Treasures of Silver at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

by Oliver Rackham, John Cleaver (Photographer)

This is an account of the unique assemblage of silver and silver-mounted artefacts belonging to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, some of them dating back to the College's foundation 650 years ago. They include extraordinary objects such as a thirteenth-century drinking vessel made of the horn of an extinct animal, as well as the everyday tools and utensils of past centuries. Although some of them are well known to art historians, they have never been published in detail. The objects are especially significant for being documented in the College's archives from the fourteenth century onwards. The book investigates the objects' construction, how the College came by them, their original meaning and context, how they came to survive the depredations of the Civil War, what happened to those that do not survive, evidence of wear and repair, and what they were (and still are) used for.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 5, 2002

About the author

Oliver Rackham OBE FBA was an English academic who studied the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and wood pasture, Rackham wrote a number of books, including The History of the Countryside (1986) and one on Hatfield Forest. He also studied and published extensively on the ecology of Crete, Greece.

In 1998 he was awarded the OBE for "services to Nature Conservation". In 2006 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Historical Ecology in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge.

He was a Life Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and Keeper of the College Records. On 15 October 2007 Rackham was elected Master of Corpus Christi College until 1 October 2008.