Cambridge (England) -- Pictorial works; University of Cambridge -- Pictorial works
Christ’s and S. John’s, and even in that second gateway of King’s Hall
which is the present entrance gate of Trinity.[237] The only gateway in
Cambridge which varies completely from these models is Alcock’s at
Jesus, which is much lighter in character. The xvi century gateways of
Caius are “the first specimens of the revival of stone work.”[238] The
ornamental gateway is a distinctive feature of Cambridge college
architecture. The room over the gate was used as a muniment room; in S.
John’s the chamber in the tower serves this purpose.
[Sidenote: Caius College A.D. 1557.]
In 1557 Doctor John Keys (whose name was Latinised as Caius) built and
incorporated with Gonville Hall a college for scientific research and
medical studies--the illustrious society which has since been known as
Gonville and Caius College.
Keys or Caius was one of the great physicians of the xvi century;
physician to Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and President of the
College of Physicians. He was a Yorkshireman by race but a native of
Norwich, and had been Principal of Physwick hostel which was at that
time attached to Gonville Hall. Italian universities had turned his mind
from the study of divinity to that of medicine and he became a doctor in
that faculty at Padua in 1541, two years after leaving Cambridge. At
Padua he lived with one of the earliest anatomists--Vesalius; and he
himself lectured for twenty years on anatomy to the surgeons in London,
at the request of Henry VIII.[239] He was Master of the college of which
he was co-founder, but regularly spent the emoluments on fresh buildings
at Caius. He was not only a great naturalist, the first English
anatomist, a great physician, and an eminent classic,[240] but also a
distinguished antiquary, and to him we owe one of the most valuable
histories of the university. He had withal “a perverse stomach to the
professors of the gospel,” and clung like Metcalfe of S. John’s and
Baker of King’s to the old religion and the old ways of worship.[241] He
is buried in the college chapel, and the simple words _Fui Caius_ are
inscribed over him. The foundation-stone of Caius he had himself
inscribed: _Johannes Caius posuit sapientiae_; “John Caius dedicated it
to knowledge.”
He built his college in two parallel ranges, east and west; a chapel and
the Master’s lodge occupying the north side. On the south was a low wall
with a gateway. “We decree,” he writes in the statutes of Caius, “that
no building be constructed which shall shut in the entire south side of
the college of our foundation, lest for lack of free ventilation the air
should become foul.” This appreciation of the all-importance of air and
sun to living organisms was more than three hundred years in advance of
his time. If his instructions be not carried out, he says, the health of
the college will be impaired, and disease and death will ensue. Closed
quadrangles had been built in Cambridge ever
[Illustration: THE HALL OF TRINITY COLLEGE FROM NEVILE’S COURT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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