Books make the great authors our companions: “we read to know we are not alone.” The great authorities, with the college Tutors, are the teachers around whom the College curriculum is formed; and maintaining and receiving the College List of Texts is one of the principal duties of the Fellows. These works bring the reader into conversation with the authorities in the disciplines, and knowledge of them is the foundation of liberal learning.

As classics, these sources are never comprehended exhaustively in one reading. Some are not read in their entirety in the curriculum, but these works remain living voices to be read and re-read throughout one’s life. There are about two hundred books in the College curriculum, and, although students will also read some secondary works, documents, and critical studies, one well-read in the College List of Texts is on the way to being liberally educated.