Annual Report of the Committee to the Friends of Cambridge University Library 2008–2009
President: Professor D. J. McKitterick.
Patron members: Mr T. Aoi, Mr J. P. W. Ehrman, Dr G. E. Moore, Mr and Mrs J. Potter, and Dr L. Rausing.
Benefactor members: Mr H. S. Barlow, Mr J. H. Brandi, Mr J. J. G. Brown, Dr D. Cohen, Mr G. Combs, Major and Mrs P. G. Cox, Mr P. Durie, Ms E. Eligator, Mrs E. M. Fairclough, Mr N. Farrow, The Hon. Mr S. Evans-Freke, Mr R. Gidoomal, Dr E. S. Leedham-Green, Mr G. F. Hart, Sir Kirby and Lady Laing, Professor J. Marrow, Mrs J. E. Mellor, Mr R. Menschel, Mr J. W. Needham, Dr P. Outen, Dr E. Rose, Dr R. D. Sansom, Lady Scott, Dr W. Stanners, Lord Tugendhat and Mr D. L. Walker.
The aims and management of the Friends
As stated in Clause 1 of the Friends’ Constitution, the aim of the Friends of Cambridge University Library is to advance the education of the public in particular by supporting and furthering the charitable work of Cambridge University Library. In furtherance of this aim but not further or otherwise the Friends may:
(i) raise funds for the purchase and conservation of printed manuscript and other material important for research, provided that the Friends shall not undertake any form of permanent trading in seeking to raise funds;
(ii) help the Library to acquire such additions by gift or bequest;
(iii) raise funds for and otherwise support such charitable projects undertaken by the Library as the Committee shall deem appropriate.
The activities recorded in this report are those undertaken in order to carry out the Friends’ aims for the public benefit.
The affairs of the Friends are conducted by a Committee ordinarily consisting of a President, Secretary, Treasurer and not less than nine nor more than fifteen other members. The President, the Secretary and the Treasurer are elected annually and other members of the Committee for terms of three years renewable for a second term but not thereafter until the lapse of two years. These elections take place at the Annual General Meeting, held during the Michaelmas Term of the academic year, and any member of the Friends, if duly seconded, may stand for election to any post. The Committee may additionally and on its own authority annually co-opt up to two members of whose skills or expertise it wishes to make use.
The Committee
The members of the Committee on 31 July 2009 were: Professor D. J. McKitterick (President), Mrs P. Aske (Membership Secretary), Dr C. de Hamel, Professor B. J. Ford, Dr E. S. Leedham-Green, Mr D. J. Hall, Dr G. Johnson, Professor J. Marrow, Mr A. L. Ray, Dr R. Smith, Ms A. E. M. Taylor, Mr J. D. Wells (Hon. Treasurer and Secretary), Dr J. Whitelock (co-opted), and Mrs J. Winterkorn.
The Committee met three times during the year, on 17 October 2008 and 23 January and 8 May 2009. At the invitation of the Committee, Mr R. Gaskell attended the meeting on 23 January 2009. At the Annual General Meeting on 22 November 2008 Professor P. Cartledge, Mr R. Gaskell and Dr A. M. Nicholls, having come to the end of terms on the Committee, stood down. Mr P. K. Fox resigned from the Committee on retirement from his post of University Librarian on 31 March 2009. Mrs A. E. Jarvis attended the meeting on 8 May 2009 in her capacity as University Librarian.
On 31 July 2009 the Financial Panel of the Committee consisted of the President, the Hon. Treasurer, Mrs Aske, Mr Ray and Mrs Winterkorn.
Membership
On 31 July 2009 there were approximately 560 members of the Friends.
Volunteers
Our loyal team of volunteers again staffed the sales desk in the Library’s Entrance Hall, which opened for business on every weekday in the approach to Christmas and on Thursdays throughout the year, excepting January. Members of the same team, assisted by Mr S. Bragg, Mr H. J. Easterling, Professor A. W. F. Edwards and Mr J. van Vuren helped with mailings to the Friends. Mr D. Turnidge has made an important contribution to the work of the Indian Department. The Committee expresses its gratitude to all who have volunteered their services in the past year.
The Friends’ Bulletin
Issue number 29 of the Friends’ Bulletin, for the year 2008, was posted to members in April 2009. Issues of the Library’s Readers’ newsletter have also been distributed to Friends during the year.
Purchases and Donations
The Financial Panel met on 3 June 2009 and considered for purchase a variety of books, music, maps and manuscripts selected and described by members of the Library’s staff. Following a decision made by the Friends’ Committee on 8 May 2009, £10,000 was available to the Panel, with a ceiling of £5,000 for expenditure on any individual item.
The panel bought outright Charles Claude Florent de Thorel de Campigneulles, Le nouvel Abaillard, ou, Lettres d’un singe, au docteur Abadolfs, Aux Indes, et se trouve à Paris, 1763; Historische Beschreibung der vom Anton Maulbertsch… am Bibliotheksgewölbe der königlichen Prämonstratenserordens-Kanonie, am Berge Sion zu Prag, in Jahre 1794…, Prague: Mit Schriften der Witwe Elsenwanger, durch Anton Petzold, Faktor, 1797; Agnes Musgrave, Cicely; or, the rose of Raby, an historical novel, Bishop Auckland: Hollis, 1859; Samuel Beckett, Mac, Paris, 1987, and The image, Paris, [ca 1995]; Bologna Q15: the making and remaking of a musical manuscript [compiled in the Veneto 1420-1435]: introductory study and facsimile edition by Margaret Bent, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2008; Somhairle MacGill-Eain (Sorley MacLean), Hallaig, translated by Seamus Heaney, Dunblane, Stirlingshire: The Sorley MacLean Trust, 2002; Clive Branson, Poems, London: privately printed, 1932; A map of the county of Kent, engraven by Saml. Parker, from The History of Kent by J. Harris, London, 1719; and [Survey of the lakes of Killarney] by Wm. Faden, London: published by Wm. Faden, Geographer to the King, Charing Cross, June 12th, 1786.
