500 years

i Fox ’ s Foundat i on

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orpus Christi College was founded in 1517 by Richard Fox (d. 1528), statesman and successively Bishop of Exeter, Bath & Wells, Durham, and Winchester. Originally he intended to set up the institution for monks of Winchester, but was later persuaded to establish it as a secular foundation. Naturally, theology (‘Divinity’) was to be a primary subject of study, but his curriculum also provided for the study of Classical texts (in which the College excels to this day), and the Library soon had the largest collection of books in Greek of any Oxford college. Although Fox’s statutes did not provide for the appointment of a Librarian, he stipulated various ways in which the books should be cared for, including the closing of windows to prevent wind and rain damaging them. Physically, the original Library would have been of a typical medieval form: a first-floor rectangular room, with two rows of presses (i.e. backto-back pairs of bookshelves) projecting into the room from the side walls at right angles, to which the books were chained, a sloping desk below each press, with a window and a bench between each pair of presses. The arrangement and furniture substantially survives to this day (see the inside flaps of the cover), although the three-tier presses originally only had two upper bookshelves each: the top shelves were added c. 1600. In addition to the books chained in the Library there was a collection of books that could be borrowed by the Fellows; no. 2 shows an inscription recording such a loan.

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1. Richard Fox, Founder of Corpus Christi College [William Touris], Contemplacyon of Synners Westminster: Wynkyn de Worde, 1499 Printed on paper, each leaf c. 205 × 145 mm Call-number: Phi.C.1.6

This is the earliest ‘portrait’ of Richard Fox, depicted as Bishop of Durham, about two decades before he founded the College: the frontispiece image shows the author presenting Fox with a copy of his work.

The text consists of a series of meditations, one for each day of the week, each with another woodcut illustration, on subjects such as the pains of hell and the joys of heaven, with alternating passages of extracts from Latin Scriptures and theological works, and English verses referring to the image.

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5. Florence–London–Oxford: The Dissemination of Renaissance Books Leonardo Bruni (d. 1444), et al.; De viris illustribus, etc.

[Italy, Florence, mid-15th century] Written and illuminated on parchment, each leaf c. 230 × 150 mm Call-number: MS 84

This manuscript contains a collection of texts by various authors, mostly concerned with the lives of great men of the past. To judge by the style of the handwriting and decoration, it was written and illuminated in Florence in the mid-15th century – apparently without a specific patron in mind, because the space for a coat of arms in the lower border has been left blank.

Richard Fox bought a number of Italian humanistic manuscripts from the estate of John Shirwood (d. 1494), his predecessor as Bishop of Durham, who had also been English Ambassador in Rome. We might assume that Shirwood bought it in Italy, therefore, were it not for the fact that in 1491 he wrote an inscription, facing the start of the text, listing the contents and recording that he had bought it in London in 1464.

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12. Reading Left-to-Right and Right-to-Left: Two Manuscripts in One The biblical books of Proverbs and Psalms [England, perhaps Oxford, 13th century, second half] Written on parchment, each leaf c. 290 Ă— 205 mm Call-number: MS 11

This manuscript has two distinct texts: both start in the middle of the volume, and are to be read in opposite directions (cf. no. 13). On facing pages in the manuscript are the beginning of Proverbs (shown above), in which Hebrew is the primary language, with Latin annotations; on the right (shown opposite) is the start of Psalms, in parallel columns of Hebrew and Latin, with extensive Latin notes in all the margins by at least three annotators.

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22. Erasmus and Reformation Translation of the Bible Erasmus of Rotterdam (d. 1536), New Testament in Latin, vol. I [Southern Netherlands(?), c. 1525] Written and illuminated on parchment, each leaf c. 300 × 200 mm Call-number: MS 13 (vol. II is MS 14)

In 1516 Erasmus published a new edition of the Greek text of the New Testament, alongside a revision of the Latin. The present manuscript contains this revision in red ink, with the version of St Jerome (cf. no. 2) in black, on alternate lines, allowing the reader to compare the two versions easily. In this way it is comparable to several of the College’s Hebrew-Latin manuscripts (see nos. 11–13 above).

The Gospel of St Luke opens with an image of the evangelist anachronistically dressed as a Renaissance scribe at his writing-desk, with books on the shelves in front of him, and quill pens to his right. Luke’s evangelist symbol, the winged bull, lies placidly on the ground behind him.

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