The British Library is the

national library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant w ...

of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a

legal deposit Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...

library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of n ...

Early foundations

The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the national library was part of the

, which provided the bulk of the holdings of the new library, alongside smaller organisations which were folded in (such as the National Central Library, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography). In 1974 functions previously exercised by the Office for Scientific and Technical Information were taken over; in 1982 the India Office Library and Records and the HMSO Binderies became British Library responsibilities. In 1983, the Library absorbed the National Sound Archive, which holds many sound and video recordings, with over a million discs and thousands of tapes. The core of the Library's historical collections is based on a series of donations and acquisitions from the 18th century, known as the "foundation collections". These include the books and manuscripts of Sir Robert Cotton, Sir Hans Sloane, Robert Harley and the King's Library of

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

, as well as the Old Royal Library donated by King George II. British Library

For many years its collections were dispersed in various buildings around central London, in places such as

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

(within the British Museum), Chancery Lane,

Bayswater Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

, and

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its roots ...

, with an interlibrary lending centre at Boston Spa, east of

Wetherby Wetherby () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, f ...

in West Yorkshire (situated on Thorp Arch Trading Estate), and the newspaper library at

Colindale Colindale is a district in the London Borough of Barnet; its main shopping street on the A5 forming the borough boundary with neighbouring Brent. Colindale is a suburban area, and in recent years has had many new apartments built. It's also th ...

, north-west London. Initial plans for the British Library required demolition of an integral part of Bloomsbury – a seven-acre swathe of streets immediately in front of the Museum, so that the Library could be situated directly opposite. After a long and hard-fought campaign led by Dr George Wagner, this decision was overturned and the library was instead constructed by John Laing plc on a site at

next to St Pancras railway station. Following the closure of the Round Reading Room on 25 October 1997 the library stock began to be moved into the St Pancras building. Before the end of that year the first of eleven new reading rooms had opened and the moving of stock was continuing. From 1997 to 2009 the main collection was housed in this single new building and the collection of British and overseas newspapers was housed at

. In July 2008 the Library announced that it would be moving low-use items to a new storage facility in Boston Spa in Yorkshire and that it planned to close the newspaper library at Colindale, ahead of a later move to a similar facility on the same site. From January 2009 to April 2012 over 200 km of material was moved to the Additional Storage Building and is now delivered to British Library Reading Rooms in London on request by a daily shuttle service. Construction work on the Additional Storage Building was completed in 2013 and the newspaper library at Colindale closed on 8 November 2013. The collection has now been split between the St Pancras and Boston Spa sites. The British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) and the Library's Document Supply Collection is based on the same site in Boston Spa. Collections housed in Yorkshire, comprising low-use material and the newspaper and Document Supply collections, make up around 70% of the total material the library holds. The Library previously had a book storage depot in

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

, south-east London, which is no longer in use. The new library was designed specially for the purpose by the architect Colin St John Wilson in collaboration with his wife MJ Long, who came up with the plan that was subsequently developed and built. Facing Euston Road is a large piazza that includes pieces of

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acces ...

, such as large sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi (a bronze statue based on

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

's study of

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

) and Antony Gormley. It is the largest public building constructed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century. British Library + St Pancras 7527-31hug

In the middle of the building is a six-storey glass tower inspired by a similar structure in the

Beinecke Library The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. E ...

, containing the King's Library with 65,000 printed volumes along with other pamphlets, manuscripts and maps collected by King George III between 1763 and 1820. In December 2009 a new storage building at Boston Spa was opened by

Rosie Winterton Dame Rosalie Winterton, (born 10 August 1958) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster Central since 1997. In June 2017, Winterton became one of three Deputy Speakers in the House of Com ...

. The new facility, costing £26 million, has a capacity for seven million items, stored in more than 140,000 bar-coded containers and which are retrieved by robots from the 162.7 miles of temperature and humidity-controlled storage space. On Friday, 5 April 2013, the Library announced that it would begin saving all sites with the suffix

.uk .uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us. , it is the fift ...

in a bid to preserve the nation's " digital memory" (which as of then amounted to about 4.8 million sites containing 1 billion web pages). The Library would make all the material publicly available to users by the end of 2013, and would ensure that, through technological advancements, all the material is preserved for future generations, despite the fluidity of the Internet. The Euston Road building was Grade I listed on 1 August 2015. It has plans to open a third location in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

, potentially located in the Grade 1 listed Temple Works.

Legal deposit

In England,

can be traced back to at least 1610. The Copyright Act 1911 established the principle of the legal deposit, ensuring that the British Library and five other libraries in Great Britain and Ireland are entitled to receive a free copy of every item published or distributed in Britain. The other five libraries are: the Bodleian Library at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

; the University Library at Cambridge; Trinity College Library in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

; and the National Libraries of Scotland and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The British Library is the only one that must automatically receive a copy of every item published in Britain; the others are entitled to these items, but must specifically request them from the publisher after learning that they have been or are about to be published, a task done centrally by the Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries. Further, under the terms of Irish copyright law (most recently the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000), the British Library is entitled to automatically receive a free copy of every book published in Ireland, alongside the National Library of Ireland, Trinity College Library in Dublin, the library of the University of Limerick, the library of

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) ( ga, Ollscoil Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a university based on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. Created as the '' National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin'' in 1975, it enrolled its ...

and the libraries of the four constituent universities of the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) ( ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann) is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called ''constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universitie ...

. The Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, and the National Libraries of Scotland and Wales are also entitled to copies of material published in Ireland, but again must formally make requests. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 extended United Kingdom legal deposit requirements to electronic documents, such as

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

s and selected websites. The Library also holds the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections (APAC) which include the India Office Records and materials in the languages of Asia and of north and north-east Africa.

