Book Description

The Canterbury Quadrangle at St. John's College is one of the most famous and beautiful of Oxford's historic buildings. It was built in 1631-6 at the expense of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, as a gift to his old college and to celebrate his own rise to power as Chancellor of theUniversity and one of the greatest men in Charles I's England. This book describes how the quadrangle was built, investigates the sources of the design and the iconography of the sculptural decoration, and puts forward some new ideas about the place of the Canterbury Quadrangle in English architectural history. The author also investigates the complicatedhistory of the library which occupies two of its sides, and discusses the changing attitudes towards the conservation of the quadrangle that have prevailed during the last hundred years.