This is a fascinating institutional history of the University of Cambridge and its place in the world. Volume I, the first book on the medieval university in over a century, explores the university’s intellectual, social, political and religious life and how this changed with the coming of the Renaissance and Reformation. Volume II studies relations between Cambridge and its wider world in the early modern period: the court and church hierarchy; the ‘country’; and the wider academic world. Volume III charts the beginnings of its transformation into the University as it exists today: inclusive in its membership, diverse in its curricula, and staffed by committed scholars and teachers. Finally, Volume IV explores the extraordinary growth in size and academic stature of the University between 1870 and 1990. This is a vital contribution to the history not only of one major university, but of the academic societies of Europe in general.