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The Wren Library is the library of Trinity College in Cambridge. It was designed by Christopher Wren in 1676 and completed in 1684. It is credited as being one of the first libraries to be built with large windows to give comfortable light levels to aid readers.
The library is a single large room built over an open colonnade on the ground floor of Nevile's Court. The floor of the library proper within the upper storey lies several feet below the external division between the two storeys, reconciling the demands of use with the harmony of architectural proportion. This device prefigures the inner, middle and outer domes at St Paul's Cathedral.
The book stacks are arranged in rows perpendicular to the walls under the intervals between the windows. At the end of each stack is a fine limewood carving by Grinling Gibbons, and above these are plaster cast busts of notable writers through the ages. Other marble busts standing on plinths depict notable member of the college and are mostly carved by Louis-François Roubiliac. A later addition is a full size statue of Lord Byron carved by Bertel Thorvaldsen, originally offered to Westminster Abbey for inclusion in Poets' Corner, but refused due to the poet's reputation for immorality.
On the east balustrade of the library's roof are four statues by Gabriel Cibber representing Divinity, Law, Physic (medicine), and Mathematics.
Notable books
The library contains many notable rare books and manuscripts, many bequeathed by past members of the college.
Included in the collection are;
- Isaac Newton's first edition copy of Principia Mathematica with hand written notes for the second edition.
- An eighth century copy of the Epistles of St Paul
- A. A. Milne's autograph copy of Winnie-the-Pooh
- The Capell collection of early Shakespeare editions
- A collection of autograph poems by John Milton
- A 14th-century manuscript of The Vision of Piers Plowman
- A couple of Caxton bibles
- Several notebooks written by Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Handwritten notes by Robert Oppenheimer describing the "Trinity" atomic bomb test in New Mexico, U.S.
- Ramanujan's "lost notebook"
- 1620 edition of William Morgan's translation of the bible into Welsh
Visiting
The library is open to the public, but opening times are limited.
There is no admission charge for the Wren Library, though there is a charge for entry to the rest of the college. If you wish to visit only the library, you should enter the college from Queens' Road or Garret Hostel Lane.
External links
- Trinity college pages for the Wren Library
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- This page was last modified on 24 September 2008, at 12:22.
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