The Fellows’ Library has an exceptionally wide-ranging collection with many areas of strength. At the core of the library are extensive holdings of theology, history and classical literature, mostly acquired in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In the second half of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, the contents of the library became more diverse through gifts and bequests of scientific books, English and foreign literature, and examples of early printing.
The library continues to grow through gifts, bequests and occasional purchases. Two important gifts in the twentieth century added new areas of strength: the Box collection of English road books and maps, and the Eccles collection of artists’ books.
The library is open to researchers by appointment. For more information or to make an appointment, please contact the Fellows’ Librarian. Items from the collection are often on public exhibition in Treasury, the school’s museum, and tours of the library are offered during Heritage Open Days each September.
To make an appointment to visit the library, please contact the Fellows’ Librarian.
– 41 medieval manuscripts and 52 incunabula (books printed before 1501).
– Early printed books, including c. 900 editions from the 16th century and 2,000 from the 17th century.
– Early maps and geographical texts, and the Box Collection of English road books.
The main catalogue of Fellows’ Library is hosted on the JISC Library Hub. To search our holdings, go to ‘Advanced Search’ and choose ‘Winchester College’ from the list of libraries. Please see below for a further list of catalogues.
In addition to our main catalogue on the JISC Library Hub, you can also view our medieval manuscripts online here.
In addition, details of the Fellows’ Library can be found in the following resources:
– Detailed records of our incunabula (books printed before 1501) are currently being added to the Material Evidence in Incunabula database.
– Records for most of our early English books (1485-1700) may be found in the Electronic Short Title Catalogue:
The Fellows’ Library has also shared information with the following bibliographical databases:
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain
The Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts
The British Armorial Bindings Database
The Iberian Books Project
For further information, please contact the Fellows’ Librarian.
The Fellows’ Library has a long and well-documented history. Most of the collection was assembled between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but it includes books acquired by the school in almost every decade since its foundation. The library was established for the use of the Warden and Fellows, who formed the governing body of the College and lived on site.
While schoolmasters and chaplains seem also to have had access to the Fellows’ Library from an early date, it remained separate from the school itself. It therefore has more in common with the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge colleges than with those of most other schools. Only in the twentieth century did pupils at Winchester begin to make regular use of the collections.