Using the library's reading rooms

Mechanical book handling system, British Library

Sitting on History (1995) by Bill Woodrow, British Library, London, UK - 20061031

The Library is open to everyone who has a genuine need to use its collections. Anyone with a permanent address who wishes to carry out research can apply for a Reader Pass; they are required to provide proof of signature and address. Historically, only those wishing to use specialised material unavailable in other public or academic libraries would be given a Reader Pass. The Library has been criticised for admitting numbers of undergraduate students, who have access to their own university libraries, to the reading rooms. The Library replied that it has always admitted undergraduates as long as they have a legitimate personal, work-related or academic research purpose. The majority of catalogue entries can be found on Explore the British Library, the Library's main catalogue, which is based on Primo. Other collections have their own catalogues, such as western manuscripts. The large reading rooms offer hundreds of seats which are often filled with researchers, especially during the Easter and summer holidays. British Library Reader Pass holders are also able to view the Document Supply Collection in the Reading Room at the Library's site in Boston Spa in Yorkshire as well as the hard-copy newspaper collection from 29 September 2014. Now that access is available to legal deposit collection material, it is necessary for visitors to register as a Reader to use the Boston Spa Reading Room.

Online, electronic and digital resources

Material available online

The British Library makes a number of images of items within its collections available online. Its ''Online Gallery'' gives access to 30,000 images from various medieval books, together with a handful of exhibition-style items in a proprietary format, such as the

Lindisfarne Gospels The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV) is an illuminated manuscript gospel book probably produced around the years 715–720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, which is now in the Bri ...

. This includes the facility to "turn the virtual pages" of a few documents, such as

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on h ...

's notebooks. Catalogue entries for many of the

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, th ...

collections are available online, with selected images of pages or miniatures from a growing number of them, and there is a database of significant bookbindings. British Library Sounds provides free online access to over 60,000 sound recordings. The British Library's commercial secure electronic delivery service was started in 2003 at a cost of £6 million. This offers more than 100 million items (including 280,000 journal titles, 50 million patents, 5 million reports, 476,000 US dissertations and 433,000 conference proceedings) for researchers and library patrons worldwide which were previously unavailable outside the Library because of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

restrictions. In line with a government directive that the British Library must cover a percentage of its operating costs, a fee is charged to the user. However, this service is no longer profitable and has led to a series of restructures to try to prevent further losses. When Google Books started, the British Library signed an agreement with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

to digitise a number of books from the British Library for its Live Search Books project. This material was only available to readers in the US, and closed in May 2008. The scanned books are currently available via the British Library catalogue or

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

. In October 2010 the British Library launched its ''Management and business studies portal''. This website is designed to allow digital access to management research reports, consulting reports, working papers and articles. In November 2011, four million newspaper pages from the 18th and 19th centuries were made available online. The project will scan up to 40 million pages over the next 10 years. The archive is free to search, but there is a charge for accessing the pages themselves.

Electronic collections

''Explore the British Library'' is the latest iteration of the online catalogue. It contains nearly 57 million records and may be used to search, view and order items from the collections or search the contents of the Library's website. The Library's electronic collections include over 40,000 ejournals, 800 databases and other electronic resources. A number of these are available for remote access to registered St Pancras Reader Pass holders. PhD theses are available via the E-Theses Online Service (EThOS).

Digital Library System

In 2012, the UK

libraries signed a memorandum of understanding to create a shared technical infrastructure implementing the Digital Library System developed by the British Library. The DLS was in anticipation of the Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013, an extension of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 to include non-print electronic publications from 6 April 2013. Four storage nodes, located in London, Boston Spa,

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location i ...

, and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, linked via a secure network in constant communication automatically replicate, self-check, and repair data. A complete

crawl Crawl, The Crawl, or crawling may refer to: Biology * Crawling (human), any of several types of human quadrupedal gait * Limbless locomotion, the movement of limbless animals over the ground * Undulatory locomotion, a type of motion characteriz ...

of every

domain (and other TLDs with UK based server

GeoIP In computing, Internet geolocation is software capable of deducing the geographic position of a device connected to the Internet. For example, the device's IP address can be used to determine the country, city, or ZIP code, determining its geogra ...

) has been added annually to the DLS since 2013, which also contains all of the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

's 1996–2013 .uk collection. The policy and system is based on that of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which has crawled (via IA until 2010) the

.fr .fr is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for France. It is administered by AFNIC. The domain includes all individuals and organizations registered at the Association française pour le ...

domain annually (62 TBs in 2015) since 2006.

Exhibitions

A number of books and

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

s are on display to the public in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery which is open seven days a week at no charge. Some manuscripts in the exhibition include '' Beowulf'', the

and St Cuthbert Gospel, a

Gutenberg Bible The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the " Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed ...

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

's '' Canterbury Tales'',

Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'A ...

's ''

Le Morte d'Arthur ' (originally written as '; inaccurate Middle French for "The Death of Arthur") is a 15th-century Middle English prose reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Ro ...

'' (

King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as ...

), Captain Cook's journal,

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots oft ...

's ''

History of England England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). BBC News. Retrieved 7 February ...

'',

Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She enlisted i ...

's ''

Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...

'',

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

's '' Alice's Adventures Under Ground'',

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's '' Just So Stories'',

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

's ''

Nicholas Nickleby ''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...

'',

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

's ''

Mrs Dalloway ''Mrs. Dalloway'' is a novel by Virginia Woolf, published on 14 May 1925, that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels. The workin ...

'' and a room devoted solely to '' Magna Carta'', as well as several

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

s and Asian items. In addition to the permanent exhibition, there are frequent thematic exhibitions which have covered maps, sacred texts, history of the English language, and law, including a celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta.

Services and departments

Business and IP Centre

In May 2005, the British Library received a grant of £1 million from the

London Development Agency The London Development Agency (LDA) was from July 2000 until 2012 the regional development agency for the London region in England. A functional body of the Greater London Authority, its purpose was to drive sustainable economic growth within ...

to change two of its reading rooms into the Business & IP Centre. The centre was opened in March 2006. It holds arguably the most comprehensive collection of business and intellectual property (IP) material in the United Kingdom and is the official library of the UK Intellectual Property Office. The collection is divided up into four main information areas:

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. M ...

