25/08/2026
This book list belonging to Lady Dorothy Long (ref 2943B/1/35) sits alongside original manuscripts, paintings and books from across the country brought together in Chippenham Museum's exhibition on "Wiltshire and the World: John Aubrey and the Quest for Knowledge" which is on until 19th September. We highly recommend a visit! https://www.chippenham.gov.uk/chippenham-museum/exhibitions/
We continue our exhibition spotlight series with another fascinating loan featured in 'Wiltshire and the World: John Aubrey and the Quest for Knowledge'.
🌟 This week’s spotlight comes from Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.
This is a list of books owned by Aubrey’s close friend, Lady Dorothy Long. Long was intellectually curious. Her bookshelves held translations of Italian and Portuguese epic poetry, French novels, classical history, and political satire. She also owned books on natural philosophy, including Robert Hooke’s 'Micrographia', and early literary works by women, such as the poetry of Katherine Philips and the first romance published by an English woman, Lady Mary Wroth. Copies of Philips' 'Orinda' and Hooke’s 'Micrographia' can be seen in the exhibition.
Women were excluded from formal education, yet Long’s list reveals a mind ranging freely across European literature and science. Long was more than just a reader, her papers also reveal she collected coins from across the world; Roman, Arabian, Venetian, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, and even Japanese. In an era when women’s knowledge was mostly hidden, these lists make it visible.
In 1683, the same year the institution opened, Long donated a magnificent ivory crosier head to The Ashmolean Museum. The museum's Book of Benefactors records:
'The most noble of ladies, Dorothy, wife of that most generous and learned of men, Sir James Long, Bart, of Draycot Cerne in the county of Wiltshire, was the pride and joy of her family and her s*x, and showed a deep interest in primitive religions and antiquities. Her piety and great good will to this University led her to give a carved ivory crosier which had belonged to Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, to this museum to be placed with the other treasures.'
The crosier in fact dates to the thirteenth century, rather than the fourth century of Saint Augustine of Hippo. The metal mounts are likely later additions, possibly in the 16th century. The crosier can be seen on display in The Ashmolean Museum’s England 400-1600 gallery.
🖼️ ‘Books to put into ye High Shelfe’, 1704, Dorothy Long, Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
This exhibition is open until Saturday 19 September. Chippenham Museum is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and entry is free.
