Welcome to the Friends of the Old Library Newsletter 2012
From Amelie Roper, College Librarian
I would like to begin by extending thanks on behalf of the Old Library and all those who benefit from it for your continued support in conserving our world-class collections. As a result of your ongoing commitment to our Friends scheme, the conservation programme has continued to improve access to the collections. We are most grateful. This year has been a particularly busy one for us, hence the slightly late circulation of the Newsletter. Alongside the routine activities associated with the day-to-day running of the Library, we have held a range of events showcasing our diverse collections and making them accessible to a wider audience. These include the two exhibitions “A Lover of Liberty: Thomas Hollis and his Books” and “Sporting Christ’s: a History of Sporting Achievement at Christ’s College, Cambridge.” We were also open to the public on 7 and 8 September 2012 as part of the Open Cambridge festival, attracting more than 300 visitors. In addition, ongoing outreach activities have brought our collections to younger audiences, with a number of school parties enjoying privileged access to some of our treasures. Over the Summer, we also carried out a preservation survey in the Old Library, as a means of guiding the future needs of our special collections. Sadly, at the end of September we said “good bye” to our Fellow Librarian, Dr Gavin Alexander, whom many of you will have met at previous events. We appreciate greatly the contribtion he has made to the Friends scheme and the wider running of the Library over a number of years, and wish him all the best with his future research and teaching activities. Gavin’s replacement is Dr Joel Isaac, University Lecturer in the History of Modern Political Thought. We also have a new Graduate Trainee Librarian, James Smith, following the departure of last year’s trainee Tom Guest in August. As there are quite a few new faces in the Library this year, we’ve included a “Meet the Team” feature in the Newsletter, telling you a little bit more about the core library staff. We all look forward to meeting you in person at future events.
A Date For Your Diary... Saturday 16 March 2013, 2pm to 4.30pm: A Day in the Life of a Book Conservator A chance to view a new exhibition and learn more about the work involved in preserving the collections for future generations from experts in the field.
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Meet the Team...
The Library team consists of five members of staff (four full time, one part time) together with four volunteers and a Fellow Librarian. We split our time between manning the Working Library (which includes buying and cataloguing new books and running a busy circulation desk and enquiry service) and looking after the collections in the Old Library. We also undertake a variety of educational and outreach activities. Amelie Roper College Librarian Amelie Roper joined Christ’s as College Librarian in late September 2011, having held posts at the British Library, and, most recently, the Royal College of Music. She has a particular interest in both music and rare books librarianship, and is currently undertaking a PhD in the history of the book part-time and distance learning at the University of St Andrews. She is a member of the Cambridge ebooks advisory group and regularly teaches cataloguing to library staff across the university. Although her free time is limited by the demands of combining full-time employment with part-time study, she is also a keen violinist and singer. Steven Archer Assistant College Librarian Steven Archer came to Christ’s in November 2011 from the post of Head of Reference at the London Library, having previously worked in the libraries of both Newnham and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge. He studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Magdalene College with a particular focus on palaeography and codicology and the social factors affecting manuscript production in the period. He particularly enjoys the mix of working with both modern and historic collections that college librarianship offers. Charlotte Byrne Library Assistant Charlotte was appointed Library Assistant in September 2011, having spent the previous twelve months as the Library’s Graduate Trainee. She is currently half-way through a part-time MA in Library and Information Studies at University College London. She has a particular interest in the College’s archival papers and has enjoyed cataloguing the letters of W.H.D. Rouse. In her spare time, she enjoys lindy hop dancing and playing the flute. James Smith Graduate Trainee Prior to starting as the new Graduate Trainee Librarian in September 2012, James Smith completed his undergraduate degree in Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He received the MPhil in Historical Studies from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in July 2011. James has volunteered for the National Trust and Royal Commonwealth Society Library, and, in his spare time, undertakes freelance work for the History of Parliament Trust. James is also a member of the Cambridge Bob Dylan Society! Jane Gregory Rare Books Cataloguer Jane has worked at Christ’s as Rare Books Cataloguer since late 2005, originally for only one day a week but now for two. She has worked on the Robertson Smith, Lesingham Smith and Rouse collections, and is presently cataloguing Bible commentaries and other theological works, many of which were printed in the early 16th century. She has also catalogued rare books and special collections at Selwyn College and Westminster College. Away from work, she enjoys gardening, walking and visiting Scotland.
