, but probably c. 1900. An entirely uncritical account of Garibaldi's career, topped and tailed with laudatory verses. It seems to be the work of a young man, and assumes familiarity with the College; perhaps it was written as an undergraduate at St John's.

Henry Watson Fowler, Correspondence and letters. English, 1898-1916

Henry Watson Fowler, lexicographer (1858-1933): Correspondence with Henry George Hart (1843-1921), Fellow of St John's College and Headmaster of Sedbergh (1880-1900), on his principled resignation from a post at the school, 1898-9, and letters to his wife while on active service with the 23rd Bn Royal Fusiliers in France and after his return to Britain, 1915-16. With some notes on Aristotle's Ethics. See Sir Ernest Gowers, H. W.

Erasmus Darwin, Notes on lectures by William Heberden. English, 1752-3

Erasmus Darwin, of St John's College (1731-1802): Copies made as an undergraduate at St John's from works by William Heberden, Fellow of the College (1710-1801). The works are An introduction to the study of physic and (from the last page in the vol.) The doctrine of the pulse. The latter dated at the end 'St John's August 1 1753'. The texts are written on the recto, with further notes on the facing verso.

William Barnes, Notebooks. English, c. 1882

Dorsetshire Poet' (1801-86): notebooks containing: i. a list of his writings; ii. a list of articles written for the Dorset County Chronicle; iii. a list of publications in which his works had been noticed; iv. a list of his writings 'not yet published'; and v. some interesting biographical notes. The notebooks were compiled at the end of his life. In a letter to an unknown recipient, also in the collection, dated 18 Nov.

Nicholas Sanderson, Lectures on the method of fluxions. English, eighteenth century

Nicholas Sanderson, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge (1683-1739): the first part of a work on fluxions and other mathematical treatises, eventually published as the Method of Fluxions applied to a select number of useful problems (London, 1756: SJC 4.18.83). The present contents appear to mirror the printed version, but break off abruptly at p. 124 of that edition.

Thomas Hearding, A Defence of the marriages of priests. Latin, 1631

Henry James Warner, Notes on the Septuagint. English, Hebrew and Greek, 1945-9

The Revd Henry James Warner, of St John's College, Cambridge, vicar of North Stoke-with-Ipsden, Oxfordshire (1862-1953): notes on the Septuagint of 1 and 2 Samuel (1 and 2 Kings), Psalms, Isaiah and the minor prophets, in five notebooks compiled during the author's retirement. Letters accompanying the donations and dated between 17 Feb. 1945 and 3 Dec. 1949 are included in each volume, apart from the third.

Jean Leverrier, Calculations re the discovery of Neptune. French, 1846

Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier, astronomer (1811-77): reproductions of five pages of calculations and writings from MSS in the Paris Observatory, c. 1846. Two show the first and last folios of Leverrier's MS for Connaissance des temps (1849). With reproductions of a portrait of Leverrier by Daverdoing, 1846, and of a cartoon by Honoré Daumier, 'Les Parisiens cherchent la Planète', also first published in 1846.

E. H. Palmer, Scrap-book. English, 1862-80

Edward Henry Palmer, Fellow of St John's College (1840-82): scrap-book of drawings, water-colours, photographs and other items, many relating to his travels in Palestine as a member of staff of the Sinai Survey and in association with C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake in the Negeb. Some of the sketches are dated 1868-75, but most items are undated. A few of the sketches may be Drake's work. Also includes a photograph of a flea through a microscope, cartoon drawings titled 'Brothers' (inebriated gent.