Sectional Preface: Authorities

Authorities

In the following Inventory, in addition to the printed sources and miscellaneous primary sources, for which references are given, extensive use has been made of two MSS. collections, Cole and Bowtell, and of engraved maps and views by Hamond, Loggan, Custance, and Baker.

William Cole, M.A., F.S.A. (1714–82), the Cambridge antiquary, known latterly as Cole of Milton made manuscript collections,' my only delight—they are my wife and children—they have been, in short, my whole employ and amusement', towards a History of Cambridgeshire, 'with an oblique or transient view of an Athenae Cantabrigiensis'. Nearly a hundred folio volumes in his own writing are in the Additional Manuscripts in the British Museum (see Index to the Add. MSS., with those of the Egerton Collection, acquired in the years 1783–1835, London, 1849; for Cole's own Indexes in the Museum, Add. MSS. 5799– 801). He was buried in St. Clement's church, see Monument (7) there.

John Bowtell (1753–1813), Cambridge topographer, bookbinder and stationer, compiled a manuscript history of the town. He bequeathed large sums to the churches of Holy Trinity and St. Michael, and to Addenbrooke's Hospital; the governors of the Hospital subsequently commemorated him in St. Michael's, see Monument (9) there. His MSS. are in Downing College Library and the University Library (Anderson Room Add. MSS. 3331, 3332).

John Hamond, probably of Clare Hall and M.A. 1579, drafted a combined map and bird's-eye view of Cambridge 'reduced to the true sites by means of measurements tested with far greater accuracy than heretofore', which was engraved by Augustin Ryther and Peter Muser and issued in 1592. Only one damaged copy and a seventh part of another are known to survive; both are in the Bodleian Library. This comparatively early and accurate delineation is an invaluable aid to the architectural history of Cambridge. It is described in detail in R. Willis and J. W. Clark, The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, etc. (Cambridge, 1886), I, ci–civ, and J. W. Clark and A. Gray, Old Plans of Cambridge 1574–1798, etc. (Cambridge, 1921), 23–129, and reproduced in the Portfolio accompanying the latter.

David Loggan (1635–1700?), artist and engraver, was of Danzig (Gedanensis). After some years in England he became naturalised in 1675, a year before his first Cambridge commission, the printing of Wren's design for Trinity College Library. His Cantabrigia Illustrata was published in 1690, a work that had been in progress since 1676; it includes inter alia a map dated 1688 and twenty-six views of Cambridge, being complementary to his Oxonia Illustrata dated 1675. The clarity and accuracy of the engravings 'enables one to walk into the quadrangles of the colleges, and discover their style of architecture. Every detail of the buildings, the courts, and the gardens is carefully noted, so that they present not merely a record of the architecture, but of the life of the period'. Copies of the engravings are quite easily available and Cantabrigia Illustrata was reproduced in 1905 (J. W. Clark, Reproduction of Loggan's Plans, edited with a Life, Introduction and Historical and descriptive notes).

William Custance of Chesterton was a surveyor and builder. His survey, engraved by J. Russell, A New Plan of the University and Town of Cambridge to the Present Year, 1798, published in that year, is copied from Loggan's plan of 1688 but brought up to date. It is reproduced in the Portfolio accompanying J. W. Clark and A. Gray Old Plans of Cambridge 1574–1798, etc. (Cambridge, 1921).

Richard Grey Baker published his New Map of the University and Town of Cambridge in 1830. It was prepared from 'actual survey', engraved by J. Dower, and sold by the 'proprietors R. G. Baker, Earith, Hunts., and T. Stevenson, Cambridge'. Of various copies, one is in the British Museum (Maps. 1660 (1)), five are in the University Library (Maps 53.83.1).

Also for 19th-century development the Cambridge Chronicle has provided much information. This local newspaper was begun in 1762 and appeared weekly until 1934 when incorporated in the Cambridge Independent Press. A complete run is in the University Library under press-mark NPR. Further, a lithograph by George Scharf (1788–1860) depicting the Coronation Dinner of 1838 on Parker's Piece (R. Ackermann, London) provides information regarding several of the houses in that area; though an ephemeral publication, several copies exist in Cambridge, one in the University Library under press-mark VIEWS bb. 53 (2).83.3.