The Congregational Library - UK

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The Congregational Library - UK The UK Congregational Library was founded in 1831 to encourage study of the Bible and of Dissent.

We are at Westminster College, Cambridge.

It's lecture season! The URC History Society lecture takes place on 2 November this year. Details below.
13/10/2026

It's lecture season! The URC History Society lecture takes place on 2 November this year. Details below.

The Congregational Lecture is happening on Thurs 19 November at The St Bride Foundation: https://conglib.ac.uk/events/20...
08/10/2026

The Congregational Lecture is happening on Thurs 19 November at The St Bride Foundation: https://conglib.ac.uk/events/2026-congregational-lecture/ The Friends of the Library will gather for a tour of St Bride's library treasures at 3pm.

(pic: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). - Own work)

23/09/2026

If you enjoy seeing our digitised manuscripts online, why not try one of our intensive 4-10 day courses in ancient and Biblical languages?
Hebrew, Greek, Coptic, Syriac, Arabic
January 2027
Beginners & Intermediate classes
Details at https://www.westminster.cam.ac.uk/biblical-languages

Our librarian is doing a bit of research into the oldest book we have on the open shelves: a copy of Ludovicus Bologninu...
17/07/2026

Our librarian is doing a bit of research into the oldest book we have on the open shelves: a copy of Ludovicus Bologninus's "Decretalium domini pape Gregorii noni" from 1505 (CL 131.6.8 ). On the title page we have a couple of manicules (WE LOVE MANICULES) and the inscription of a former owner, which we think is as follows:

"Me possident Thomas Yale Domus Coll: Reginae ii

Anno 1548"

If we are correct, this book probably belonged to Thomas Yale, Chancellor and Vicar General to the Archbishop of Canterbury and one of the people responsible for Elizabeth I's education as a girl (see his Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Yale_(chancellor) #). He was closely associated with Queens' College, Cambridge, hence the "Coll: Reginae".

But why the "ii" at the end? We understand some book owners wrote "ii" to denote a second copy of a book. So we are now on a mission to try and work out whether Thomas Yale might have owned more than one copy of this work.

We have contacted Queens' College Library and will be doing some further digging. We will keep you posted on what we find!

For those wondering about the desk situation... I won(Also: it's grey)
16/07/2026

For those wondering about the desk situation... I won

(Also: it's grey)

Boords, boards, and [very old] books: we skipped June by accident, but here is July's monthly update for the Congregatio...
16/07/2026

Boords, boards, and [very old] books: we skipped June by accident, but here is July's monthly update for the Congregational Library! Also includes a little run-down of the LondonRareBooks 2026; more on that to follow in a future blog post. https://conglib.ac.uk/congregational-library-update-june-july-2026/

(pic CL 131.1.5)

Feeling a little bit snowed under with mess! Operation "Find Out What Colour My Desk Actually Is" has therefore begun...
16/07/2026

Feeling a little bit snowed under with mess! Operation "Find Out What Colour My Desk Actually Is" has therefore begun...

Address

Westminster College, Madingley Road
Cambridge
CB30AA

Opening Hours

Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm

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