Ralph Hope

Christopher — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 19:45:23 +0000

Ralph Hope

Mark Pyper

Issue number

(2024): 21

Notes category

From a glittering Eton career, Ralph Hope (1914–1940) joined �㽶ֱ��, Oxford in 1932. In June 1938, he joined 605 Squadron as a volunteer member of the Auxiliary Air Force based in Castle Bromwich. The Battle of Britain officially lasted from 10 July to 31 October 1940, but Ralph had been on active service since May of that year. He was ‘brought down’ on 14 October, having stayed in his plane until he was over open ground, so as not to endanger the lives of fellow citizens. He thus very definitely gave his life so that others might live.

Ralph Hope’s sheepskin flying mittens
�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA JCR/R/HopeR

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

21NCN8 (2024) Pyper on Ralph Hope.pdf1.09 MB

Amicabilis Concordia 1444–2024

Christopher — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 16:48:12 +0000

Amicabilis Concordia 1444–2024

Michael Stansfield

Issue number

(2024): 21

Notes category

Archives

Amicabilis Concordia

�㽶ֱ�� history

King's College, Cambridge

Winchester College

Eton College

The Amicabilis Concordia, or friendship agreement, is a document renowned these days for the evensongs occasionally held in its name by four colleges dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary; that is �㽶ֱ��, Oxford, King’s College, Cambridge, Eton College, and Winchester College. The Concordia was sealed on 1 July 1444 as a quadripartite indenture.

The signed and beribboned menu for dinner after the King’s College versus �㽶ֱ�� football 1924 [detail]
�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA JCR/R/Mallett/4b

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

21NCN1 (2024) Stansfield on Amicabilis Concordia.pdf659.63 KB

Unique and Distinctive Acquisitions to New College Library in 2023

Christopher — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 02:09:49 +0000

Unique and Distinctive Acquisitions to New College Library in 2023

Christopher Skelton-Foord

Issue number

(2023): 20

Notes category

Sir Joseph Miles Clay

Ernest Victor Culme-Seymour

William Leonard Courtney

Ongoing collection development activity ensures we do not rest on our laurels, and 2023 saw us procure important antiquarian items that speak to times of religious and political conflict. Chief among them are: a rare copy of An Answere to Maister Juelles Chalenge (1564) by �㽶ֱ�� Jesuit theologian Thomas Harding (1516–1572), who fled to Louvain for refuge following the accession of Elizabeth I; a donation by a generous alumnus of Miscellanea Spiritualia: or, Devout Essaies (1648) by Benedictine abbot Walter Montagu (1603?–1677), who as a recusant was banished, then later imprisoned in the Tower of London; a copy of a defence of Charles I during the Civil War period, Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Anglia (1649), by �㽶ֱ�� man George Bate (1608–1668), who extraordinarily was chief physician successively to Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles II; and four books (at auction) by college fellow Thomas Ken (1637–1711), who refused to comply with the attempts of James II to grant the realm religious freedom and suspend enforced conformity to the Church of England.

�㽶ֱ�� Rowing IV, Cloisters, �㽶ֱ�� (1909)—showing Ernest Victor Culme-Seymour (second from left)
�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA JCR/R/Culme-Seymour/23

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

20NCN10 (2023) Skelton-Foord on Acquisitions in 2023.pdf1.65 MB

�㽶ֱ�� MCR: The 60th Anniversary

Christopher — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 01:27:28 +0000

�㽶ֱ�� MCR: The 60th Anniversary

Michael Stansfield

Issue number

(2023): 20

Notes category

On Tuesday, 7 March 2023, �㽶ֱ��’s Middle Common Room (MCR) celebrated the 60th anniversary of its establishment with an exhibition of significant items from the archives in the Conduit Room, a reception in the Founder’s Library, the distribution of appropriate stash (including some rather natty appropriately branded scarves), speeches from the Warden and the President Emily Jin, and dinner in Hall. The anniversary was worth celebrating because, as in so many areas, �㽶ֱ�� had rather led the way in recognising and providing for what is now a major and vital part of its community whose genesis is worth exploring.

Plan of the site between Longwall Street and the city wall that became the Sacher Building [detail]
�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA BUR/BCF/205

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

20NCN9 (2023) Stansfield on MCR.pdf344.56 KB

The Acquisition of Alton Barnes as a �㽶ֱ�� Estate in 1385

Christopher — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 19:52:41 +0000

The Acquisition of Alton Barnes as a �㽶ֱ�� Estate in 1385

Michael Stansfield

Issue number

(2023): 20

Notes category

The manors of Alton Barnes with Shaw and Alton Priors, now the civil parish of Alton, are in the Vale of Pewsey on the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire. Alton Priors only came into �㽶ֱ��’s purview relatively recently, in 1912. Alton Barnes with Shaw, on the other hand, has had a much longer association with the college, being one of the first estates to be provided by the Founder for his new foundation in Oxford when it became part of the college’s endowment in 1385. As with many of the college’s estates, the �㽶ֱ�� archive is rich with documents recording both the process of it becoming part of that endowment, and also something of the back story of its existence before then.

