Thomas Smith: Library As University

‘I give all my latten and Greke bookes to the Quenes Colledge, in Cambridge’. These are the words laid down by Smith in his will, dated two months before his death in 1577. His bequest appears in the Queens’ College Donors’ book, in which eighty of his books are listed. Begun in 1631, the Donors’ Book was used primarily to record seventeenth-century bequests, but it also contains a record of gifts dating back to 1562. The final entry was made in 1820. The book reveals not only the College’s desire to acknowledge the generosity of its donors, but also its aspiration to record the history and ongoing development of its prestigious library. Similar donors’ books were first drawn up by several other Oxbridge colleges in the seventeenth century.

Title: Queens’ College Donors’ Book (17-19th century)
Shelfmark: Queens' College Library MS 47
Digital copy: issuu