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Parker Library, Corpus Christi College
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Parker Library, Corpus Christi College
The Parker Library is a library within Corpus Christi College, Cambridge which contains rare books and manuscripts. It is known throughout the world due to its invaluable collection of more than 600 manuscripts, particularly medieval texts, the majority of which were bequeathed to the college by Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker, a former Master of Corpus Christi College.
The library houses a significant proportion of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, including the earliest copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Version A of the ASC, Corp. Chris. MS 173, known as the Winchester Chronicle or the Parker Chronicle, c. 890), the Old English Bede, and King Alfred's translation of Pastoral Care (a manual for priests), as well as the Latin St Augustine Gospels, one of the oldest bound books in existence. The collection also includes key Middle English texts, such as the Ancrene Wisse, the Brut Chronicle and Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. Other items include medieval travelogues and maps, apocalypses, bestiaries, one of the oldest pieces of extant written music, and illuminated manuscripts, such as the two giant Romanesque bibles of Bury (c. 1135) and Dover (c. 1150) and the Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris (c. 1250). A full, alphabetised catalogue is available here.
Its most prestigious possession is the St Augustine Gospels (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Lib. MS. 286), believed to have been brought to England by the Augustinian mission, sent by Pope Gregory I to convert the people of Britain in AD 597. It is an illuminated Gospel Book created in Italy in the 6th century and has been in England since soon after its creation. It has 265 leaves measuring about 252 x 196 mm, and is not entirely complete, missing pages with miniatures in particular. This manuscript is the oldest surviving Latin (as opposed to Greek or Syriac) illustrated Gospel book, and one of the oldest European books in existence. Although the only surviving illuminations are two full-page miniatures, these are of great significance in art history, as so few comparable images have survived. The Gospels are used in the enthronement of the Archbishops of Canterbury today and are transported to and from Canterbury for this occasion by the Master and college representatives. In 2023 the St Augustine Gospels were used as part of the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla at Westminster Abbey.
In October 2016, Christopher de Hamel announced that an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon psalter (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Lib. MS. 411) in the library's collection had "undoubtedly" belonged to Thomas Becket, and it was possible that Becket was holding this very psalter when he was murdered in 1170. The psalter bears a 16th-century inscription attributing its ownership to Becket, but this claim had previously been dismissed as ridiculous. However, after learning of a reference to a psalter owned by Becket in a sacrists' roll from Canterbury Cathedral, de Hamel realised that the library's psalter matched the one described in the sacrists' roll. The identity of the psalter was supported by a 13th-century stained glass portrait of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in which he cradles a similarly bound and coloured book under his left arm. Based on the workmanship of the psalter, de Hamel guesses that it was originally created for an archbishop, possibly Ælfheah of Canterbury.
Although exhibitions of some of the materials are periodically held, access to the full collection of manuscripts held in Corpus Christi College is limited to scholars. The public are able to see some of the treasures of the library at open days, notably during the annual 'Open Cambridge' event, or, since the addition of the vault and new learning facilities on the ground floor has freed up room in the original library, on private tours.
The collection was begun in 1376, shortly after the college's founding, and much improved by a bequest from Matthew Parker in 1574, the college's Master between 1544 and 1553. He served as chaplain to Anne Boleyn, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 to 1575. It was during this time that he formed a fine collection of manuscripts, salvaged from the libraries of dissolved monasteries.
As part of his collection process, Parker employed a number of scholars, scribes, and book artisans to acquire, curate, maintain, and edit his manuscripts. Stephen Batman, one of Parker's chaplains, boasted to have collected 6,700 books over the course of four years for the Archbishop, though very few of them were selected for the library:
"Among whose Bookes remayned, althoughe the moste parte according to the tyme, yet some worthy the viewe and safe kéeping, gathered wythin foure yeares, of Diuinitie, Astronomie, Historie, Phisicke, and others of sundrye Artes and Sciences (as I can truely auouche, hauing his Graces commission wherevnto his hande is yet to be séene) sixe thousand seauen hundred Bookes, by my onelye trauaile, whereof choyse being taken, he most gratiouslye bestowed many on Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge."