, company information, trade directories, and journals. It is free of charge in hard copy and online via approximately 30 subscription databases. Registered readers can access the collection and the databases. There are over 50 million patent specifications from 40 countries in a collection dating back to 1855. The collection also includes official gazettes on patents, trade marks and Registered Design; law reports and other material on

litigation - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...

; and information on

. This is available in hard copy and via online databases. Staff are trained to guide small and medium enterprises (SME) and entrepreneurs to use the full range of resources. In 2018, a Human Lending Library service was established in the Business & IP Centre, allowing social entrepreneurs to receive an hour's mentoring from a high-profile business professional. This service is run in partnership with Expert Impact. Stephen Fear was the British Library's Entrepreneur in Residence and Ambassador from 2012 to 2016.

Document Supply Service

As part of its establishment in 1973, the British Library absorbed the National Lending Library for Science and Technology (NLL), based near Boston Spa in Yorkshire, which had been established in 1961. Before this, the site had housed a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Thorp Arch, which closed in 1957. When the NLL became part of the British Library in 1973 it changed its name to the British Library Lending Division, in 1985 it was renamed as the British Library Document Supply Centre and is now known as the British Library Document Supply Service, often abbreviated as BLDSS. BLDSS now holds 87.5 million items, including 296,000 international journal titles, 400,000 conference proceedings, 3 million monographs, 5 million official publications, and 500,000 UK and North American theses and dissertations. 12.5 million articles in the Document Supply Collection are held electronically and can be downloaded immediately. The collection supports

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

in UK, overseas and international industry, particularly in the

pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate symptoms. ...

. BLDSS also provides material to Higher Education institutions, students and staff and members of the public, who can order items through their Public Library or through the Library's BL Document Supply Service (BLDSS). The Document Supply Service also offers Find it For Me and Get it For Me services which assist researchers in accessing hard-to-find material. In April 2013, BLDSS launched its new online ordering and tracking system, which enables customers to search available items, view detailed availability, pricing and delivery time information, place and track orders, and manage account preferences online.

Sound archive

The British Library Sound Archive holds more than a million discs and 185,000 tapes. The collections come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound, from music, drama and literature to oral history and wildlife sounds, stretching back over more than 100 years. The Sound Archive's online catalogue is updated daily. It is possible to listen to recordings from the collection in selected Reading Rooms in the Library through their ''SoundServer'' and ''Listening and Viewing Service'', which is based in the Rare Books & Music Reading Room. In 2006, the Library launched a new online resource, British Library Sounds, which makes 50,000 of the Sound Archive's recordings available online.

Moving image services

Launched in October 2012, the British Library's moving image services provide access to nearly a million sound and moving image items onsite, supported by data for over 20 million sound and moving image recordings. The three services, which for copyright reasons can only be accessed from terminals within the Reading Rooms at St Pancras or Boston Spa, are: * BBC Pilot/ Redux: A collaboration with BBC Research & Development to mirror its archive which has, since June 2007, been recording 24/7 of all of the BBC's national and some regional broadcast output. BBC Pilot includes 2.2 million catalogue records and 225,000 playable programmes, but unlike BBC Redux it does not include any broadcasts beyond 2011. * Broadcast News: Since May 2010, the British Library has been making off-air recordings of daily TV and radio news broadcasts from seventeen channels, including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News, Al-Jazeera English, NHK World, CNN, France 24, Bloomberg, Russia Today and China's CCTV News. Many of the programs come with subtitles, which can be electronically searched, greatly enhancing the value of the collection as a research tool. * Television & Radio Index for Learning & Teaching (TRILT): Produced by the British Universities Film & Video Council (

BUFVC Learning on Screen - The British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC) is a representative body promoting the production, study and use of moving image, sound and related media for learning and research. It is a company limited by guarantee, wi ...

), TRILT is a database of all UK television and radio broadcasts since 2001 (and selectively back to 1995). Its 16 million records, growing by a million per year, cover every channel, broadcast and repeat.

Periodicals and philatelic collections

Newspapers

The Library holds an almost complete collection of British and Irish newspapers since 1840. This is partly because of the legal deposit legislation of 1869, which required newspapers to supply a copy of each edition of a newspaper to the library. London editions of national daily and Sunday newspapers are complete back to 1801. In total, the collection consists of 660,000 bound volumes and 370,000 reels of microfilm containing tens of millions of newspapers with 52,000 titles on of shelves. From earlier dates, the collections include the Thomason Tracts, comprising 7,200 seventeenth-century newspapers, and the Burney Collection, featuring nearly 1 million pages of newspapers from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The section also holds extensive collections of non-British newspapers, in numerous languages. The Newspapers section was based in

in North London until 2013, when the buildings, which were considered to provide inadequate storage conditions and to be beyond improvement, were closed and sold for redevelopment. The physical holdings are now divided between the sites at St Pancras (some high-use periodicals, and rare items such as the Thomason Tracts and Burney collections) and Boston Spa (the bulk of the collections, stored in a new purpose-built facility). A significant and growing proportion of the collection is now made available to readers as surrogate facsimiles, either on microfilm, or, more recently, in digitised form. In 2010 a ten-year programme of digitisation of the newspaper archives with commercial partner DC Thomson subsidiary Brightsolid began, and the

British Newspaper Archive The British Newspaper Archive web site provides access to searchable digitized archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011. History The British Library Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London, ...

was launched in November 2011. A dedicated newspaper reading room opened at St Pancras in April 2014, including facilities for consulting microfilmed and digital materials, and, where no surrogate exists, hard-copy material retrieved from Boston Spa.

