̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - royalty

King Charles III at Cambridge

jek67 — Thu, 04 May 2023 14:37:58 +0000

On the occasion of his Coronation, we look at and celebrate the King's longstanding relationship with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Lines of Thought: Telling the Story of History

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 14:31:13 +0000

Since March, some of the world’s most valuable books and manuscripts have been on display as Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library celebrates its 600th birthday. This fortnight is the last chance to see this once-in-a-lifetime free exhibition of its greatest treasures.

̽��ֱ��objects in Lines of Thought: Discoveries that Changed the World, which will close to the public on September 30, communicate 4,000 years of human thought through the Library’s unique and irreplaceable collections. More than 70 per cent of the exhibits are displayed to the public for the first time.

̽��ֱ��exhibition investigates through six distinct themes how Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library’s eight million books and manuscripts have transformed our understanding of life here on earth and our place among the stars.

In Telling the Story of History, curator John Wells traces the way in which literature has treated the monarchs and heroes of history.

Long before the development of evidence-based history, this was done through story-telling. Stories that elaborate on myths, legends and folk memories accumulate down the years, connecting successive ages with their past, and influencing writers of the present. In the Western European tradition fables inherited from classical antiquity have been passed down the centuries to inspire countless reinventions and retellings. Themes and characters from Homer’s Odyssey, for example, surface again and again in literature, from James Joyce’s Ulysses to Margaret Drabble’s novel ̽��ֱ��gates of ivory.

"Homer stands at the head of the Western European tradition of narrative, and there are no epics older than the Homeric epics – the influence that these texts have had is really quite incalculable," says Wells.

̽��ֱ��plays of William Shakespeare, gathered here in the ‘First Folio’ of 1623, are a highwater mark of imaginative literature. Their fictional depiction of real people and real events, such as Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, can shape our understanding of historical events.

" ̽��ֱ��'First Folio' of Shakespeare, the collection of his plays which was published soon after his death by his friends John Heminges and Henry Condell, collects many plays which never saw print in Shakespeare's lifetime," explains Wells. "If it hadn't been for the work of Heminges and Condell, so many plays which are at the peak of English literary tradition would simply not be known to us."

"Shakespeare's views and interpretations of his characters really have affected the way in which we now think of historical figures," says Wells.

Fantastical fictional writings such as Dante’s Divine comedy also draw on figures of the past for their protagonists, or use allusion to pass on subtle messages. Folk stories, whether written on ancient papyri or in a modern novel, weave their way through Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library’s collections and through our collective imaginations.

"Our line of thought, which we began with a papyrus fragment of Homer, leads right to the end of the 20th century now with Cambridge-educated novelist Margaret Drabble," says Wells.

"In her novel ̽��ֱ��gates of ivory, Drabble sets her characters against the great sweep of history, and in particular the revolution in Cambodia in the 1970s. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� Library is actively acquiring the archives of literary authors because we know that they are going to be subjects of study in the years to come - the notes and drafts which are accumulated are sources of scholarship in their own right."

Inset image: Homer, Fragments of the Odyssey, XII, ll. 250–304, Second century CE.

Shakespeare's 'First Folio', Dante's Divine Comedy, and fragments of Homer's Odyssey from the second century CE, are among the objects in our final film celebrating Lines of Thought at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library.

̽��ֱ��influence that these texts have had is really quite incalculable

John Wells

Lines of Thought: Telling the Story of History

Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies: published according to the true originall copies (the ‘First Folio’) London: printed by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623

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A kingly gift: Royal Library goes on display in Cambridge

sjr81 — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 09:01:17 +0000

His Royal Favour: the Books that Built the Library will be opened by HRH ̽��ֱ��Duke of Gloucester on October 1 and looks at how the remarkable royal gift transformed the Library’s collections like no other donation before or since.

Painstakingly collected at huge expense by the Bishop of Ely John Moore, the 30,000 books and manuscripts he accumulated include many unique surviving copies. When Moore died in 1714, a day before Queen Anne, the fate of his collection was a hot topic, and the high price asked placed it out of reach of many private book collectors. In the end, the only person who could afford them was George I, who was persuaded to present the collection to Cambridge in recognition of the ̽��ֱ��’s loyalty to the new Hanoverian king.

