A binding of embroidered velvet with the badge of Queen Elizabeth I on an anti-Catholic treatise, The castle of Christianitie by Lewis Evans (London, 1568). There is no record of it having been owned by Elizabeth, but she did apparently prefer velvet bindings in her own library, especially in red.

This copy of Erasmus's work on the education of princes, Institutio principis Christiani (1529), bears several overlapping marks of provenance, all of which point to a connection with Tudor monarchs. It appears to have been Edward VI's personal copy and there are notes in his hand, in Latin and Greek.

There are over twenty volumes in St John's Library which once belonged to Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, Prince-Bishop of Wurzburg. All except one of these bear similar alum-tawed, white pigskin bindings over wooden boards, decorated with blind-stamped panels and rolls, of a type that was popular in Germany from 1550 to 1640. They all have Mespelbrunn's arms stamped and then painted in red and black on the front cover, and several also have a gilt mark of ownership pressed into the fore-edge of the textblock, together with the title of the particular volume.

This black morocco binding boasts fine gold-tooling in a "rectangular" design, incorporating the crowned initials "C.C." within palm branches. This is typical of the work produced for Charles II by his bookbinder Samuel Mearne, who may have introduced the "rectangular" style to England, where it became very popular in the later 17th and early 18th centuries.

An emblem book bound for Charles I. This fine gilt binding is decorated with the arms of Charles, Duke of York, later Charles I. As Charles was Duke of York from 1605-1612 this binding must date from that period, and must have been produced in one of the London binderies.

Stamped in gold at the bottom of the spine of this French translation of the Satires of Persius (1771) are the initials "J.B.", for Josephine, vicomtesse de Beauharnais, later consort of Napoleon Bonaparte and empress of France.

Elaborate gold-tooled mottled-calf binding from a three volume edition of Bonaventura van Overbeke's Reliquiae antiquae urbis Romae (1708) bearing the arms of Queen Anne, with her crowned monogram at each corner of the panel. The work was dedicated to her.

Born in Grantham, John Newcome gained his MA from St John's in 1708, his BD in 1715 and his DD in 1725. He was a Fellow of the College from 1707 to 1728, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity from 1727 to 1765. He served as Master of St John's for thirty years (1735-65), and although his Whiggish sympathies initially put him at odds with the prevailing Toryism at St John's, his period of tenure was one of consolidation rather than dramatic incident.

Ferrari was born in Naples in 1685. He held the degree of LL.D. and appears to have practiced for a time as an advocate. In Naples Ferrari met Thomas Hobart, who induced him to abandon Catholicism for the Anglican Church. Hobart also introduced Ferrari to Thomas Coke, later Viscount Coke of Holkham and Earl of Leicester, who made Ferrari his librarian. In 1710 Ferrari was incorporated at Cambridge and he appears to have stayed at St John’s. In the summer of that year he acted as a guide to Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach during his visit to Cambridge.

One of the most substantial collections of early printed books left to the Library was given by Thomas Baker, nonjuring clergyman and antiquary, who gained his BA from John's in 1678, MA in 1681, and became Ashton Fellow in 1680. From the age of seventeen he lived most of his life in the College, except for a brief period as rector of Long Newton in the diocese of Durham, which living he had to relinquish in 1690 when he refused to swear the oaths of loyalty required by the recently installed William III.