Philatelic collections

The

British Library Philatelic Collections The British Library Philatelic Collections is the national philatelic collection of the United Kingdom with over 8 million items from around the world. It was established in 1891 as part of the British Museum Library, later to become the ...

are held at St Pancras. The collections were established in 1891 with the donation of the Tapling collection; they steadily developed and now comprise over 25 major collections and a number of smaller ones, encompassing a wide range of disciplines. The collections include

postage The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

and

revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration ...

postal stationery A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related ser ...

essays An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

, proofs, covers and entries, " cinderella stamp" material, specimen issues,

airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...

s, some

postal history Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is att ...

materials, official and private posts, etc., for almost all countries and periods. An extensive display of material from the collections is on exhibit, which may be the best permanent display of diverse classic stamps and philatelic material in the world. Approximately 80,000 items on 6,000 sheets may be viewed in 1,000 display frames; 2,400 sheets are from the Tapling Collection. All other material, which covers the whole world, is available to students and researchers. As well as these collections, the library actively acquires literature on the subject. This makes the British Library one of the world's prime philatelic research centres. The Head Curator of the Philatelic Collections is Paul Skinner.

Other projects

The British Library sponsors or co-sponsors many projects of national and international significance. These include: * International Dunhuang Project * Theatre Archive Project * Friends of the British Library * Incunabula Short Title Catalogue * British Library Preservation Advisory Centre *

DataCite DataCite is an international not-for-profit organization which aims to improve '' data citation'' in order to: *establish easier access to research data on the Internet *increase acceptance of research data as legitimate, citable contributions t ...

, an international

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organisation which aims to improve data citation * Endangered Archives Programme

Highlights of the collections

Highlights, some of which were selected by the British Library, include:

1300 BC – 500 AD

* More than 450 Chinese oracle bones from the

Shang Dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty an ...

, the oldest artefacts in the British Library (1300–1050 BC) * Constitution of Athenians, papyrus work describing the constitution of Classical Athens by

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of p ...

or one of his pupils, from Hermopolis, Egypt (78–100 AD) * De bellis macedonicis, fragment of a Latin Codex recording the Macedonian Wars in an early form of uncial script (1st–2nd centuries AD) *

Gandhāran Buddhist texts The Gandhāran Buddhist texts are the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, dating from about the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE. They represent the literature of Gandharan Buddhism from present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afgha ...

, some of the oldest Buddhist

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

yet discovered (1st–3rd centuries AD) * Bankes

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of th ...

, one of the longest and best preserved

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

of Homer's literary works surviving from antiquity, containing the bulk of the text of the final book of the

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

(2nd century AD) *

Egerton Gospel The Egerton Gospel (British Library Egerton Papyrus 2) refers to a collection of three papyrus fragments of a codex of a previously unknown gospel, found in Egypt and sold to the British Museum in 1934; the physical fragments are now dated to the ...

, one of the two earliest preserved

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

witnesses to the Christian gospel tradition (2nd century AD) * Sixty-six Indian charters on copper plates, including those from Chamak and two similar groups of plates from

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's most ...

, (1st century BC – 13th century AD) * Fragments of the

Spitzer Manuscript The Spitzer Manuscript is the oldest surviving philosophical manuscript in Buddhist Sanskrit, and possibly the oldest Buddhist Sanskrit manuscript of any type related to Buddhism discovered so far. The manuscript was found in 1906 in the form of a ...

, the oldest surviving manuscript in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the l ...

discovered so far, from the Kizil Caves, China (200–230 AD) * Gospel of John Papyrus, early copy of the Gospel according to John from the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

, discovered in

Oxyrhynchus Oxyrhynchus (; grc-gre, Ὀξύρρυγχος, Oxýrrhynchos, sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian ''Pr-Medjed''; cop, or , ''Pemdje''; ar, البهنسا, ''Al-Bahnasa'') is a city in Middle Egypt located about 160 km south-southwest of Cair ...

, Egypt (250 AD) * Sogdian Ancient Letters, the earliest substantial texts written in Sogdian, the language formerly spoken in the area around Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (313–314 AD) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts ...

, the major portion of the world's second-oldest manuscript of the Bible in

koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

(330–360 AD) * Letters of

Cyprian Cyprian (; la, Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus; 210 – 14 September 258 AD''The Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite: Vol. IV.'' New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975. p. 1406.) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Chri ...

, three fragments from St Cyprian's epistles in uncial script, part of a Latin Codex from

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the clas ...

, north Africa (late 4th century AD) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a ma ...

, early manuscript of the Greek Bible containing the majority of the Old Testament and New Testament and one of the four Great uncial codices (400–440 AD) * Jacob Manuscript, the second oldest extant Syriac manuscript and the oldest codex bearing a date in any language, handwritten by the scribe Jacob (411 AD) * Curetonian Gospels, manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament in Old Syriac (c. 450–470 AD) * Fragments of the Cotton Genesis, luxury illuminated manuscript copy of the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

and one of the oldest illustrated biblical codices to survive to the modern period (4th to 5th centuries AD) * Leaf from the Codex Palatinus, Latin Gospel Book written on purple dyed vellum in gold and silver ink (5th century AD) * Maunggun gold plates, two gold strips found at Maunggun near Sri Ksetra, inscribed in the ancient

Pyu script The Pyu script is a writing system used to write the Pyu language, an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was mainly spoken in present-day central Burma. It was based on the Brahmi-based scripts of both north and south India. The best available ...

and among the earliest Buddhist texts discovered in Myanmar, donated by Sir Frederick Fryer, Lieutenant-Governor of Burma (5th century AD) * Seven

folios The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

of a manuscript containing the

text of the Lotus Sutra in

Sharada script The Śāradā, Sarada or Sharada script is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. The script was widespread between the 8th and 12th centuries in the northwestern parts of Indian Subcontinent (in Kashmir and neighbouring ...

from

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as ...