̽��ֱ��kingly gift trebled the size of the ̽��ֱ�� Library overnight and transformed it into an internationally significant research centre for the first time.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Librarian Anne Jarvis said: “Every book George gave is of great historical significance as an artefact as well as by virtue of its contents. ̽��ֱ��300th anniversary of their arrival in Cambridge is the perfect opportunity to celebrate a treasure that remains at the heart of our mission to this day.

“ ̽��ֱ��importance of the collection can be measured by the number of unique early printed books, the number of times books and manuscripts have been consulted by researchers, and the number of items that have featured as star exhibits in many of the previous displays we’ve held at the Library.”

Exhibition curator Emily Dourish added “With a collection of this importance, the greatest difficulty is in selecting just a handful of items to give an impression of the treasures it contains. We could have filled every case ten times over.”

Highlights of the exhibition include the eighth-century manuscript of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (the ‘Moore Bede’), written at his own monastery within a decade or two of his death and which at one time belonged to Charlemagne; one of the earliest manuscripts of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; and the ‘Moore Psalter’, a 13th-century French manuscript with stunning illuminated decoration, in which every spare space is filled with animals and figures both real and imagined.

Discoveries are still being made. In the last year, a previously unknown poem – an epitaph on King Henry VII – attributed to 15th-century philosopher Erasmus was noticed in a volume of his epigrams printed in 1518. ̽��ֱ��new discovery goes on display to the public for the first time in this exhibition and exemplifies the ongoing work on Moore’s books – and the discoveries still being made 300 years after they were passed into the Library’s care.

Elsewhere the collection contains unusual editions – such as the 1508 Book of Carving, a manual for young men learning the rules of serving at table in a polite household, and Braun and Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum, the world’s first atlas to include city plans from all the major cities of the Old World, several in Asia and Africa and two in the New World, Mexico and Cuzco, which are on display.

̽��ֱ��great majority of Moore’s books remained on open access for users to browse until the 1950s. Since then, the books have been moved into top-quality conservation-standard book stacks, to preserve them for centuries of future Library users.

Added Jarvis: “As a wealthy collector with excellent connections, Moore was able to form a library of unparalleled importance. His library brought to Cambridge works that the ̽��ֱ�� had thus far failed to provide its scholars such as Newton’s Principia, Hooke’s Micrographia and a collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays.

“Volumes from the Royal Library have been included in half of the major exhibitions held in the Library. We thought it was about time the collection had an exhibition of its own.”

An exhibition celebrating King George I’s gift of 30,000 books and manuscripts to Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library - including the celebrated 8th-century ‘Moore Bede’, the world’s first atlas to include city plans, and a previously unknown Erasmus poem - has opened to the public today (October 2).

With a collection of this importance, the greatest difficulty is in selecting just a handful of items to give an impression of the treasures it contains.

Emily Dourish

Royal Library: ̽��ֱ��books that build the library.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library

A plan of Mexico City, taken from the 16th-century Civitates orbis terrarum, the world’s first atlas to include city plans

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Bejewelled backdrop to coronations did not cost a king’s ransom

sjr81 — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:38:01 +0000

Cambridge conservation scientist Spike Bucklow uncovered the knock-down cost of the 1260 AD ‘Westminter Retable’ while researching his latest book ‘Riddle of the Image’, which delves into the materials used in medieval works of art.

Commissioned by Henry III during the construction of Westminster Abbey, the altarpiece’s use of fake gemstones is already well documented. However, what has not been known until now is just how little the king would have paid for the Retable, the oldest known panel painting in England.

Using centuries-old records of accounts from Westminster Abbey, Bucklow was able to determine prices for the amount of wood used, the area of glass needed, each pigment of paint, and the wages the carpenters and painters were paid. This information was combined with practice-based research into the Retable whilst it was being restored at the Hamilton Kerr Institute.

“This is bargain basement stuff, it was all dirt cheap,” he said. “While some of the other objects in Riddle of the Image would have been cost the same as a farm or country home, the Westminster Abbey altarpiece would have cost no more than eight cows or about £5 in 13th century money.

“Historians have often thought that a financially constrained Henry was cutting corners, but you don’t spend as much as he did on the rest of the Abbey and then cut corners on the most visual and most important area for the crowning of monarchs.”

Rather than penny-pinching to preserve pounds, crowns and shillings, Bucklow believes that Henry III deliberately chose cheap materials and fake gemstones to accentuate one of the key themes of the altarpiece – miraculous transformations.

