Explore the Collections Online
The Library team are currently digitising a selection of gems from the Old Library as a way of showcasing the collections and making them more accessible.
Click on the links below to explore some of them, or see our special collections blog for more information.
Christ's College Cambridge, BB.3.7.a
1698 edition of John Locke's Two treatises of government, with annotations in Locke's hand. This is one of 48 books given to the library by Thomas Hollis (1720-1774), a wealthy philanthropist who described himself as a 'republican.' He disseminated his opinions by distributing books, some of which were edited and printed at his own expense.
Christ's College Cambridge, MS 21
A beautifully-illustrated vellum Book of Hours from the Diocese of Nantes, Brittany, circa 1430-1440. Includes sixteen full-page illustrations and elaborate floriated borders.
Christ's College Cambridge, AA.3.8
A book printed in Antarctica 'at the sign of the Penguins' during Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition of 1907-9. To pass the time during the long winter months, members of the expedition wrote essays and poems that were printed, accompanied by lithographs and etchings, using a printing press that had been taken along for the purpose. The improvised binding consists of two wooden covers fashioned from provision cases.
Christ's College Cambridge, MS Box 41
Personal diary of former Fellow of Christ's College Cambridge, Charles Lesingham Smith. Lesingham Smith bequeathed his library to the College in 1878. It included about a thousand mathematical books, and a number of manuscripts. However, this diary was a later addition. In the early 1930s, it turned up in a second-hand bookshop in Australia and was purchased for the price of seven pence halfpenny.
