Introduction

We are celebrating the reopening of the Old Library (1598) and Laudian Library (1635)!
St John’s College has completed its decade-long library building project with the impressive refurbishment of the historic libraries and the return of the 1970s reading room below the Old Library to its original purpose of separate rooms for academics. The gorgeous Canterbury Quad has also been renovated to shine in new splendour. The craftsmanship and expertise that have made this final phase of the project so successful is second to none. The College, the architects of Wright & Wright, Beard Construction, and all the conservators and specialist workers who participated in the project can be very proud of what they have achieved. All visitors to the libraries have been charmed by the interiors, and students and academics alike love to study in the Laudian Library.

It is fitting that the libraries are formally reopened by the St John’s alumnus and Honorary Fellow Robert Darnton, who served as Director of the Harvard University Library from 2007-2016. In his talk on the eve of the formal reopening, Professor Darnton spoke eloquently about libraries as time machines, emphasising the role rare books have in unlocking the past to us. Indeed, our knowledge about the past has been expanding with each new generation of students and scholars to approach historic books with questions arising from the key issues of their own time. For St John’s College, a key issue of our time is diversity, inclusion, and equality. The College has been working hard to become more inclusive and to break down barriers. The dedicated School Access Team has built ties with schools to encourage and support students who may otherwise not consider studying at Oxford.

So let us turn the question of diversity, inclusion, and equality to St John’s historic library collections. Of course, the collections reflect the institution of the past centuries, which was predominantly male, white, and Anglocentric. Only in recent years have we begun to systematically diversify our lending collections. Nevertheless, hidden among the past standards of English higher education is a surprising diversity. After displaying the Library’s oldest books (case 1) and books with royal provenances (case 2), the exhibition turns to gender diversity (case 3). The idea of libraries as time machines is picked up by the example of one academic discipline (case 4). Diversity is further displayed by books in non-European languages (case 8) and the international nature of early English book printing (case 9). At the heart of the exhibition are the College’s Middle Eastern manuscripts (cases 5-7). The majority of these arrived in College during the 17th century, many had previously belonged to Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645), the intellectual creator of the Canterbury Quad and the Laudian Library.