, the earliest paper manuscript from South Asia (5th–7th centuries AD) * Earliest Syriac manuscript with the complete

Peshitta The Peshitta ( syc, ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ ''or'' ') is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, th ...

text of the New Testament (5th–6th centuries AD)

500–800 AD

* Earliest dated Syriac manuscript of the two Gospels and the Peshitta Apostolos, Syriac

of the Peshitta or Syriac Bible (528–534) * Codex Harleianus or Harley Latin Gospels, one of the earliest manuscripts of the Gospels in Latin, Italy (550) * Codex Nitriensis, Greek New Testament codex containing the Gospel of Luke from the Monastery of St. Mary Deipara in the Nitrian Desert, Egypt (c. 550) * Ravenna Papyrus, 2.5m long papyrus scroll in Latin

cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionali ...

script with contract for the sale of a property in

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the ca ...

, Italy (dated 3 June 572) * Four leaves from the Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus, a Greek manuscript of the

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

written on purple parchment in silver and gold ink (6th century) * Golden Cannon Tables, Byzantine illuminated Gospel made in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

before the Iconoclasm period (6th century) * Dunhuang Go Manual, the earliest surviving manuscript on the strategic

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a c ...

of Go from Dunhuang, China (6th century) * Askew Codex, unique manuscript in the Coptic script, one of three surviving codices containing full copies of all of the gnostic writings (c. 6th century) * Manuscript copies of the

Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra The ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' (Sanskrit, "Discourse of the Descent into Laṅka" bo, ལང་ཀར་བཤེགས་པའི་མདོ་, Chinese:入楞伽經) is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist sūtra. This sūtra recounts a teachin ...

in the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

and Tibetan languages from Dunhuang in China (7th to 9th centuries) * Ceolfrid Bible, fragment of one of the three single-volume Bibles ordered by

Ceolfrid Saint Ceolfrid (or Ceolfrith, ; c. 642 – 716) was an Anglo-Saxon Christian abbot and saint. He is best known as the warden of Bede from the age of seven until his death in 716. He was the Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, and a major contr ...

and closely related to the

Codex Amiatinus The Codex Amiatinus (also known as the Jarrow Codex) is considered the best-preserved manuscript of the Latin Vulgate version Bruce M. Metzger, ''The Text of the New Testament'' (Oxford University Press 2005), p. 106. of the Christian Bible. It ...

(late 7th – early 8th centuries) * Dunhuang Star Chart, one of the first known graphical representations of stars from ancient

Chinese astronomy Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the twe ...

(700) *

, illuminated Latin Gospel book from Anglo-Saxon

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

, one of the finest examples of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art (715–720) * Royal Athelstan Gospels,

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wi ...

illuminated Illuminated may refer to: * "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts * Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house * ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album) * Illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript ...

Gospel Book A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels (Greek: , ''Evangélion'') is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazareth ...

with Merovingian decoration, closely related to the

(700–749) * St Cuthbert Gospel, a Northumbrian gospel book with the oldest Western binding (early 8th century) * Codex Beneventanus, illuminated codex containing a Gospel Book for the Monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno near

Benevento Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...

, Italy (739–760) * Hyakumantō Darani or the "One Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers", the earliest surviving examples of printing in Japan (764–770) * Tiberius Bede, illuminated manuscript of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, produced at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey (8th century) * Otho-Corpus Gospels, fragments of an insular

, the best preserved page representing an

Evangelist portrait Evangelist portraits are a specific type of miniature included in ancient and mediaeval illuminated manuscript Gospel Books, and later in Bibles and other books, as well as other media. Each Gospel of the Four Evangelists, the books of Matthew, ...

of the Lion of Saint Mark (8th century) * Vespasian Psalter, Anglo-Saxon illuminated psalter decorated in Insular style, belonging to a group of manuscripts from southern England known as the Tiberius group, which includes the Tiberius Bede and the Book of Nunnaminster (late 8th century) * London Gospel Book,

Pocket Book of the Four Gospels with

s, made in Ireland with later Anglo-Saxon additions (late 8th century) * Moralia in Job by St Gregory, and Theological Works of St Augustine of Hippo, St Jerome and Commodianus, two theological manuscripts produced in

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. I ...

, France and Nonantola Italy respectively (late 8th century) * Mozarabic Chronicle, Visigothic minuscule written by

Mozarab The Mozarabs ( es, mozárabes ; pt, moçárabes ; ca, mossàrabs ; from ar, مستعرب, musta‘rab, lit=Arabized) is a modern historical term for the Iberian Christians, including Christianized Iberian Jews, who lived under Muslim rule in A ...

chronicler in

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mu ...

, with the earliest known reference in Latin to "Europeans" (europenses) (late 8th century) * One of the oldest and most complete surviving Qur’an codices in the world, produced in the Hijazi script in the Hijaz region of Arabia where the holy places of

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

and

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...

are. (8th century)

800–1000 AD

* Schuttern Gospels, an early illuminated gospel book produced in

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden is ...

, Germany (early 9th century) * Æthelstan

Psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters wer ...

, small book of psalms made near

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

, once owned by King

Æthelstan Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ang, Æðelstān ; on, Aðalsteinn; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his fir ...

of Wessex and given by him to Winchester Cathedral (early 9th century) * Durham Liber Vitae, confraternity book, recording the names of visitors to the church of the bishopric of Durham, and its predecessor sees at

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...

and

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at Sun ...

(early 9th century) * Harley Golden Gospels, Carolingian illuminated manuscript written in gold ink, produced in Aachen, Germany (800–825) * Earliest surviving copy of

Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled ''De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribute ...

De architectura (''On architecture'', published as ''Ten Books on Architecture'') is a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect and military engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide f ...

, Carolingian manuscript made at the scriptorium attached to the court of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Emp ...

in Aachen, Germany (800–825) * Tibetan Annals, two manuscripts written in

Old Tibetan Old Tibetan refers to the period of Tibetan language reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to works of the early 11th century. In 816 CE, during the reign of Sadnalegs, literary Tibetan ...

covering the period from 643 to 764 AD (800–840) * Harley Aratea, Carolingian copy of ''Phaenomena Aratea'' by the Greek poet Aratus, with 22 full-page representations of the

constellations A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellation ...

in text or scholia within the shapes, from Rheims, France (820) * Fridugisus Gospel Book, illuminated

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

Latin Gospel Book produced at Tours under the abbacy of Fridugisus with original

treasure binding A treasure binding or jewelled bookbinding is a luxurious book cover using metalwork in gold or silver, jewels, or ivory, perhaps in addition to more usual bookbinding material for book-covers such as leather, velvet, or other cloth. The actu ...

