Corpus Christi College, University Of Oxford

Corpus Christi College, founded in 1517 by Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester and a chief advisor to both King Henry VII and King Henry VIII, was established with radical Renaissance ideas. The College was the first to teach its students Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, making it a dynamic and unsurpassed centre of Classical and Scriptural study. This allowed Corpus to take the lead in promoting the enterprise that resulted in the King James Bible. Renaissance scholarship required a superior library. The College’s founder began the process of filing the Library with an astonishing collection of manuscripts and early printed books in these three languages. Erasmus himself claimed it would equal the Vatican’s. In present times, Corpus is one of the smallest colleges that comprises part of the University of Oxford, having around 250 undergraduates and 110 graduates, totalling approximately 400 members of the academic community including academic staff, along with a further 150 registered library members. Over the past fifty years, natural and social sciences have come to represent an equally significant component in the make-up of its Fellows and student body. Corpus’ alumni and academics have made significant contributions to society. Alumna Professor Jane Greaves, one of the first women to read Physics at Corpus, is leader of the team of astronomers behind the recent discovery of possible signs of life on Venus. Academic Fellow, Professor Nicole Grobert has been elected Chair of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission. Dr Michael Joseph, Junior Research Fellow in History has recently been appointed as Cambridge’s first University Lecturer in Black British History. Former students of the College include the philosophers Sir Isaiah Berlin, Thomas Nigel, and Jeff McMahan.