Gonville and Caius College Archive

The eight volumes of The Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College give an entry for each individual member of the College up to 1984 The life of one individual may span more than one volume, it is therefore worth checking the indexes of subsequent volumes for updates. The Archive holds an interleaved, annotated set of the Biographical History which often has additional information about medieval and early modern members. The information given in the Biographical History is given in slightly variant form in J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses; and for members pre-1500 A.B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500 has largely superseded Venn. Volume III of the Biographical History consists of a history of each mastership up to 1880, together with an examination of the history of buildings, College records, traditions, benefactions and possessions. Volume IV includes an estate chronicle which details the history of College owned properties, livings and manors.

John Venn published the first history of Caius College as part of the University of Cambridge College Histories series in 1901 (this was reprinted by CUP in 1923) which largely mirrors his work for Volume III of the Biographical History. This has been updated and amended by Christopher Brooke, History of Gonville and Caius College, 2nd edition (Boydell, 1997). This is an overview, but is very well footnoted and refers across to other sources of information.

A collection level guide to the Archive was prepared for submission to the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 2001. Electronic copies of this publication are available from the Archive on request.