(820–830) *

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacredness, sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of ...

from Moutier-Grandval Abbey, one of three illustrated bibles containing the text of the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels us ...

made at the scriptorium of Tours in the ninth century, France (840) * Lothair Psalter, sumptuous Carolingian manuscript with original binding furnishing a large silver-gilt medallion of the Emperor

Lothair I Lothair I or Lothar I (Dutch and Medieval Latin: ''Lotharius''; German: ''Lothar''; French: ''Lothaire''; Italian: ''Lotario'') (795 – 29 September 855) was emperor (817–855, co-ruling with his father until 840), and the governor of Bav ...

(840–855) * An early copy of the Qur’an in Kufic script, with beginnings of elements of Arabic illumination and decoration, possibly from

al-Kufah Kufa ( ar, الْكُوفَة ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Currently, Kufa and Najaf a ...

, Iraq (850) * Diamond Sutra, the world's earliest-dated printed book printed during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

(868) * Codex Ulmensis, manuscript in

Caroline minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one r ...

containing the Epistles and

Revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on ...

, produced at the monastic centre under Abbot Harmut in

St Gallen St. Gallen or traditionally St Gall, in German; it, San Gallo; rm, Son Gagl) is a Swiss city and the capital of the canton of St. Gallen. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a la ...

, Switzerland (872–878) * Bodmin Gospels, illuminated gospel-book copied in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period o ...

and owned by the Priory of St Petroc in

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered ...

, Cornwall, with recording of the freeing of slaves entered on some pages (875) * Anglo-Saxon copy of

Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in ''Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), th ...

's ''Historiae Adversus Paganos'' with enlarged zoomorphic initials, produced at the scriptorium in Winchester Cathedral, England (892–925) * Marmoutiers Gospel Book, illuminated manuscript mixing Insular and Carolingian styles produced in Brittany or Tours, western France (late 9th century) * Codex Seidelianus I,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

uncial manuscript of the

containing 252 parchment leaves (9th century) * Irq Bitig or Book of Omens from the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China, the only known complete manuscript text written in the

Old Turkic script The Old Turkic script (also known as variously Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script, Turkic runes) was the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic khanates from the 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old ...

(9th century) * Gospels of Elisha, Armenian gospels commissioned by Lord Elisha, one of the earliest gospels written in the Armenian language (c. 900) * Coronation Gospels,

Ottonian The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after ...

illuminated Gospel book gifted to

King Athelstan King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the t ...

(late 9th or early 10th centuries) *

Testament of Ba ''The Testament of Ba'' (Tibetan or ; Wylie transliteration: or ) is an account written in Old Tibetan of the establishment of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet and the foundation of the Samye Monastery during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (r. 75 ...

, manuscript written in

marking the establishment of

Vajrayana Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

in Tibet and the foundation of the Samye Monastery during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (9th–10th centuries) * Passionarium Hispanicum, illuminated Passional manuscript in Visigothic minuscule from the Monastery of

San Pedro de Cardeña Castrillo del Val is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. It is in the valley of the River Arlanzón. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality had a population of 515 inhabitants. Main sigh ...

near Burgos, northern Spain, (911 AD) *

Guest Guest or The Guest may refer to: * A person who is given hospitality * Guest (surname), people with the surname ''Guest'' * USS ''Guest'' (DD-472), U.S. Navy ''Fletcher''-class destroyer 1942–1946 * Guest appearance, guest actor, guest star, e ...

Coutts Coutts & Co. is a London-headquartered private bank and wealth manager. Founded in 1692, it is the eighth oldest bank in the world. Today, Coutts forms part of NatWest Group's wealth management division. In the Channel Islands and the Isle ...

New Testament, Byzantine illuminated manuscript of the New Testament in Greek, with silver-gilt cover, Constantinople (mid 10th century) *

Bald's Leechbook ''Bald's Leechbook'' (also known as ''Medicinale Anglicum'') is an Old English medical text probably compiled in the ninth century, possibly under the influence of Alfred the Great's educational reforms.Nokes, Richard Scott ‘The several compil ...

or ''Medicinale Anglicum'', unique Anglo-Saxon manuscript pertaining to medical remedies, diagnoses and charms (mid 10th century) * Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, the most important surviving work of the Anglo-Saxon Winchester School of illumination (963–984) * New Minster Charter, Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscript with gold lettering, commissioned by Bishop Æthelwold and presented to the New Minster in Winchester by King Edgar to commemorate the Benedictine Reform (966) * Lei feng ta scroll, early printed document found walled up in the Leifeng Pagoda in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

, China (975) * Ramsey Psalter, Anglo-Saxon illuminated psalter made for use at the Benedictine monastery of Ramsey Abbey for its founder St Oswald (late 10th century) * Bosworth Psalter, oldest English manuscript that includes all of the important texts of the Benedictine Office, from Bosworth Hall, Leicestershire (late 10th century) * The sole surviving manuscript copy of the poem '' Beowulf'', one of four extant Anglo-Saxon poetry manuscripts (975–1025) * London Codex and First Gaster Bible: two of the oldest surviving Hebrew biblical codices, Palestine and Egypt (10th century)

1000–1200 AD

* Illustrated copy of

Prudentius Aurelius Prudentius Clemens () was a Roman Christian poet, born in the Roman province of Tarraconensis (now Northern Spain) in 348.H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Classical Literature'' (1967) p. 508 He probably died in the Iberian Peninsula some t ...