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Treasures Uncovered as Old Library Cataloguing Project Continues Over the past year, our part-time Rare Books Cataloguer Jane Gregory has continued the painstaking work of cataloguing our large collection of Bibles and Bible commentaries, creating new records for over 650 items. An interesting volume which she has just catalogued is a commentary on the Psalms by Thomas Cajetan, also known as Tommaso de Vio (1469-1534), printed in 1530. Tommaso de Vio was an Italian cardinal well known for his extensive commentary on Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, and for his fierce opposition to Martin Luther and the Reformation. The book is printed beautifully in black and red and the pages are in pristine condition. The printer was Lucantonio Giunta who was located in Venice in the early 1500s, and whose fleur-de-lys device appears in red on the title page. Title page of Psalmi Davidici ad Hebraicam Veritatem Castigati (Venice: Lucantonio Giunta, 1530) Christ’s College Bodley Library, shelfmark D.9.11
The Magic of Conservation: Two Highlights from our Ongoing Programme Since the last Newsletter, the Cambridge Colleges Conservation Consortium has treated no fewer than twenty-one volumes from our special collections. As well as routine work that is agreed and scheduled at the beginning of each financial year, they are also there to help us with both the unexpected and the unusual. In April this year, we discovered a small, localised outbreak of mould that had affected a number of late-19th and early-20th century architectural drawings. The mould is thought to have been caused by an unexpected rise in temperature and humidity, and we have since taken steps to ensure that the problem does not recur. We reported the outbreak to our conservators and they arrived in record time to help us to contain it and deal with the after-effects. The drawings will never be quite the same, but their swift intervention combined with their great skill minimised the damage.
Left: detail of mould growth Right: vacuum cleaning the mould
The Library team are also just beginning to establish a workflow for small-scale, in-house digitisation of selected rare books. As ever, the Consortium was on hand to offer help and advice on the practicalities, lending us a special cradle to assist with our digitisation and also making some ingeniously-designed bone-covered magnets, which hold pages flat during photography without placing undue stress on the volumes themselves. We will report further on our exciting digitisation project in the next Newsletter! Some ingeniously-designed bone-covered magnets (pictured right), which hold pages flat
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Old Library Collections in Focus: Thomas Hollis and his Books Thomas Hollis is the fencer pictured on the left Between 1754 and 1774, Christ’s College Library received a number of anonymous donations of republican texts. These 48 volumes arrived seemingly at random. All the books were beautifully bound and decorated with eye-catching emblems. The donor often annotated the text and signed himself “an Englishman, a lover of liberty, a citizen of the world”. Christ’s anonymous donor was Thomas Hollis (1720-1774). A political propagandist, his life-long mission was to foster and extend human liberty, eliminate governmental corruption and establish religious tolerance. He implemented his plan by printing and binding texts that represented his own political ideals. He then sent the books to libraries and individuals all over Europe and America, in the hope that they would be read and their messages considered. Some of the thinkers he was particularly interested in were the poet John Milton and the philosopher John Locke. Hollis’ books are distinctive for a variety of reasons. All of the books he donated to Christ’s are leather bound with gold tooling. Unusually, they are decorated with bespoke emblems that were designed by his friend, the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785). The breadth and depth of these collections were celebrated in the exhibition “A Lover of Liberty: Thomas Hollis and his Books”, which ran from December 2011 to May 2012, together with a talk for Friends given by Professor Allen Reddick (University of Zurich) in March 2012.
What’s New?
Although Christ’s is not actively purchasing items for the Old Library, we were fortunate to acquire a very interesting manuscript by donation back in May 2012. Kindly given to us by Dr Michael Morris, the manuscript is a notebook belonging to former Christ’s Classics student Samuel Gimson Squire (matriculated 1901), recording his lecture notes on the Greek lyric poets. Dr Morris spotted the notebook in a second-hand bookshop and kindly purchased it on our behalf. It has now been catalogued and added to our archival collections.
Keep In Touch!
We look forward to welcoming you to the Friends event in March 2013. In addition, you are always welcome to visit us at any time. Please just phone 01223 334905 in advance, or email library@christs.cam.ac.uk. You can also keep up-to-date with the latest Library news in a variety of ways:
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For current news, see our blog at http://christslibrary.blogspot.co.uk and Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/christslib.
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For general information on the Library, see the College web pages http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/college-life/library/.