TREASURES OF THE LIBRARY PODCAST: Dr Christine McGladdery on the Statutes of St Leonard’s College
In the summer of 2013, the University Library set out to capture the reactions of academic and library staff when encountering their favourite items from the Special Collections Division. For this project, authors for articles for Treasures of St Andrews University Library (London, 2010) were asked to speak about the item or collection they highlighted in this publication.
In this podcast, Dr Christine McGladdery, from the School of History, talks about the Statutes of St Leonard’s College. St Leonards College was founded within the University of St Andrews in 1512, with a close association with St Andrews Cathedral Priory, in a pre-reformation attempt to improve clerical education. These rules for the regulation of life within the College were promulgated in 1544 (replacing and expanding an earlier code, now lost). Offering a rare insight into the life of the medieval University, they describe not only the daily routine of devotion and study, but also the minutiae of daily life – diet, dress, formal and recreational behaviour both within and outwith the college, and performance of chores, as well as the unbending (and sometimes violent) discipline to which the members of the college were subject. This remarkable record “demonstrates how the University’s rich collegiate archives can illuminate for us the personal and institutional lives of our academic ancestors.”
The article written by Dr McGladdery about this item is to be found on pp. 78-79 of Treasures of St Andrews University Library (London, 2010). This short video is one of several which have been made based on the book. The entire set, which will be added to periodically, is available on the University of St Andrews Library YouTube channel.
[…] on show were the 1544 Statutes of St Leonard’s College (UYSL165/2), which describe not only the daily routine of devotion and study, but also the minutiae […]