The Old Library of St John's College, Cambridge is home to a hugely important collection of printed books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, furniture, busts, paintings and other artefacts, the work of writers, craftsmen and artists active across more than one thousand years.

The Library Treasures of St John's College, Cambridge offers a lavishly illustrated introduction to the diversity and richness of that collection. It demonstrates something particularly important about St John's College Library, and about libraries in many other Cambridge Colleges: that besides meeting the academic needs of present-day Fellows and students, they also care for museum and archival collections of national and international importance: the essential primary materials and sources sought after by scholars across the world.