Old Library

The Old Library is one of the original library buildings standing directly on the Cloister within a math. It is approached from the Scriptorium by a smaller doorway and opens onto the roofed gallery that surrounds the Cloister garden.

Description and Setting

• The stone floor is described as so worn and smooth underfoot that one could navigate by feel alone. It is said to be roughly 2,300 years older than the floor of the New Library, underscoring the antiquity of this structure.
• The doors of the Old Library are singled out as works that consumed the lifetimes of their makers, reflecting the community’s long tradition of careful craft in wood and stone.
• It stands among other key buildings that front the Cloister, including the Refectory and nearby chalk halls.

Relationships and Access

• Internally, a smaller doorway at the far end of the Scriptorium leads directly into the Old Library before one steps out onto the Cloister.
• As part of the built fabric of a Math, it sits within the daily circulation of avout moving between study spaces and the Cloister garden.

Notable Holdings and Use

• Its stacks include very old volumes. A peer retrieved an oversized compendium of papers on a once-fashionable elementary particle theorics trend (popular around 2300–2600 and later disproven by Saunt Fenabrast). The book appeared not to have been handled for roughly eleven centuries and was repurposed to discreetly transport a photomnemonic tablet during a peer-run study effort.

Status

• Present and accessible as part of the Cloister-facing buildings; activities now observed include retrieval and use of long-neglected tomes for current work.