As well as these purchases the Panel made contributions towards the purchase of Jacobus Francus [Conrad Memmius], Lutetia restituta: historische kurtze Erzehlung, welcher massen Heinrich 4. König in Franckreich vn[d] zu Nauarra den 22. tag stylo novo, anno 1594. der gewaltigen Hauptstadt Pariss mechtig worden ..., [S.l.: s.n.], 1594; and a collection of Moore family correspondence and papers, ca 1776–1840.
In addition to these decisions of the Panel, donations were received from individual members of the Friends: one from Professor and Mrs A. W. F. Edwards to purchase Serenissimo Regi Carolo, regni anno decimo quarto, cum celsissima principe Katharina, nuptias consummanti... [Oxford: s.n., 1662]; and one from an anonymous donor to purchase Lady [Laura] Mclaren, The women’s charter of rights & liberties, second edition, privately printed, 1909, and William Fletcher, Lord Byron’s illness and death: as described in a letter from William Fletcher (his Lordship’s valet and confidential servant) to The Honorable Augusta Leigh; dated from Missolonghi, April 20th, 1824, Nottingham: for private circulation, for H. C. Derry and Sons Ltd, 1920.
For individual donations of books and other items, and for financial donations, the Committee is grateful to Mr J. J. G. Brown, Mr B. J. and Mrs H. T. Corley, Mr D. J. Hall, Dr P. W. Hawkes, Dr J. D. Pickles, Dr P. Searby, Dr T. P. Underhill, Mr D. L. Walker, Mr J. D. Wells, Mrs D. Wild and Dr P. Woudhuysen. The Committee thanks all Friends, in particular life members, who have made contributions in excess of the basic subscription.
Activities
Three receptions were held in connection with Library exhibitions, to which the Friends, who make a regular contribution towards the costs of the Exhibition Centre, were invited: 'My booke and my selfe': Michel de Montaigne 1533–1592, on 2 September 2008; Advancing by degrees: the University of Cambridge 1209–2009, with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard, on 20 January 2009; and A Voyage Round the World: Charles Darwin and the Beagle Collections in the University of Cambridge, with William Huxley Darwin, on 8 July 2009.
On 23 September 2008 a party of Friends visited the Founder’s Library at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the library at Pembroke College. We are grateful to the librarians, Dr Stella Panayotova and Mrs Aske respectively, for their generous assistance with this event.
The Friends’ programme of speaker meetings began on 4 November 2008 when Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya, Director of the Humanities Interface Project, introduced the project’s work with a talk entitled ‘Digitisation of rare books: twelve years of the HUMI Project, Keio University’. Following the Annual General Meeting on 22 November the poet and translator George Szirtes, whose archive is held in the University Library, gave a talk on the idea of becoming part of a poetic community, ‘The slant door and where it leads’, which was followed by a tour of an exhibition of his work.
On 21 February 2009 Bill Martin and Sandra Mason, co-curators of the exhibition ‘Edward FitzGerald and his Rubaiyat 1809–2009’, marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the bicentenary of FitzGerald’s birth, gave an illustrated talk on ‘FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: 150 years of book publishing and illustration’, which was also followed by a guided tour of the exhibition to which it related. Together with the Friends, Mr Martin and Ms Mason generously helped to organise a reception to celebrate FitzGerald’s 200th birthday on 31st March, with support from the Persian Department of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Readings from poetry and prose by FitzGerald and Omar Khayyam were given by John Drew, Yasmin Faghigi, David Money and John Wells.
On 28 February Professor John Naughton, Director of the Wolfson Press Fellowship Programme in Cambridge, analysed developments in the modern media environment in a talk on ‘Our changing media ecosystem’, and on 10 March Charles Moseley spoke on ‘The exploration of difference: the Travels of Sir John Mandeville and its successors’, examining some of the features of this remarkable book and suggesting reasons for its continuing popularity. The final speaker meeting of the year was held on 2 May, when Margaret Jull Costa, whose translation of The Maias by Eça de Queiroz won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Award and the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize in 2008, discussed the translator’s many ways of being faithful in a talk entitled ‘Translation: is being faithful enough?’
As in the previous year, the Friends’ Financial Panel meeting, held on 3 June, was open to the membership. The books, maps, manuscripts and musical scores under consideration were put on display in the Morison Room, and presentations on the material were made by members of the Library staff.
The Committee thanks all those who have given their time and expertise to support the Friends’ programme of events over the year.
Obituary
We record with regret the deaths of Professor D. S. Brewer, Professor D. H. Green, Mr R. H. Fairclough, Mr C. Harris, Professor I. R. J. Jack, Mr P. I. Lake, Dr W. M. Keynes, Mr A. E. B. Owen, Mr A. R. Pargeter and Miss M. B. Wallis.