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Parker Library, Corpus Christi College
The Parker Library is a library within Corpus Christi College, Cambridge which contains rare books and manuscripts. It is known throughout the world due to its invaluable collection of more than 600 manuscripts, particularly medieval texts, the majority of which were bequeathed to the college by Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker, a former Master of Corpus Christi College.
The library houses a significant proportion of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, including the earliest copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Version A of the ASC, Corp. Chris. MS 173, known as the Winchester Chronicle or the Parker Chronicle, c. 890), the Old English Bede, and King Alfred's translation of Pastoral Care (a manual for priests), as well as the Latin St Augustine Gospels, one of the oldest bound books in existence. The collection also includes key Middle English texts, such as the Ancrene Wisse, the Brut Chronicle and Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. Other items include medieval travelogues and maps, apocalypses, bestiaries, one of the oldest pieces of extant written music, and illuminated manuscripts, such as the two giant Romanesque bibles of Bury (c. 1135) and Dover (c. 1150) and the Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris (c. 1250). A full, alphabetised catalogue is available here.
Its most prestigious possession is the St Augustine Gospels (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Lib. MS. 286), believed to have been brought to England by the Augustinian mission, sent by Pope Gregory I to convert the people of Britain in AD 597. It is an illuminated Gospel Book created in Italy in the 6th century and has been in England since soon after its creation. It has 265 leaves measuring about 252 x 196 mm, and is not entirely complete, missing pages with miniatures in particular. This manuscript is the oldest surviving Latin (as opposed to Greek or Syriac) illustrated Gospel book, and one of the oldest European books in existence. Although the only surviving illuminations are two full-page miniatures, these are of great significance in art history, as so few comparable images have survived. The Gospels are used in the enthronement of the Archbishops of Canterbury today and are transported to and from Canterbury for this occasion by the Master and college representatives. In 2023 the St Augustine Gospels were used as part of the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla at Westminster Abbey.
In October 2016, Christopher de Hamel announced that an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon psalter (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Lib. MS. 411) in the library's collection had "undoubtedly" belonged to Thomas Becket, and it was possible that Becket was holding this very psalter when he was murdered in 1170. The psalter bears a 16th-century inscription attributing its ownership to Becket, but this claim had previously been dismissed as ridiculous. However, after learning of a reference to a psalter owned by Becket in a sacrists' roll from Canterbury Cathedral, de Hamel realised that the library's psalter matched the one described in the sacrists' roll. The identity of the psalter was supported by a 13th-century stained glass portrait of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in which he cradles a similarly bound and coloured book under his left arm. Based on the workmanship of the psalter, de Hamel guesses that it was originally created for an archbishop, possibly Ælfheah of Canterbury.
Although exhibitions of some of the materials are periodically held, access to the full collection of manuscripts held in Corpus Christi College is limited to scholars. The public are able to see some of the treasures of the library at open days, notably during the annual 'Open Cambridge' event, or, since the addition of the vault and new learning facilities on the ground floor has freed up room in the original library, on private tours.
The collection was begun in 1376, shortly after the college's founding, and much improved by a bequest from Matthew Parker in 1574, the college's Master between 1544 and 1553. He served as chaplain to Anne Boleyn, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 to 1575. It was during this time that he formed a fine collection of manuscripts, salvaged from the libraries of dissolved monasteries.
As part of his collection process, Parker employed a number of scholars, scribes, and book artisans to acquire, curate, maintain, and edit his manuscripts. Stephen Batman, one of Parker's chaplains, boasted to have collected 6,700 books over the course of four years for the Archbishop, though very few of them were selected for the library:
"Among whose Bookes remayned, althoughe the moste parte according to the tyme, yet some worthy the viewe and safe kéeping, gathered wythin foure yeares, of Diuinitie, Astronomie, Historie, Phisicke, and others of sundrye Artes and Sciences (as I can truely auouche, hauing his Graces commission wherevnto his hande is yet to be séene) sixe thousand seauen hundred Bookes, by my onelye trauaile, whereof choyse being taken, he most gratiouslye bestowed many on Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge."
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