Subject strengths: Classics, Literature

Kepier Grammar School was opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1574 and closed in 1933. The books from its library consist mainly of seventeenth and eighteenth-century works on classics and theology. As well as the classical authors (Euclid, Homer, Cicero, Tacitus, Plutarch, Xenophon et al.), many of the stock authors of the Eighteenth Century are represented: David Hume, Tobias Smollett, Joseph Addison, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, George Lyttleton, Jonathan Swift, Matthew Prior, Alexander Pope and (from the Seventeenth Century) John Locke. Several volumes bear the bookplate of Thomas Griffith, whilst one of the school's governors, Ralph Robinson, presented sixty six volumes to the school in 1742. Valerius Maximus' Cum commento Oliuerii Arzignanensis Vicentini (1500) contains the inscriptions of several former pupils with the dictum: “when you see this remember me“.

 

Collection Name and Collection Reference Code:

Collection Name: Kepier Grammar School Collection

Library Search Collection Ref Code: K

Date Range of Material

1602 - 1840

Type of Material

Rare book collection

Size of Collection

37 Linear Metres of shelving 

How To Order Items From This Collection

The books within this collection are described within the Newcastle University Library Search and can be ordered directly from the catalogue.

This link to the Library Search will show a list of all the items within the collection. Please note this link is available to members of the public as well as University staff and students.

You can then place your order by linking to our Request Form. 

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If you are unable to visit our reading room, we also have a virtual reading room service and a digitisation service. 

Other Resources

There is an article on the school and its library by R.W. Ramsey in Archaeologia Aeliana, Ser. 3, vol. 3, 1907, pp.306-333.