Special Thomas Smith Day in the Old Library featuring 16th-century bookbinding workshops and talks by Andrew Zurcher (Queens’) and Scott Mandelbrote (Peterhouse)
On Saturday 28th October, Queens’ Old Library presented a ‘Thomas Smith Day’ which accompanied its current exhibition, ‘Books and Power in Tudor England: The Renaissance Library of Sir Thomas Smith (1513-77)’. The well-attended and successful event formed part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas.
The morning was dedicated to two workshops on bookbinding in Tudor Cambridge. Organised with the Cambridge Colleges’ Conservation Consortium (CCCC), the workshops started with an introduction by College Librarian Tim Eggington on Tudor bindings, followed by a show-and-tell of some fascinating examples found on the shelves of the Old Library. Next, Bridget Warrington from CCCC explained the sixteenth-century process of making a book, before attendees tried their hands at sewing and decorating, helped by Queens’ and CCCC staff members.
In the afternoon, two talks were hosted in the Erasmus Room on the subject of ‘Reading books in 16th century Cambridge’. Scott Mandelbrote, Fellow, Director of Studies in History, and Perne Librarian at Peterhouse, gave an illuminating paper on the libraries of Thomas Smith and Andrew Perne. Andrew Zurcher, Fellow, Director of Studies in English and great helper of Queens’ Old Library followed with ‘The third way: Thomas Smith, Peculiar Gain and Common Profit’, a fascinating examination of Smith’s writings on politics and economics. Following the talks, attendees were invited to visit the Old Library exhibition, ‘Books and Power in Tudor England’, where they encountered many of the books belonging to Smith that the two speakers had mentioned in their presentations.
‘Books and Power in Tudor England’ is open for an extra week until Friday 3 November, on weekdays, 1.30-3.30pm (late opening on Thursday 2 November until 7pm). The final 15-minute curator’s talk will take place on Wednesday at 1.30pm.
More information: queensoldlibrary.org/events