2013 Annual Report - Jesus College - University of Cambridge

82 COLLEGE NEWS I Jesus College Annual Report 2013
The Libraries and Archives
Stephen Heath Keeper of the Old Library, Frances Willmoth,
Archivist and Assistant Keeper, and Robert Athol, Assistant
Archivist
The Old Library
The Old Library’s activities continue as usual. We have welcomed a number of
scholars and other visitors both from Britain and from many different parts of the
world (from Australia to look at the Malthus Collection, from Finland in connection
with a study of manuscripts of the Wycliffe Bible, to take only two examples). Although
no general conservation programme has been undertaken this year, a number of
individual items have required and received attention; our 11th century manuscript copy
of Priscianus’s De Grammatica, for example, was examined and sent to the Cambridge
Colleges’ Conservation Consortium to be disbound and given specialist treatment to
deal with damage to several leaves caused by the hide glue used for a repair some time in
the past.
A particularly noteworthy gift to the Library was made by Dr J L Gordon (1968) and
his wife Diana: a copy – number 46 of 450 – of the six-volume Millennium Edition
facsimile of the Domesday Book. The facsimile, itself, which takes up two of the volumes,
is a truly magnificent piece of book production, carried out with an attention to detail
that runs from a calfskin binding that
matches the earliest known Domesday
binding to the quality of the pages
themselves, which even allow the
‘hair’ side of the old sheepskin folios
to be distinguished from the ‘flesh’ of
the reverse. The other four volumes
comprise an English translation, an
index, and modern maps with the
Domesday sites overlaid, all of which
makes the edition a valuable scholarly
resource. The gift was made in
memory of Professor Austin Gresham
whom both John and Diana Gordon
knew well, both professionally and
socially: the former was supervised by
Austin for his PhD and then became a
colleague of his when he took up a
research position in the Department
of Pathology; the latter worked with
Austin when she ran the Curriculum
Office at the Clinical School.
A number of interesting historical
items have been acquired for the
Jesuan Collection, including three
works by the poet Elijah Fenton,
Priscianus, De Grammatica manuscript, Durham,
11th century