Brasenose College was founded in 1509 by a Bishop (William Smith) and a lawyer (Richard Sutton). Both came from the North West of England, and the college has always been proud of its links with Lancashire and Cheshire. But over the centuries Brasenose or 'B.N.C.' as it is usually known has expanded its reputation worldwide. This is the first full-scale history of Brasenose, timed to coincide with its Quincentenary. The setting is broad: it relates the college to the university, and the university to the wider world of politics. Using archives, letters and diaries, it aims to recreate something of the variety and texture of academic life over a period of five centuries: the learning, the conversation, the sport; the intellectual milieu and financial context; the architecture inside and out; the food and drink, the quirks of personality, the little dramas, and absurdities that make up the small change of corporate living.