Wren Library, University of Cambridge, the United Kingdom

The Wren Library is the library of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, the United Kingdom. It was designed by the architect Christopher Wren in 1676 and completed in 1695.

The Thammasat University Library collection includes many books published by the Cambridge University Press, the oldest university press in the world.

The library is a single large room built over an open colonnade on the ground floor. It is considered one of the first libraries to be built with large windows to give comfortable light levels for readers.

The book stacks are arranged in rows perpendicular to the walls under the intervals between the windows. At the end of each stack is a fine limewood carving by Grinling Gibbons, and above these are plaster cast busts of notable writers through the ages.

On the east balustrade of the library’s roof are four statues representing Divinity, Law, Physic (medicine), and Mathematics.

The library contains many notable rare books and manuscripts, many bequeathed by past members of the college.

Included in the collection are

• Isaac Newton’s first edition copy of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica with handwritten notes for the second edition.
• Isaac Newton’s (1659–61) Notebook
• About 1250 medieval manuscripts, including the great 12th-century Eadwine Psalter from Christ Church, Canterbury and the 13th-century Anglo-Norman Trinity Apocalypse.
• Milne’s manuscript of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.
• A collection of autograph poems by John Milton.
• A 14th-century manuscript of The Vision of Piers Plowman.
• Several works printed by William Caxton, including the first book printed in English and the first dated printed book produced in England.
• Several notebooks written by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
• Handwritten notes by Robert Oppenheimer describing the “Trinity” atomic bomb test in New Mexico, U.S.

In early 2014 the library began a major program of digitization. To date, over 160 of the 1250 medieval manuscripts owned by the College have been digitized and are freely available to read online. A link to the list of digitized manuscripts can be found here.

Some of them are considered among the most beautiful examples of manuscript illumination in the world.

The University of Cambridge and Thailand

As the website of The Cambridge Thai Foundation (CTF) Under the Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen states,

The Cambridge Thai Foundation (CTF) Under the Patronage of Her Majesty the Queen was established in 1990 with the mission of providing scholarships to Thai students for study at Cambridge University. Scholarships are provided, without obligation, to selected students pursuing Bachelor, Master’s or Doctorate degrees.

The 800 year old university ranked as the world’s top university in 2010.  Cambridge has historical ties with students from Siam dating back a century ago when H.R.H. Prince Chudadhuj Dharadilok and Khromkhun Bajaraboon-intarachai became the first Siamese students. They eventually  returned to serve the country in their chosen careers.

The establishment of the CTF has offered a new option to Thai students who wish to study at Cambridge. From the outset, the Foundation was associated with the Cambridge Overseas Trust (COT).  The COT, now the Cambridge Trust, was founded by the university in 1989 to support international students from countries outside the EU and the Commonwealth. For Thai students selected by the CTF, the COT pays part of the scholarship and bursary costs with the CTF making up the balance. Between 1990 and 2010, some 105 CTF-supported Thai scholars have been supported, mostly with postgraduate degrees.

About Us

The Cambridge Thai Foundation – How it all began

By Dr. Sumet Jumsai

A close friend and contemporary at St. John’s College and Deputy Minister of Finance of Malaysia at the time turned up in Bangkok in 1989. This was the late Alex Lee. We had long chats together during the course of which I complained that when I went back to teach at the Department of Architecture that year, there was not a single Thai student left at the University. Alex then told me that he and his Cantab friends in Malaysia had set up the Cambridge Malaysia Trust which managed to get some 30 students into Cambridge every year. The same arrangement and number of students also applied in the case of tiny Singapore. I asked him how it was done: he gave his advice accordingly, and after returning to Malaysia, sent me additional information.  Based on this I went to see M.R. Sarisdiguna Kitiyakara (Magdalene and my senior by a year) and said we should do something about it.

Khun Chai took up the idea immediately and suggested that we go and discuss the matter with Khun Anand Panyarachun, KBE (Trinity and our senior by several years) with the hidden agenda of asking him to be Chairman of the trust that we had in mind.

Thus was born The Cambridge Thai Foundation (CTF) in 1990. Her Majesty the Queen was then invited to become Patron with the result that, with the Queen’s most gracious consent, CTF is under the Patronage of Her Majesty.

In 1990, I was back teaching again in Cambridge and had the occasion to be in touch on a personal level with Dr. Anil Seal, Director of The Cambridge Overseas Trust (COT) under the Patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales. On the Thai side the person who actually negotiated terms and conditions with COT was Dr. Chris Baker, a founding member of CTF and a former Fellow of Queen’s College. Due to his hard bargaining, CTF shares half of the funding with COT while the latter would automatically find places in the Colleges for the Thai scholars. What it means in real terms is that the CTF Scholarship is the cheapest scholarship for universities in the West – let alone for the world’s top university!

The most difficult part of the work, however, was how to raise funds locally! That arduous task fell to Khun Anand almost exclusively. Due to him CTF has been able to accumulate a good sum, the interest from which has enabled so many Thais to be sent up to Cambridge. This is not to belittle the role of other founding members of CTF, all of whom have worked very hard to get as many bright young Thais into the University, including an early member of the CTF Board, the late Christian Adams, the then British Ambassador, who was an Oxonian! ( I remember telling him, and the late M.L. Birabhongse Kasemsri, another Oxonian, that an Oxford Thai Foundation should also be set up and become associated with CTF).

To this day (2010) 105 Thai students have been awarded the CTF Scholarship, with two full scholarships and five bursaries on average annually. Compared with Malaysia and Singapore, this is minimal. But we can claim that from now on there would be no more break in the Thai Cantab continuity. More important still, we can claim, beyond all other claims in the region (although I will always remain indebted to Alex) that we have the exceptional historical link with the University in the august person of His Majesty King Chulalongkorn who was a recipient of the Cambridge Honorary Doctorate Degree in 1907.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)