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Special Collections

The College's Special Collections comprise its manuscripts, early printed books, and archives. An exhibition of material from the Special Collections is mounted in the Library each term, although the collections themselves are housed in the Muniment Room, at the end of South Court nearest Garden Court. All members of the College are welcome to consult material housed in the Muniment Room, which is open by appointment between 9am-12.55pm and 2pm-5.15pm, Monday to Friday. To make an appointment, please telephone the Archivist, Nicholas Rogers, on (3)38824 or leave a note in the Porter's Lodge.

Manuscripts

The College possesses 119 manuscripts, ranging in date from the late 10th to the 18th century. The oldest of these is an Anglo-Saxon Ordinale (left), which is bound with a 13th century bestiary, containing illustrations of elephants, and a particularly fine whale (right). Other interesting items in the collection include Anne Holand’s Book of Hours, a book of receipts belonging to Lady Fairfax, the wife of the Parliamentarian commander, and an Exeter Psalter of the 14th century, whose lively musicians and other decorative figures, were, literally, defaced by the puritans.

Early printed books

There are some 8000 early printed and other rare books, most of which are now listed on the Newton catalogue. The core of the collection is the library of the first Master, James Montagu (d. 1618). There is a fine range of Hebrew books, given by Paul Micklethwaite in 1639. Early scientific works are well represented, including two copies of the first edition of Newton’s Principia, and many engagingly illustrated works such as (right) Johann Bayer's celebrated celestial atlas, Uranometria (1603), which introduced the Bayer stellar designation that is still used today. Books on travel are also well represented. Amongst the many other books of interest are a first edition of Hobbes' Leviathan (1651), and (below) a very early Book of Common Prayer (1552) contemporary with both Cranmer and Edward VI. The Muniment Room houses special sections devoted to the Franciscans, Cromwell, and the history of the College and the University.

Archives

The Archives consist of College and estate papers, and the personal papers of various Masters and Fellows, most notably Samuel Ward (1572-1643,) who ordered raids on students rooms to ensure godly behaviour. Sidney Sussex College once owned much of Cleethorpes and among the estate papers is an important series of records documenting its development, together with a stick of seaside rock from the town. Other objects in the collections include Cromwell’s death mask, a flintlock gun captured at the Battle of Worcester, and the calcified skull of a young child from Minoan Crete. Some categories of the Archives are not available for public consultation.

• Current Exhibition - Transmission of Texts

  Think of all the famous books from history. When you nip out to buy Penguin Classics at Waterstones or simply download them all as ebooks, it's easy to overlook the fraught nature of their previous existence and the fragility of the thread of their transmission through the vicissitudes of politics, religion, fashion or simple misfortune. Texts are not discreet, disembodied entities but are often cobbled together from fragments, subject to re-arrangement, translation, censorship, abridgement, re-interpretation, and, occasionally, veneration. Different versions are compared and contrasted and amalgamated. If one book demonstrates all these things, it is a particular copy of Martin Luther's Tischreden (Table Talk) printed in 1574. Originally collected from the reminiscences and notes of Luther's friends and students, the Tischreden was published in several editions in Germany before the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, was incited to burn Luther's works. One copy of the 1574 edition was hidden in the foundations of a house wrapped in linen and beeswax. In the 17th century it was retrieved by the owner's grandson and forwarded to England and Captain Henry Bell, a former mercenary with a knowledge of German, in the hope that he would make a translation of it. Only after receiving a prophetic visitation from the original owner's spirit, and being arrested and locked in the Tower of London for ten years, did Bell begin this translation using the book sent to him. On hearing of the imprisoned Bell's work Archbishop Laud was to arrange for publication, but was executed before being able to do so. The translation was eventually printed during the Civil War after approval from Parliament, and a lengthy propcess of comparison of the original text and Bell's translation by a German clergyman resident in England. After all this, and 350 years more in Sidney, this copy is still in fine condition and can be seen, complete with Bell's marginal notes for his translation, in the display cases in the Library, together with other items from the College's Special Collections.

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