An unusual — and Oxford orientated — exhibition is on in the drawings gallery at Christ Church until January 30. It shows works from the vast collection of a late-17th-century Oxford polymath whose many interests and activities, coupled with a powerful post made him “one of the most eminent men in England”. Henry Aldrich was Dean of Christ Church from 1689 to his death in 1710, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1692 to 1695, and theologian, politician, scholar, collector, musician, designer and architect to boot.

Not only in this show do we see important and rare original prints by Mantegna, Dürer and Rembrandt — names that will come as no surprise to regular visitors to the gallery — but also designs for a now lost glass window in Christ Church cathedral, poster-like images designed by Aldrich for the best-selling Oxford Almanack (still printed today, more than 300 years later, as a single sheet by Oxford University Press), as well as designs for All Saints Church (now Lincoln College library), and Christ Church’s Peckwater Quadrangle (pictured). This impressive quad is arguably, according to Christ Church, Aldrich’s most prominent and lasting legacy, and can be regarded as the first English Palladian building in Britain.

Aldrich had a down-to-earth attitude to collecting; he blatantly used the prints he collected to assist his own designs. For example, he repeatedly used two Adoration of the Shepherds prints, one after Girolamo da Treviso and Cornelius van Cleve’s; both are on show. Nonetheless, his images were so influential that Christ Church credits him with bringing the visual arts into the university environment in Oxford, which until then was dominated by books and music.

An eye for detail helps in this exhibition: whether checking the Oxford Almanack’s regnal tables, for example, or the “Chief ports in and around England” in 1673, or simply enjoying Dürer’s St Jerome in his Study and The Dream of the Doctor (or the Temptation of the Idler), a 1498 work that will have resonance for many.

A study day on January 21 explores Aldrich’s influence on the academic, political and social life of Oxford (and England). Open to the public. For ticket availability and details check the gallery’s website closer to the date (www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery).