Founded in 1284, Peterhouse is the University of Cambridge's oldest college. Its stated objective was to forward the study of theology,and before the Reformation it was a small community comprising a master and fourteen scholars.And yet by the late Middle Ages it had built up a substantial reference library. Today the college collection contains 277 manuscripts, almost all of which were at the College before the reformation, geared to the European university curriculum of the late middle ages.
