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The Wren Library
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College Plan
The
Wren Library was completed in 1695 under the Mastership of Isaac Barrow, who persuaded his friend Sir Christopher Wren to design it. The building work was carried out under the supervision of a local master mason, Robert Grumbold, who chose exterior stone with a pinkish tinge from a quarry in Rutland; the stone catches the evening sun quite beautifully.
The Library has exquisite classical proportions and maximises space and light having bookcases below window level. The first floor is decorated with limewood carving by Grinling Gibbons and furnished with a series of Roubiliac marble busts of College alumni, including naturalist John Ray and his friend Francis Willoughby, Richard Bentley, Francis Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton. At the far end of the library is a statue by Thorvaldsen of Lord Byron. This was originally intended for Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, but was refused; Trinity was glad to accept it.
Manuscripts and printed books are kept in the Wren Library and there is also a modern library and reading room, which are not open to visitors. Some of the College's most notable manuscripts are displayed in the Wren Library, including an eighth century copy of the Epistles of St Paul, John Milton's shorter poems in his own handwriting and the original manuscript of
Winnie-the-Pooh.
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