“It is no coincidence that all three surviving painted scenes show Christ involved in a transformation. Transformation is key to the whole Retable. It was the backdrop for transformations in a very real sense. In front of it, once in a generation, someone was turned into a monarch, while much more often, bread and wine were transformed into the body and blood of Christ.

“To make a fake gem you take sand and ash and transform something ordinary into something beautiful. Henry is telling us that art is above gold. We know how engaged he was with artists of the day. I really believe that he was dedicating human ingenuity and skill to God. He’s making a statement.”

As well as determining the cost of the Westminster Retable, ̽��ֱ��Riddle of the Image is an attempt to look at medieval works of art through the eyes of those who commissioned and made them. Bucklow believes that our modern-day appreciation of cultural artefacts – such as mobile phones – is completely divorced from our understanding of the materials that go into their making.

In medieval times, however, there was a widespread knowledge of artists’ materials that contributed deeper meaning to objects such as the Metz Pontifical (c.1316) and the Macclesfield Psalter (c.1330), both beautiful illuminated manuscripts now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, as well as the Thornham Parva Retable, which was also restored at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, and the Wilton Diptych, Richard II’s iconic portable altarpiece.

Bucklow believes this is because many of the pigments and materials used in the pre-modern world for artistic purposes also had common, everyday uses such as cochineal and lapis lazuli being used in make-up and medicine. (Red dyes were used in heart tonics and the blue stone was used to 'dispel melancholy' and lower fevers.) As such, artists' materials were readily available from apothecaries of the day.

By examining the science of the materials, as well as the techniques of medieval artists, Bucklow hopes to further the reader and art-world’s understanding and appreciation of the paintings, and medieval art in general.

Each chapter in the book is devoted to one of five objects and each builds on the cultural relevance of materials, exploring the connections between artists’ materials and their everyday life; showing how materials could be used philosophically and playfully.

For example, in one of the book’s featured artworks, two blues, one of which cost ten times as much as the other, were used side by side, even though they could not be told apart with the naked eye. In another manuscript, the strange choice of materials matched the bizarre contorted hybrid figures seen swarming across the page margins.

̽��ֱ��Riddle of the Image, published by Reaktion Books, is available now.

Research into England’s oldest medieval altarpiece – which for centuries provided the backdrop to Westminster Abbey coronations – has revealed that it cost no more than the rather unprincely equivalent of eight cows.

̽��ֱ��Westminster Abbey altarpiece would have cost no more than eight cows or about £5 in 13th century money. This is bargain basement stuff.

Spike Bucklow.

Spike Bucklow

Detail from the Westminster Retable

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Richard III – case closed after 529 years

fpjl2 — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 17:46:44 +0000

An international research team has provided overwhelming evidence that the skeleton discovered under a car park in Leicester indeed represents the remains of King Richard III - closing what is probably the oldest forensic case solved to date.

Analysis of all the available evidence confirms identity of King Richard III to the point of 99.999% (at its most conservative).

̽��ֱ��team of researchers, including geneticist Dr Peter Forster from Murray Edwards College and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and led by Cambridge graduate Dr Turi King have published their findings online today in the journal Nature Communications.

̽��ֱ��researchers collected DNA from living relatives of Richard III and analysed several genetic markers, including the complete mitochondrial genomes, inherited through the maternal line, and Y-chromosomal markers, inherited through the paternal line, from both the skeletal remains and the living relatives.

While the Y-chromosomal markers differ, the mitochondrial genome shows a genetic match between the skeleton and the maternal line relatives. ̽��ֱ��former result is not unsurprising as the chances for a false-paternity event is fairly high after so many generations.

Forster said: “Although the false paternity means we cannot look forward in time, we can trace King Richard’s Y lineage back into prehistory. Historically, the male line of the Plantagenets is recorded back until AD1028 in N France. Using King Richard’s genetic profile, we can go back much further: Richard’s G2a type traces back to the first farmers who migrated from the Near East and Anatolia (modern Turkey) to Europe about 8000 years ago, quickly spreading along the Mediterranean and into Central Europe and France by 5500BC.

"These pioneer farmers carried predominantly G2a types, which today are quite rare, around 1 percent in Europe (see map). And one of these Anatolian farmers was King Richard’s immigrant male ancestor. Incidentally, the descendants of the Plantagenets not only became Kings of England but also of Jerusalem, bringing the migration of this Y chromosome type full circle.”

