‘Libri communitatis’ -Latest Merton College Library Exhibition Opens

‘Libri communitatis’

Books of the Community - 750 years of the Merton College Library

Merton’s library had its origins 750 years ago, a good century before the building of the library in Mob Quad. 

During an inspection of the College at Easter 1276 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby OP, in his role as College Visitor (the external authority who was responsible ensuring that the Warden and Fellows followed Walter’s statutes), introduced the requirement that all Fellows should leave their books, or an equivalent sum of money, to the college on their death, or if they resigned their fellowship to join a religious order.  This was a new idea for a new type of scholarly community.  Once introduced at Merton (and later at other colleges), this practice helped build major academic collections of books—a huge benefit of college membership in the days before university libraries.

The books donated and bequeathed over the subsequent centuries reflect both the academic and, in some cases, the aesthetic and extra-curricular interests of the Fellows.  Although no longer an obligation, the tradition of donating books, often the publications of current research, to the community persists to this day.  The custom remains a welcome form of contributing to the work of the college. 

Our latest library exhibition displays and celebrates books donated to the library by Fellows.

Image above: Nigel Waver (Fellow c1312-1330) gave to the college a magnificent 12^th-century copy of Josephus’s History of the Jews. This folio depicts Joseph standing before Pharaoh