The earliest important imprints we have acquired for the library this year are three 16th- and early 17th-century volumes, by a priest and scholar whose erudition was much admired by Pope Clement VIII. Thomas Stapleton (1535–98), one of our college’s foremost theologians, was possibly named after St Thomas More—who was martyred under Henry VIII for refusing to avow royal over spiritual supremacy; More was executed just days before Stapleton’s birth. From Winchester ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Stapleton proceeded to ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, where he was elected a fellow on 18 January 1553; five years later, in 1558, he was ordained a priest under Mary I. But within a couple of years, he had been forced to flee to the Low Countries, following Elizabeth I’s accession.

And, of course—we have been acquiring some remarkable modern books and archival documents too. 

Nicola Howell Hawley, endpapers illustration to Andrew Caldecott’s Simul (2024)
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library, Oxford, NC/CAL

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

Ongoing collection development activity ensures we do not rest on our laurels, and 2023 saw us procure important antiquarian items that speak to times of religious and political conflict. Chief among them are: a rare copy of An Answere to Maister Juelles Chalenge (1564) by ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Jesuit theologian Thomas Harding (1516–1572), who fled to Louvain for refuge following the accession of Elizabeth I; a donation by a generous alumnus of Miscellanea Spiritualia: or, Devout Essaies (1648) by Benedictine abbot Walter Montagu (1603?–1677), who as a recusant was banished, then later imprisoned in the Tower of London; a copy of a defence of Charles I during the Civil War period, Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Anglia (1649), by ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ man George Bate (1608–1668), who extraordinarily was chief physician successively to Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles II; and four books (at auction) by college fellow Thomas Ken (1637–1711), who refused to comply with the attempts of James II to grant the realm religious freedom and suspend enforced conformity to the Church of England.

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Rowing IV, Cloisters, New College (1909)—showing Ernest Victor Culme-Seymour (second from left)
²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Archives, Oxford, NCA JCR/R/Culme-Seymour/23

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Library and Archives, Oxford

2019 was a year of notable anniversaries, marking as it does both the 400th anniversary of the Savilian Professorships in geometry and astronomy, and the 40th anniversary of women students at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ.  In 1619, the scholar and diplomat Sir Henry Savile (1549–1622) founded two university chairs bearing his name, which have long been associated with ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ.  And if we fast-forward from 1619 in Oxford some 360 years to 1979, women students are for the first time ever matriculating at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ.

Paula Wilson, Portrait of Ruth Mazo Karras and Caroline Kay (2019)
Oil on board, 100 x 90 cms, ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford

²ÝÁñÊÓƵ, Oxford