The earl of Salisbury’s counterseal, used by William Montagu (1328–1397), 2nd earl of Salisbury
�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA 10039 [detail]

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

20NCN3 (2023) Stansfield on Alton Barnes.pdf405.67 KB

Some Benefactors and their Heraldry

Christopher — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:21:40 +0000

Some Benefactors and their Heraldry

Patric Dickinson

Issue number

(2023): 19

Notes category

It is a commonplace that many of the coats of arms on display in Oxford colleges commemorate past benefactors. �㽶ֱ�� is no exception, and in fact is particularly rich in heraldry that celebrates those who have contributed to its material wellbeing. This has been the case throughout its history, but the purpose of this Note is to take a look at some of the armorial additions that have been made to its fabric since the mid-19th century.

�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA 2429

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

19NCN7 (2023) Dickinson on Benefactors and Heraldry.pdf1.62 MB

A Library about �㽶ֱ��: Noteworthy Acquisitions in 2022

Christopher — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 23:59:07 +0000

A Library about �㽶ֱ��: Noteworthy Acquisitions in 2022

Christopher Skelton-Foord

Issue number

(2022): 18

Notes category

Library Antiquarian

Archives

Colleges of St Mary Winton Collection

Winchester College

�㽶ֱ�� history

George Isaac Huntingford

James Ian Arbuthnot Frazer

Sir Jonathan Trelawny, third baronet

Lord Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, third Baron Montagu of Beaulieu

Theodore Wratislaw

Fernando Leal Audirac

Alice Oswald

Ensuring through collection building that New College Library is a library about as well as for college is one of the librarian’s many rewarding responsibilities. As we seek to enrich our collections and to preserve our institutional history, 2022 has seen important purchases and donations: of books written by alumni past, of items associated with our college and our partner Wykehamist foundation Winchester College, as well as of books penned by celebrated fiction writers and poets of �㽶ֱ�� presently writing.

Fernando Leal Audirac, The End of the Known World (Milan, 2022)
New College Library, Oxford, NC/SKE Oversize

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

18NCN12 (2022) Skelton-Foord on Acquisitions in 2022.pdf962.7 KB

�㽶ֱ�� School Archive

Christopher — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 23:41:13 +0000

�㽶ֱ�� School Archive

Michael Stansfield

Issue number

(2022): 18

Notes category

�㽶ֱ�� School

Archives

�㽶ֱ�� history

For much of the history of �㽶ֱ�� School, dating back to the foundation of �㽶ֱ�� itself in 1379, recourse has to be made to the main archive of �㽶ֱ��. What has now been taken into the �㽶ֱ�� Archive to join the rest of the college’s collection, as of October 2022, is material that largely reflects and recounts the development of the school in the last century or so of its existence.

�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA NCS/FB3/2

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

18NCN11 (2022) Stansfield on �㽶ֱ�� School Archive.pdf616.97 KB

Identifying the ‘Revd. Robt. Lowth’ in J. Sturges’s Letter to Mr. Cadell

Christopher — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 21:39:57 +0000

Identifying the ‘Revd. Robt. Lowth’ in J. Sturges’s Letter to Mr. Cadell

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade

Issue number

(2022): 18

Notes category

All four of the published books by bishop and biblical critic Robert Lowth (1710–1787) are part of New College Library’s outstanding Keynes Collection, and, amazingly, in multiple editions and reprints, posthumous ones included. There are as many as 31 copies of his grammar, 13 each of De sacra poesi and Isaiah, and four copies of William of Wykeham. But the Keynes Collection contains much more than these and similar books, and one particular if mysterious little gem is an undated letter by J. Sturges addressed to ‘Mr. Cadell, Strand, London’.

�㽶ֱ�� Archives, Oxford, NCA 803

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

18NCN7 (2022) Tieken-Boon van Ostade on Sturges’s Letter.pdf370.93 KB

Chasing Somervile, �㽶ֱ��’s Poet of the Hunt

Christopher — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 21:01:16 +0000

Chasing Somervile, �㽶ֱ��’s Poet of the Hunt

Christopher Skelton-Foord

Issue number

(2022): 18

Notes category

The two principal passions in the life of William Somervile (1675–1742) appear to have been hunting and poetry, which together combined in his most celebrated work, the four-volume hunting georgic poem The Chace (1735). Somervile was schooled in Stratford-upon-Avon, and thereafter Winchester College, before proceeding to �㽶ֱ��, where he later became a fellow. New College Library’s holdings of his works are extensive, varied, and remarkable.

New College Library, Oxford, NB.66.33

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

18NCN6 (2022) Skelton-Foord on Somervile.pdf781.82 KB