The year is half over and summer is on its way, or so the calendars say. Perhaps the May drizzle has been making your garden look like a jungle or perhaps seasonal allergies have been making your eyes itch and water every time you step outside. Either way you may have noticed that it is time to …
Spring is finally in the air and with it comes the desire to get out of the house and enjoy nature. Luckily, that's just what Medieval Books of Hours call for with the Labour of the Month for April. In B.11.4, a 13th century Psalter (book of psalms), a figure sits on a bench admiring …
A solar eclipse can be viewed over much of Britain later this week on Friday 20th March. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. It may completely obscure the view of the Sun from the Earth (a total eclipse) or only partially (a partial eclipse). This week's eclipse …
February having flown by, it is time once again to find out what we should be doing this month. Medieval manuscripts tell us that it's finally time to get out into the garden. Our 15th century French Book of Hours, B.11.31, tells us that this month we should be out pruning our trees (eccentric head …
Manuscript R.4.20 comprises two texts bound together: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville and John Lydgate's Siege of Thebes. Hidden between these two texts, someone has made use of the blank folios for handwriting practice and there are pen trials (testing newly trimmed pen nibs) in the margins. The lines chosen appear to be from …
After the feasting and relaxing by the fire in January and another cold, dark month stretching before us, February may call for more indoor pursuits. Indeed, in one common scheme for the labours of the months, February's labour is to sit by the fire, as the gentleman in B.11.4 is doing above. On the manuscript page below, the …
Happy New Year! This year we will be featuring the Labours of the Months from a few of our medieval Books of Hours at the beginning of each month. Books of Hours were popular devotional texts in the middle ages. That is, they were produced for the laity rather than monastics or clergy and as …
The Trinity Carol Roll (MS O.3.58), a parchment scroll over six feet long, is the earliest source for English polyphonic carols. Dating from the early 15th century in East Anglia, the roll contains words and musical notation on a five line stave for thirteen carols in Middle English and Latin. These include the patriotic 'Deo gracias …
Manuscript R.2.64 is a single folio but an extremely significant text for understanding the history of medieval dramatic performance. It is a series of twenty-one couplets based on the legend of Robin Hood. The outlaw was well-known in ballads and prose texts from the fourteenth century: for example, the reference to the rhymes of Robin …
We are excited to learn that graffiti in a Suffolk church has recently been identified as the work of the poet and priest, John Lydgate (1370?–1451?). Trinity College Library holds a number of manuscripts containing texts by Lydgate including his Troy Book or Siege of Troy (O.5.2) and one of the oldest copies of The …
Continue reading John Lydgate, Medieval Graffiti and Mythological Beasts
The Rare Books & Manuscripts Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Worcester Cathedral Library contains nearly 300 medieval manuscripts, 5500 printed books, and 20,000 archival documents. The aim of this blog is to open up the fascinating collection of a Medieval English Cathedral to the wider world.
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Treasures from the Collection
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