Here follows details about the various recommended reading lists for the Tripos papers. There are various levels of reading lists:
- Introductory Reading List (Part I papers): are directed towards prospective students needing a sense of the various subjects which make up the ASNC Tripos. They may be found useful at any stage, should you wish to find out more about a particular paper, when making your own choices.
- Primary Sources Recommended for Study (Part I papers): These lists exist for all of the papers in Part I, and will be distributed by the teaching staff in the first lecture of term. They provide a basic list of those primary sources which you might reasonably be expected to have read (in translation) during the course of your preparation for the examination. For history papers, they will include all of the major sources on which questions might be set. For language and literature papers, they will include a much wider range of material (which can be read in translation) than the set texts (studied in their original languages), and will be found useful in preparing yourself for writing general essays on aspects of literature.
- Suggested Secondary Reading (Part I papers and Part II papers): For Part I, these lists provide a basic list of books and articles which may be found particularly useful in connection with the paper in question, including textbooks, important monographs, and articles of special value. For Part II, they are intended to help Part I students find out more about the various papers in Part II, when making their choices for Part II at the end of their second year, and to provide a basic list of reading for the Long Vacation.
- Bibliographies: Consolidated bibliographies of a subject as a whole exist in booklet form for some of the papers, and may be purchased (at cost price) from the Departmental Secretary and are listed in full in the Publication Section of this website; for other papers, bibliographies are prepared by the teaching staff in the form of separate sheets, and distributed in lectures or classes. Several of the items listed ought to be readily accessible in your college library; many will be found in the Departmental Library (or in other departmental or faculty libraries); and all should be found in the University Library.