Binding stamp of Sir Peter Manwood (1571-1625)

The arms of Sir Peter Manwood, judge, antiquary and M.P. for Sandwich, appear stamped in gilt on a volume of 1600, Samuel Lewkenor's .

Annotations of John Locke (1632-1704)

Annotations to a copy of John Sergeant's (1697) in the hand of John Locke, the empiricist philosopher. Locke replies to Sergeant's criticisms of his system referring to himself in the third person. For further information see John W.

Bookplate of David Hume (1711-1776)

Bookplate of the Scottish historian and philosopher David Hume in one of two composite volumes of miscellaneous works belonging to him, now in St John's Library.

Donated by Herbert Somerton Foxwell.

Bookplate of Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721)

Two volumes in the Library bear the bookplate of Pierre-Daniel Huet, scholar, scientist and Bishop of Avranches, whose attacks on the rationalism of Descartes made him a leading proponent of fideism.

Signature of William Gilbert (1540-1603)

Autograph of William Gilbert, royal physician and author of a in which he coined the term 'electricity', here latinized as "Guil. Gylberde" on the title-page of an (1562).

Bookplate of Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)

Bookplate of the historian and author of The decline and fall of the Roman Empire from a copy of Walter Harte's (1759). See Geoffrey Keynes, The library of Edward Gibbon, 1940, p. 145 for further details.

Dedicatory inscription by Robert Fludd (1574-1637)

The first volume of the Library's copy of Robert Fludd's (1617-1621) bears a dedicatory inscription to by Fludd himself.

Books owned by John Dee

The Elizabethan polymath, humanist and spiritualist , who studied at St John's, amassed a huge library of at least 3,000 printed volumes, as well as a large number of manuscripts, which he initially housed in his residence at Mortlake. Almost as soon as he departed for Poland to embark on that period of his life which caused most controversy, his communications with spirits, his house was raided and many books were stolen.

Gold-stamped arms of Sir Walter Chetwynd (1633-1693)

The gold-stamped arms of Sir Walter Chetwynd, historian of Staffordshire and antiquary, from a copy of Aristotle's (London, 1619).

Autographs of Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603) and Hugh Broughton (1549-1612)

The autographs of Thomas Cartwright, puritan controversialist, and Hugh Broughton, divine and Hebraic scholar, who both studied at St John's and became Fellows of the College, from the front fly-leaf of an edition of Hesychius' (1521), which also has a contemporary blind-stamped binding.

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