Sir Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren died on 25 February 1723. On this 300th anniversary of his death there are several commemorations around the UK, listed on the dedicated website wren300.org. In Cambridge we celebrate the Library of Trinity College as being arguably Wren’s greatest secular building. In preparation for the tercentenary celebrations we have digitised all of …

“It doesn’t matter what you think of me. I know you love me-” – Erskine Childers’ goodbye

“It doesn’t matter what you think of me, I know you love me.” So wrote Erskine Childers to his friend Ivor Lloyd-Jones on 24th November 1922, hours or even minutes before he faced a firing squad. Robert Erskine Childers was executed at Beggars Bush Barracks, Dublin, in the recently formed Irish Free State. Before his …

Recent Additions to the Wren Digital Library (10)

L.11.33, Habitus praecipuorum populorum This German Trachtenbuch (Costume book) was printed in Nuremburg in 1577. The introduction is signed by Hans Weigel and most of the woodcuts are by Jost Amman. Costume books of this kind began to be produced in the second half of the sixteenth century. There are 219 single page woodcuts that …

Recent Additions to the Wren Digital Library (9)

O.1.31, Carmen de Algorismo and Massa Compoti This manuscript contains two booklets by the same scribe. The first is a mathematical text Carmen de Algorismo and has an explicit on f.18v. The explicit indicates the end of a unit of text and may provide information such as the title, the author, the scribe, or the …

New Look to Online Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Regular users of the Wren Digital Library will have noticed that we have launched a new interface for the James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts. Users will welcome the return of a free text search option and searching has also been further enhanced by the addition of filters allowing users to restrict results to specific centuries, …

Recent Additions to the Wren Digital Library (8)

R.10.5, Psalter Though parts have been lost, the remaining decoration in R.10.5 suggests that this was a very fine Flemish psalter. It belongs to the ‘Tweede’ group produced in Ghent from 1270 and has distinctive bracket-like borders. A line of Middle Dutch (si di en zot zi di een ries) copied by the original scribe …

New Look Webpages

We have redesigned the Digital James Catalogue website to enhance user experience. All of the functions you are accustomed to – a simple keyword search and more detailed searches such as by century or donor - are still present, but we have simplified the layout. The search results also show a thumbnail image for all …

Recent Additions to the Wren Digital Library (7)

B.9.7, S. Athanasii Tractatus This volume, written by Emmanuel Bobeni of Monembasia, is the manuscript the Library has owned for the longest time and was given to the college by John Christopherson, Master and Bishop of Chichester who died in 1558 . It was mentioned by Thomas James in Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis as one of two manuscripts …

Advent Calendar: 24 images from the Wren Digital Library

Details Day 1: B.11.4; Day 2: B.11.5; Day 3: B.10.24: Day 4: R.14.23; Day 5: R.14.9; Day 6: B.11.7; Day 7: Crewe_Athena; Day 8: O.7.46: Day 9: B.11.19; Day 10: Crewe_Kaladlit: Day 11 R.15.21; Day 12: B.11.11; Day 13: O.3.58: Day 14: R.17.22: Day 15: Crewe_1.4: Day 16: R.16.2: Day 17: B.11.31: Day 18: O.2.48: …

Wren Digital Library

700 Manuscripts Online

The 700th manuscript added to the online James Catalogue is B.4.19. We are pleased to have reached this milestone in the same year that Trinity College is celebrating 700 years since the establishment of the King's Scholars in Cambridge. In 1317 King Edward II sent 12 boys from the royal household, with a master, to study …