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Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge is a constituent college of Cambridge University, one of the world’s most respected academic institutions. It is located in Cambridge, England, in the United Kingdom. The College is often referred to simply as Caius (pronounced , since the College’s second founder John Keys fashionably latinized the spelling of his name after studying in Italy). The college’s present Master, the 41st, is Sir Christopher Hum.
Outline The College has been attended by many students who have gone on to significant accomplishment. As an academic institution it has included nine Nobel Prize winners on the official Cambridge Nobel list *. Caius claims to be one of the colleges with consistently high undergraduate academic achievement *. Caius also has one of the more architecturally impressive student libraries *. The college has long historical associations with medical teaching especially due to its alumni physicians John Caius (who gave the college the caduceus in its insignia) and William Harvey. The college first admitted women as fellows and students in 1979. The college now has nearly 100 fellows, over 700 students and about 200 staff. History The College was first founded, as Gonville Hall, by Edmund Gonville, Rector of Terrington in Norfolk in 1348, making it the fourth-oldest surviving college. When Gonville died three years later, he left a struggling institution with almost no money. The executor of his will, William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, stepped in, transferring the college to the land close to the college he had just founded, Trinity Hall, and renamed it The Hall of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, endowing it with its first buildings. By the sixteenth century, the college had fallen into disrepair, and in 1557 it was refounded by Royal Charter as Gonville and Caius College by the physician John Caius. John Caius was master of the college from 1559 until shortly before his death in 1573. He provided the college with significant funds and greatly extended the buildings. During his time as Master, Caius accepted no payment but insisted on several unusual rules. He insisted that the college admit no scholar who “is deformed, dumb, blind, lame, maimed, mutilated, a Welshman, or suffering from any grave or contagious illness, or an invalid, that is sick in a serious measure” (see Brooke's History, p. 69-70, where it is suggested that 'Wallicum' is a scribal error for 'Gallicum'). Caius also built a three-sided court, Caius Court, “lest the air from being confined within a narrow space should become foul”. Caius did however found the college as a strong centre for the study of medicine, a tradition that it aims to keep to this day. By 1630, the college had expanded greatly, having around 25 fellows and 150 students, but numbers fell over the next century, only returning to the 1630 level in the early nineteenth century. Since then the college has grown considerably and now has one of the largest undergraduate populations in the university. It is one of the more wealthy colleges with an estimated financial endowment of £105m (2005). Caius also very selectively admits academically-accomplished American and other foreign students for its various summer programmes, the most prominent of which has been organized in the United States by the University of New Hampshire, although these programmes are not to the Tripos standard. Buildings The first buildings to be erected on the college’s current site date from 1353 when Bishop Bateman built Gonville Court. The college chapel was added in 1393 with the Old Hall (used until recently as a library) and Master’s Lodge following in the next half century. Most of the stone used to build the college came from Ramsey Abbey near Ramsey, Cambridgeshire. On the refoundation by Dr Caius, the college was expanded and updated. In 1565 the building of Caius Court began, and he planted an avenue of trees in what is now known as Tree Court. Caius was also responsible for the building of the college’s three gates, symbolising the path of academic life. On matriculation, one arrives at the Gate of Humility (near the Porters’ Lodge). In the centre of the college one passes through the Gate of Virtue regularly. And finally, graduating students pass through the Gate of Honour on their way to the neighbouring Senate House to receive their degrees. Gonville Court was refaced in a classical design in the 1750s, and the current library and hall were designed by Anthony Salvin in 1854. On the wall of the hall hangs a college flag that was flown at the South Pole by Dr. Wilson during the famous 1912 expedition. The modern Harvey Court (named after William Harvey) was built in 1961 on West Road, designed by Sir Leslie Martin. The Old Courts Tree Court is the largest of the Old Courts. It is so named because John Caius planted an avenue of trees there. Although none of the original trees survived, there are several trees which is unusual for a Cambridge front court. The interior North-East corner of the Waterhouse Building can be seen on the left and the Exterior South-East corner, as seen from King’s Parade, on the right. Gonville Court, though remodelled in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is the oldest part of the college. The interior East Side of Gonville Court, opposite Hall, can be seen on the left. The Gate of Honour (to the left), at the South side of Caius Court, though the most direct way from the Old Courts to the College Library (Cockerell Building, behind the wall on the right), is only used for special occasions like graduation. The Senate House (on the left) as well as King’s College Chapel (directly behind the Gate of Honour) can also be seen. Notable alumni See also Notable fellows and Masters
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