Cambridge Digital Library

Treasures of the Library

Many items within the Library’s collections deserve to be highlighted. This may be because of their historical importance, uniqueness, beauty, fascinating content, or perhaps their personal associations. In this special collection within the Cambridge Digital Library we will draw together books, manuscripts and other items from across our collections that are especially significant. Many of them have been displayed in Library exhibitions in the past – now they can be accessed at any time, from anywhere in the world, and browsed cover to cover.

Newton Papers

Cambridge University Library is pleased to present the first items in its Foundations of Science collection: a selection from the Papers of Sir Isaac Newton. The Library holds the most important and substantial collection of Newton's scientific and mathematical manuscripts and over the next few months we intend to make most of our Newton papers available on this site.

This first release features some of Newton's most important work from the 1660s, including his college notebooks and 'Waste Book'.

Islamic Manuscripts

Cambridge University Library has released the first items in its Foundations of Faith collection: a selection of Islamic manuscripts from its Near and Middle Eastern Department. The Library's collection of Islamic manuscripts began in the 1630s and has since grown substantially in its size and diversity. It now contains more than 5,000 works.

Our initial selection includes several important early Qur'ans.

The Cairo Genizah Collection

The Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library is the world's largest and most important single collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts.

For a thousand years, the Jewish community of Fustat (Old Cairo), placed their worn-out books and other writings in a storeroom (genizah) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, and in 1896–97 the Cambridge scholar, Dr Solomon Schechter, arrived to examine it. He received permission from the Jewish community of Egypt to take away what he liked, and he brought 193,000 manuscripts back to Cambridge.