Map shows locations of 14 living men who are close genetic matches to King Richard – their G2a type is quite rare, around 1 percent in Europe today.

Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA shows a match between Richard III and modern female-line relatives Michael Ibsen and Wendy Duldig. ̽��ֱ��male line of descent is broken at one or more points in the line between Richard III and living male-line relatives descended from Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort.

This paper is also the first to carry out a statistical analysis of all the evidence together to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester is indeed the remains of King Richard III.

̽��ֱ��researchers also used genetic markers to determine hair and eye colour of Richard III and found that with probably blond hair - at least during childhood - and almost certainly blue eyes, Richard III looked most similar to his depiction in one of the earliest portraits of him that survived, that in the Society of Antiquaries in London.

“Our paper covers all the genetic and genealogical analysis involved in the identification of the remains of Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester and is the first to draw together all the strands of evidence to come to a conclusion about the identity of those remains,” said Dr Turi King from the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester, who lead the research.

“Even with our highly conservative analysis, the evidence is overwhelming that these are indeed the remains of King Richard III, thereby closing an over 500 year old missing person’s case.”

Historically, the male line of the Plantagenets is recorded until Hugues, Count of Perche (documented AD1028 in N France).
Prehistorically, Richard’s male ancestor, carrying a G2a-type, arrived with the first farmers from the Near East and Anatolia (modern Turkey) to Europe about 8000 years ago, quickly spreading along the Mediterranean and into Central Europe and France by 5500BC.

̽��ֱ��research team now plans to sequence the complete genome of Richard III to learn more about the last English king to die in battle.

Adapted from a ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester press release.

DNA and genealogical study confirms identity of remains found in Leicester and uncovers new truths about his appearance and Plantagenet lineage.

Although the false paternity means we cannot look forward in time, we can trace King Richard’s Y lineage back into prehistory

Peter Forster

̽��ֱ�� of Leicester/Carl Vivian

Skull and bones of Richard III

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Royal Visitors

th288 — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:08:24 +0000

After visiting the Guildhall and meeting members of the public in Market Square, the Duke and Duchess were welcomed to the Senate House by the Chancellor, Lord Sainsbury, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz and the Registrary, Dr Jonathan Nicholls.

In the Senate House, where the Duke’s grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh presided over Honorary Degree congregations as Chancellor for thirty-five years, the ̽��ֱ�� Orator, Dr Rupert Thompson, gave the Duke and Duchess a brief introduction to the ̽��ֱ��’s history.

̽��ֱ��Royal couple then joined more than 400 students and Heads of House from all 31 Cambridge Colleges, as well as long-serving ̽��ֱ�� assistant staff and postdoctoral researchers, and spent more than half an hour talking with them.

̽��ֱ��visit concluded with speeches by the Chancellor and by the Duke, in which he spoke of the immense pride that he and his wife felt at being associated with Cambridge, “a place renowned the world over for its dynamism, beauty and learning.”

̽��ֱ��Duke paid tribute to the work of the ̽��ֱ��, saying its academic record down the centuries left them both feeling "very humble". He noted the contributions of Cambridge scientists to the understanding of gravity and DNA, and remarked that "many of the brilliant minds who, through their later work at Bletchley Park, did so much to save our country and the free world, were given first flowering to their genius here at Cambridge."

Earlier the Chancellor had said in his welcoming speech: “Your Royal Highnesses, I am proud to be an alumnus of the ̽��ֱ�� that counts ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales and the Earl of Wessex among its alumni; and to be Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� where ̽��ֱ��Duke of Edinburgh was Chancellor.

“We are proud to welcome you to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge on the first of, we hope, many visits (for there is much to see!), but we are proudest of all to show off to you the people who in their daily lives make this university a creative contributor to a thriving, buoyant and thrilling city.”

Following the morning visit the Vice-Chancellor said: “ ̽��ֱ��City and ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge put on a great show to welcome the Duke and Duchess. For us it was a chance to show off our brilliant students, along with the long-serving assistant staff who keep this place among the best in the world, and the postdocs in every subject who are the research leaders of the next generation."

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Catherine have made their first visit to the city since Her Majesty ̽��ֱ��Queen bestowed the titles on them eighteen months ago.

Many of the brilliant minds who did so much to save our country and the free world, were given first flowering to their genius here at Cambridge.

