Wren Library

The Wren Library stands above an open colonnade in Nevile’s Court at Trinity College, Cambridge. Designed by Christopher Wren and finished in 1695, it is a single large room with tall windows to give steady daylight. The floor sits below the outer line of the building, balancing practical use with elegant proportions. Inside, rows of bookshelves run at right angles to the walls between the windows. Each end of a shelf holds a carved limewood panel by Grinling Gibbons, and above them plaster busts of writers line the upper walls. The library holds rare books and manuscripts bequeathed by past members. Among them are Isaac Newton’s first edition of Principia with his handwritten notes, an eighth-century copy of the Epistles of St Paul, and A. A. Milne’s manuscripts of Winnie-the-Pooh. There are also early Shakespeare editions from the Capell collection, John Milton’s autograph poems, and Robert Oppenheimer’s notes on the Trinity atomic test. A 14th-century manuscript of The Vision of Piers Plowman and several Caxton prints are also kept here. Visitors enter a quiet room where marble busts of notable college members stand on plinths. A full-length statue of Lord Byron by Bertel Thorvaldsen looks across the space. At the south end a large stained-glass window shows Fame presenting Isaac Newton to King George III, with Francis Bacon recording the scene. On the roof balustrade four statues by Gabriel Cibber represent Divinity, Law, Physic, and Mathematics.