Our edition of the Collected Works of James I is one of the highlights of the books housed in our Fellows’ Library. Finished in 1679 by the munificence of Principal Jenkins, restored in 2008 by the generosity of Old Members, the Fellows’ Library is both a time capsule for researchers and a place to think for today’s Fellows. It houses 11,500 volumes, with the oldest book printed a century before the College’s foundation, and still older manuscripts deposited for safekeeping in the Bodleian. The personal libraries of five Principals are preserved in the Fellows’ Library, together with the printed ‘bookes in latine and greeke’ bequeathed by Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. 

You can find out more about the Fellows’ Library, our edition of the Collected Works of James I, and other related treasures, in the YouTube section.

Congratulations to Professor Marion Turner, Professor of English and Tutorial Fellow, who has been awarded a third literary prize for her book on the life of Chaucer, Chaucer: A European Life, which is available from Blackwell's website.

We are pleased to share the fifth video in our special 450th anniversary series, Jesus College in 12 Objects. Here College Librarian, Owen McKnight, Senior Research Fellow, Professor Sue Doran, and Helen Morag Fellow, Professor Paulina Kewes, explore the Fellows’ Library and its treasures. Following Owen’s introduction to the history and current workings of the Fellows’ Library, Sue and Paulina discuss some of the precious volumes housed within our collection, including copies of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s Life and Reign of Henry VIII, the Collected Works of James I, the First Folio of Ben Jonson, and the Second Folio of William Shakespeare.