Gonville And Caius College

GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE was originally Gonville Hall and was founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, Rector of Terrington in Norfolk, in Lurteburge or Luthburne-now Free School-Lane, on the south of the present old court of Corpus Christi College; but the College was soon moved to its present site, or, rather, to the site of its third court, which is still called "Gonville Court," the scholars being first placed in the houses of John Goldcorne and Sir John de Cambridge.

This court, which for two centuries constituted the College, and was in the Medieval Gothic style, was gradually completed by the aid of benefactors from time to time so as to have the essential features of a College, viz., a quadrangle with Hall, Chapel, Library, Master's and other lodgings.

The College was re-founded by Dr. John Caius, in 1557. This eminent and learned man, born at Norwich, was a fellow of Gonville Hall, and became, for a year or two, principal of Physwick Hostel, which was then attached to Gonville College.

He was physician to Edward VI., Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. He was also nine times president of the College of Physicians, and there introduced the cushion, the silver caduceus, and the book and seal, as ensigns of the president's authority.

There are a similar caduceus and a cushion in Caius College, which, together with book of statutes, a salver and cushion, were first used by Dr. Caius on Lady Day, 1558, then presented to the college, and have ever since been in its possession.

At the request of Henry VIII., he delivered lectures on anatomy for the instruction of the surgeons in London, and continued to do so for twenty years. Indeed, he may be said to have introduced the study of practical anatomy into England; and he made special provisions for its study in Caius College.

The number of works which he wrote or edited amounts to thirty-four, a history of the University of Cambridge being one of them. He was master of the College and had many rough experiences at the hands of the younger fellows, from 1559-1573; but he took no stipend or emolument. He was buried in the Chapel.

Dr. Caius largely endowed this College, extended the site by purchasing adjacent land and tenements, and, in 1565, built the middle court, the design of which he is said to have brought back with him from Padua.

The character, however, which is a combination of Medieval and Renaissance, does not savour of Italian conception. The only architect mentioned in the College records is Theodore Haveus. of Cleves; but his share in the building is uncertain.

In the construction of his court Dr. Caius followed out an elaborate symbolism. The entrance gate (opposite St. Michael's Church) was called the "Gate of Humility," it indicates the spirit in which a student was to approach his work; this was removed when the new building in Trinity Street was erected, and now gives access from the master's garden to the lecture-rooms, built in 1884, at the south-west corner of the College.

The second gate - "an elegant specimen of Elizabethan classical style" (Willis) - was called the "Gate of Virtue," to indicate the necessity for purity of life, without which the student would never attain honour in the University or in the world.

The third gate (then facing the ancient "Schools Street," but now facing the Senate House), through which the student passed to the schools to receive his degree, was called the "Gate of Honour." It is a curious and pretty structure, in classical style, and was covered with delicate symbolical ornaments, some of which have crumbled off. It is hexagonal above, and square below; and originally a sun-dial was placed upon each of the six surfaces.

The second gate, connecting this middle court with the first court, is sometimes called the "Gate of Wisdom," but this name has no authority. It is due to the fact that the inscription JOHANNES CAIUS POSVIT SAPIENTIAE., which Dr. Caius placed upon the foundation stone of the College, has been repeated on the western face of the gate.

Most wisely he directed the south side of his court to be left open for ventilation and light "lest the air, from being confined in a narrow space, should become foul."

The first court, which presents a fine frontage to King's Parade, is built of Ancaster stone, and was erected in 1868. The architect was Mr. Waterhouse, who also added the apse to the chapel.

The Hall is entered from the third or Gonville Court. It is in Jacobean style, and was built, together with the combination room and adjacent part of the College, after designs by Salvin, in 1853. It is a fine room 75 ft. by 36, and contains portraits of Caius, Dr. Wm. Harvey, Dr. Samuel Clarke, Dr. Parr, Bishop Jeremy Taylor and Bishop Mackenzie.

The Chapel, entered by the archway into the third court, where also is the entrance to the master's lodge, contains the monument before-mentioned to Caius, as well as monuments to Drs. Perse and Legge.

The Library, approached by the hall-staircase contains hundreds of manuscripts, including several Greek manuscripts, and the Caius collection of manuscripts in Greek and Latin and a collection of Greek, Roman and British Coins.

Dr. Wm. Harvey, the discoverer (in the West) of the exact method of the circulation of the blood, and more particularly of the motive force of the heart, was a member of this College. His celebrated treatise on the "Motion of the Heart and Blood" was published in 1628, when he was fifty. He died in 1657, in his eightieth year. A portrait of him is in the hall, a second in the combination room, and a third-said to be by Rembrandt-in the master's lodge.

Famous alumni include Nobel prize winners Francis Crick and Milton Friedman, and Stephen Hawking the theoretical physicist and Lucasian Professor.

Website: Gonville And Caius