Case 1: The Oldest … in Our Collections
“What is the oldest book in the library?
This is the question visitors ask most frequently on library tours. The answer is more multifaceted
than one may expect.
The oldest item is a letter written in the 4th century CE on papyrus.
Around 500 years later, St John’s oldest manuscript book, the so-called ‘Brittany Gospels’ (MS 194),
was written in the late 9th century.
The oldest printed book in our collections is Cicero’s De officiis (A.2.4), published in 1465 when
the invention of printing with movable types was just 10 years old.
A scruffy 13th/14th-century manuscript book (MS 203), which arrived in the year of the College’s foundation (1555), is among the volumes longest ‘in residence’ at St John’s and the first book
listed in the Library’s historic Benefactors’ Book.
