Cambridge University Library uses free online gallery to show off its oldest treasures

Cambridge University Library has a new way of showing off its oldest treasures. It has partnered with Google to add to a free online gallery.

The pictures include the library's oldest written artefact- a four thousand year old clay tablet and a notebook used by Sir Isaac Newton.

From the 31st August, audiences across the globe will be able to explore some of the treasures of Cambridge University Library on the Google Arts and Culture platform. It's the first institution from the University of Cambridge to join the platform and is alongside the British Museum, Rijksmuseum and the White House, among many others, who share their collections freely, and openly, with the world.

The 'Treasures of Cambridge University Library' gallery will bring together manuscripts, books and other objects of importance for anyone to see. All of the artefacts have been collected throughout the library's 600-year history.

One of the stand-out objects in the library’s collection is a hand-coloured copy of Vesalius’ Epitome, a companion to his De humani corporis fabrica, published in 1543 and one of the most important books in the history of anatomy.

Vesalius used woodcuts of the human body to promote his idea that dissection was integral to the study of anatomy. Google Arts and Culture users can also dive further into the teaching of anatomy with George Stubbs’s illustrations of the skeleton and musculature of the horse from 1766.

Cambridge University Library will continue to add more objects and treasures to the platform in the coming months and is expected to be joined by the Fitzwilliam Museum and other University of Cambridge institutions.