's '' Psychomachia'' or "Battle of the Soul", the first allegorical work in European literature (late 10th-early 11th centuries) * Seven of the nine surviving manuscripts of the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

'' (10th–12th centuries) *

Hemming's Cartulary ''Hemming's Cartulary'' is a manuscript cartulary, or collection of charters and other land records, collected by a monk named Hemming around the time of the Norman Conquest of England. The manuscript comprises two separate cartularies that we ...

, manuscript

cartulary A cartulary or chartulary (; Latin: ''cartularium'' or ''chartularium''), also called ''pancarta'' or ''codex diplomaticus'', is a medieval manuscript volume or roll ('' rotulus'') containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the f ...

or collection of

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...

s and other land records, collected by a monk named Hemming at

Worcester Cathedral Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire, England, situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Bless ...

around the time of the Norman conquest of England (10th–12th centuries) * Burney Gospels, illuminated copy of the Greek Gospels by the Kokkinobaphos Master, once owned by the imperial

Comnenus Komnenos ( gr, Κομνηνός; Latinized Comnenus; plural Komnenoi or Comneni (Κομνηνοί, )) was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1081 to 1185, and later, as the Grand Komnenoi (Μεγαλοκομνην� ...

family in Constantinople (10th-12th centuries) * Grimbald Gospels, luxury gospel-book with gold initials and silver decoration made by Eadwig Basan, a monk at Christ Church, Canterbury, named after Grimbald of Saint-Bertin who was recommended in a letter that accompanied the volume to

King Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who b ...

by Fulk, archbishop of Reims (1012–1023) * Manuscript copy of '' Liber Scintillarum'' or Book of Sparks, patristic anthology of biblical sayings in Latin from

Rochester Cathedral Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Kent. The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church of England and the ...

(1015) * Harley Psalter, earliest of three surviving medieval copies of the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter (1020–1040) * Harley Echternach Gospels and Egerton Echternach Gospels, two lavishly illuminated Gospel Books produced at the Benedictine Abbey of St Willibrord in

Echternach Echternach ( lb, Iechternach or (locally) ) is a commune with town status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern Luxembourg. Echternach lies near the border with Germany, and is the oldest town i ...

, Luxembourg, (1025–1075) * New Minster ''Liber Vitae'', confraternity book produced in Winchester recording the names of visitors to the New Minster with a celebrated image of King

Cnut the Great Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway ...

and Queen Emma of Normandy (1031) * '' Encomium Emmae Reginae'', lavishly illustrated Latin

encomium ''Encomium'' is a Latin word deriving from the Ancient Greek ''enkomion'' (), meaning "the praise of a person or thing." Another Latin equivalent is ''laudatio'', a speech in praise of someone or something. Originally was the song sung by the c ...

in honour of Queen Emma of Normandy, consort of kings Æthelred the Unready and

of England, and mother of kings Harthacnut and

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

(1041) * Odalricus Peccator Lectionary, illuminated

lectionary A lectionary ( la, lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and ...

with gold inscriptions by Odalricus Peccator at Lorsch Abbey, Germany (1000–1050) * Tiberius Psalter and Stowe Psalter, two of four surviving Gallican psalters produced at the New Minster, Winchester in the years around the Norman conquest of England (c.1050) * Theodore Psalter, one of the richest illuminated manuscripts to survive from

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...

(1066) *Codex of the Lives of the Saints in the

Georgian script The Georgian scripts are the three writing systems used to write the Georgian language: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, their letters share the same names and alphabetical order and are written ho ...

from the Holy Cross Monastery, Jerusalem, including unique copies of works by Cyril of Scythopolis and

Athanasius of Alexandria Athanasius I of Alexandria, ; cop, ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲡⲓⲁⲡⲟⲥⲧⲟⲗⲓⲕⲟⲥ or Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲁ̅; (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, ...

(11th century) * Old English Hexateuch, late Anglo-Saxon period translation of the six books of the Hexateuch into

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ce ...

, made under the tutelage of Ælfric of Eynsham (11th century) * Giant medieval bibles such as the

Arnstein Arnstein () is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the '' Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Location The town lies on the banks of the river Wern and is roughly 20 km from Schw ...

Bible, Floreffe Bible,

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people ...

Bible, Parc Abbey Bible, Rochester Bible, Stavelot Bible and Worms Bible (11th–12th centuries) * Latin–Old Cornish Glossary, an early Cornish-Latin glossary with the oldest complete text in the

Cornish language Cornish ( Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, ...

(11th–12th centuries) *

Mar Saba The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμέ� ...

Psalter, Byzantine Book of Psalms with full-page miniatures from the Monastery of Mar Saba near

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, (1090 AD) * Silos Apocalypse,

commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

on the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...

from Santo Domingo de Silos near

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of t ...

, northern Spain (1091–1109) * Préaux Gospels, luxury copy of the Four Gospels produced under the leadership of abbot Richard of Fourneaux, a student of Saint Anselm, at the Benedictine abbey of St Pierre in Préaux, Normandy (early 12th century) * Shaftesbury Psalter, illuminated

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

made for use at the Benedictine nunnery of

Shaftesbury Abbey Shaftesbury Abbey was an abbey that housed nuns in Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was founded in about 888, and dissolved in 1539 during the English Reformation by the order of Thomas Cromwell, minister to King Henry VIII. At the time it was the secon ...

in Dorset, perhaps originally owned by Queen

Adeliza of Louvain Adeliza of Louvain, sometimes known in England as Adelicia of Louvain, also called Adela and Aleidis; (c. 1103 – March/April 1151) was Queen of England from 1121 to 1135, as the second wife of King Henry I. She was the daughter of Godfrey I ...

, widow of Henry I of England (1125–1150) * Cartulary of Quimperlé from the abbey of the Holy Cross at

Quimperlé Quimperlé (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Geography Quimperlé is in the southeast of Finistère, 20 km to the west of Lorient and 44 km to the east of Quimper. Historically, it belo ...

