by Harry Gray in front of Library As part of its collection of more than 8,000,000 volumes, the library contains a wealth of printed and manuscript material from earlier times. This includes: • A copy of the
Gutenberg Bible from 1455, the earliest European example of a book produced using movable type. • Library of
Lord Acton, Catholic historian and Regius Professor of Modern History in 1885–1902. The extensive library (around 60 000 volumes) collected by Lord Acton for research was bequeathed to the University Library on his death. The collection contains books from the 15th to 19th centuries, with emphasis on European history and church history. Many of the books contain annotations in Lord Acton's own hand. • An archive of
Charles Darwin's correspondence and books from his working library (including copies of his own works). In November 2020, the library announced that two of Darwin's notebooks had been lost, probably stolen, around December 2000. They were returned anonymously in 2022. • The Hanson collection, containing important books on navigation and shipbuilding, as well as maritime atlases, some dating from the 16th century. • The Bradshaw collection, containing more than 14 000 books relating to
Ireland, printed in Ireland, or written by Irish authors. This is one of the most important collections of its kind in the world. The collection was formed by
Henry Bradshaw, d. 1886. At present, the emphasis is on books printed in Ireland before 1850. • The library of the typographer
Stanley Morison, who had close links with
Cambridge University Press. • The papers of typographers and book designers
Beatrice Warde (Paul Beaujon),
Francis Meynell and
John Dreyfus as well as bibliographers
A. N. L. Munby, F. J. Norton, and
Philip Gaskell, and the corporate papers of the
Curwen Press,
Nonesuch Press,
Rampant Lions Press and Cambridge University Press. • "The Royal Library", an important collection of more than 30 000 books assembled by
John Moore (1646–1714),
Bishop of Ely. The collection was bequeathed to the University Library by
George I in 1715, hence the name. • The library of the
Royal Commonwealth Society, containing books, periodicals, pamphlets, photographs and manuscripts relating to the
British Empire and the
Commonwealth. • South Asian, Southeast Asian and Tibetan collections. • The
Bible Society library and the library of the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK). • The
Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection, a store of 140 000 manuscripts and manuscript fragments, mainly in Hebrew and Arabic, from the Ben Ezra synagogue in
Cairo. •
Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, an important codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century, written both in Greek and Latin. The Greek text is unique, with many interpolations found nowhere else. It was given to the University of Cambridge by the Protestant scholar
Theodore Beza, friend and successor of
Calvin; hence the name. •
Codex Zacynthius, a Greek New Testament codex dated paleographically to the 6th century CE. • The
Cambridge Songs (
Carmina Cantabrigiensia), a collection of
Goliardic medieval Latin poems, preserved on ten leaves of the Codex Cantabrigiensis. •
E.G. Browne's collection of around 480 codices in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. • Several composer archives:
William Alwyn,
Arthur Bliss,
Roberto Gerhard,
Peter Tranchell. • Papers of
Isaac Newton,
Lord Kelvin,
Ernest Rutherford,
George Gabriel Stokes,
Joseph Needham,
G. E. Moore and
Siegfried Sassoon, among others. • Archives of the
Royal Observatory, Greenwich. • Material and archives of the University of Cambridge, from probates and graces to records of various student societies. • Around 1.5 million maps. == Cultural references ==