Duke of Cambridge

Sir Cam

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at Senate House Yard

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̽��ֱ��Royal Wedding… of 1736

sjr81 — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:02:25 +0000

Every bride knows how complicated the arrangements for weddings can be: will the right flowers turn up? Will the car be on time? Those marrying into the royal family have a particular set of pressures to consider. Media attention focuses on the smallest of details and familial relationships are inevitably put under strain.

And while the spotlight will fall on Kate Middleton this Friday, she is not the first royal bride to negotiate a complicated set of rules and customs in the run up to her big day. However, she will be hoping for a more peaceful married life than some of her predecessors.

A new biography of George II by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� historian Andrew C. Thompson sheds new light on his reign, including his complicated family and private life – and the marriage of his son, Prince Frederick to Augusta of Saxony-Gotha.

̽��ֱ��book includes groundbreaking research and makes use for the first time of material in German archives to uncover the rich and varied nature of George II’s public and private life.

At the end of April 1736, Augusta of Saxony-Gotha arrived in London to marry Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son of George II. Augusta and Frederick did not enjoy the luxury of a long courtship – Augusta had met Frederick’s father on one of George II’s visits to Hanover and this was sufficient to seal the deal.

She had been chosen because the provisions of the Act of Settlement (1701) made it imperative for members of the royal family to marry Protestants to retain their inheritance rights. George II’s relations with some of the major protestant powers, like Prussia, were strained and therefore brides had to be sought from lesser German princely families.

Her first meeting with her future husband was a few days before the wedding. Augusta found herself in a foreign country, knowing virtually nobody and with little idea of what to expect. Her parents had told her that there would be no need to learn English as they assumed that after twenty years of rule by German princes, everyone in Britain would now be speaking German.

Frederick’s sisters were irritated when the Prince of Wales tried to alter seating arrangements for family meals to give his future bride precedence over them.

̽��ֱ��wedding itself took place in the Chapel Royal in St James’s palace and featured a new work composed for the occasion by the royal family’s favourite composer, George Frederick Handel. Prints of the ceremony were produced and circulated widely – commemorative memorabilia is nothing new. Augusta, however, had little say in the decoration of the venue. Just as this year, Easter was very late in 1736 so there was little time between Easter services on 25 April and the wedding on 27 April to do much to the Chapel Royal.

275 years after Augusta’s marriage, Kate Middleton faces similar difficulties in acclimatising to a new role. She, at least, has had the chance to get to know her future husband in advance. Augusta’s marriage was not for love but for politics.

Her major task was to help perpetuate the royal line by providing an heir. A son, the future George III, was born in 1738 but by this time, Augusta found herself in the middle of a bitter argument between her husband and father-in-law.

Unhappy with both his uncertain political role and lack of financial means, Frederick had quarrelled with his father and had been banned from attending court. Much of Augusta’s early married life was spent away from court in Kew and Cliveden. Frederick and Augusta tried to cultivate a popular image, spending time at fashionable spots such as Bath and supporting English trade. ‘Rule Britannia’ was first performed for the couple at Cliveden in 1740. After her husband’s death in 1751, Augusta became an important political player in her own right, guiding her eldest son, the future George III, through the trials and tribulations of court politics.

Augusta quickly learnt the value of presenting herself as a supporter of British culture. Her English improved quickly and was less accented than that of other members of the royal family. Her public image was that of the good mother and supportive wife and she was always meticulous about ensuring her clothes were made from native fabrics. Her status as a fashion trendsetter helped the British textile industry considerably.

Andrew Thompson’s new biography of George II will be published by Yale ̽��ֱ�� Press in May 2011 It uses newly available diary evidence to reconstruct life at court in his final years. Careful reading of the letters and papers of those around the king enable Thompson to show the centrality of George for foreign political decision-making and shed new light on the importance of the king’s frequent visits to Hanover.

For those at the heart of this week's Royal Wedding, the big day will be full of stress and worry. But that's nothing compared with the experiences of Augusta of Saxony-Gotha, daughter in law of George II. A book by a Cambridge historian draws on new sources to reveal what happened.

Her parents had told her that there would be no need to learn English as they assumed that after twenty years of rule by German princes, everyone in Britain would now be speaking German.

National Portrait Gallery

A portrait of Augusta of Saxony-Gotha from the time of her wedding in 1736

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