, important source for the history of Brittany during the Middle Ages (1125–1150) * Melisende Psalter, illuminated manuscript commissioned in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem for Queen Melisende (c.1135) * Gospels of Máel Brigte or Armagh Gospels, illuminated

produced by a scribe named Máel Brigte úa Máel Úanaig in

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , " Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the ...

, Ireland (1138–1139) * Leaf from the

Eadwine Psalter The Eadwine Psalter or Eadwin Psalter is a heavily illuminated 12th-century psalter named after the scribe Eadwine, a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury (now Canterbury Cathedral), who was perhaps the "project manager" for the large and except ...

, one of the most decorated psalters from medieval England, named after the scribe Eadwine, a monk from Canterbury Cathedral (1155–1160) * Gospels of Simeon, gospels written in an early form of the Armenian script or ''Erkatagir'' by a monk named Simeon, collected by the traveller William B. Barker (1166) * Fragment of the luxurious

Henry the Lion Henry the Lion (german: Heinrich der Löwe; 1129/1131 – 6 August 1195) was a member of the Welf dynasty who ruled as the duke of Saxony and Bavaria from 1142 and 1156, respectively, until 1180. Henry was one of the most powerful German pr ...

with text written in gold on purple parchment and scenes of months and

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The path ...

signs (1168–1189) *

Guthlac Saint Guthlac of Crowland ( ang, Gūðlāc; la, Guthlacus; 674 – 3 April 714 CE) was a Christian hermit and saint from Lincolnshire in England. He is particularly venerated in the Fens of eastern England. Life Guthlac was the son of Penwal ...

Roll, strip of parchment containing 18 roundels depicting the life of the

saint, from

Crowland Abbey Crowland Abbey (also spelled Croyland Abbey, Latin: ''Croilandia'') is a Church of England parish church, formerly part of a Benedictine abbey church, in Crowland in the English county of Lincolnshire. It is a Grade I listed building. History ...

, Lincolnshire (1175–1215) * Winchester Psalter, Romanesque illuminated psalter made for Henry of Blois, brother of King Stephen (12th century) * ''The General's Garden'' scroll, unique manuscript translation in the Tangut language and script of a Chinese military text, collected from the abandoned fortress city of Khara-Khoto by

Aurel Stein Sir Marc Aurel Stein, ( hu, Stein Márk Aurél; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at ...

in 1914 (12th century) * Annals of Egmond Abbey, the earliest manuscript copy in Latin of the annals from Egmond Abbey, a significant source for the early history of the Netherlands (late 12th/early 13th centuries)

1200–1300 AD

* Avag Vank Gospels, lavishly illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels in the

Armenian language Armenian ( classical: , reformed: , , ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian Highlands, today Armenian is widely spoken t ...

, eastern Turkey (1200–01) * Westminster Psalter, illuminated manuscript commissioned by the Abbot of Westminster and the oldest surviving psalter used at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

(c.1200) * '' Tacuinum Sanitatis'', "The Maintenance of Health", a medical digest composed by Ibn Butlan in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

for al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, son of

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

(1213) * Two first edition copies of the Magna Carta out of 4 extant copies (1215) * Rochester Bestiary, richly illuminated manuscript of a medieval

bestiary A bestiary (from ''bestiarum vocabulum'') is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history ...

, a book describing the appearance and habits of familiar and exotic animals, both real and legendary, Rochester, Kent (1220–1230) * Annals of Boyle, Irish medieval chronicle from Trinity Island on Lough Key near Boyle, County Roscommon (1235) * Part of the Oxford-Paris-London Bible moralisée, luxury illuminated manuscript commissioned by

Blanche of Castile Blanche of Castile ( es, Blanca de Castilla; 4 March 1188 – 27 November 1252) was Queen of France by marriage to Louis VIII. She acted as regent twice during the reign of her son, Louis IX: during his minority from 1226 until 1234, and durin ...

for Margaret of Provence (1230–45) * De Brailes Hours, earliest surviving English Book of Hours, once owned by Charles Dyson Perrins (1240) * '' Mahzor Vitry'', liturgical manuscript written in

Ashkenazic Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

script, unique compendium of Jewish prayers for the entire year according to the north French rite and a host of laws on everyday practices (1242) * Felbrigge Psalter, illuminated manuscript with the earliest

embroidered Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...

bookbinding on an English book, from Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk (mid 13th century) * Third part of the '' Chronica Majora'' or history of the world by Matthew Paris, Benedictine monk and celebrated historian from

St Albans Abbey St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Norman times. It ceased to be a ...

(1254–1259) * Rutland Psalter, earliest extant example of an English

with extensive marginal imagery, London (1260) * Sumer is icumen in, manuscript copy of a

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

composed at Reading Abbey, oldest known musical round yet discovered, with

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

words (1261–1265) * '' Chronicles of Mann'', medieval Latin manuscript relating the early history of the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = " O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europ ...

(1262) *

Oscott Oscott is a ward in the northwest of Birmingham, England, within the formal district of Perry Barr. The Ward is centred on the area known as Old Oscott, originally just "Oscott", and should not be confused with nearby New Oscott. It includes ...

Psalter, English manuscript with scenes from the Bible and some of the most striking paintings of the period (1265–1270) * Dering Roll, the oldest English roll of arms surviving in its original form (1270–80) * Grandisson Psalter, once owned by John Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter and bequeathed to Princess Isabella, eldest daughter of King Edward III (1270–80) * Hispano-Moresque

Haggadah The Haggadah ( he, הַגָּדָה, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder._According_to_Jewish_practice,_reading_the_Haggadah_at_the_Seder_table_is_a_fulfillment_of_the_mitzvah.html" ;"tit ...

, illuminated

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, o ...

Haggadah manuscript with 66 full-page illustrations depicting episodes from the

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from grc, Ἔξοδος, translit=Éxodos; he, שְׁמוֹת ''Šəmōṯ'', "Names") is the second book of the Bible. It narrates the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through t ...

, made in Castile, Spain (1280) *

Coldingham Coldingham ( sco, Cowjum) is a village and parish in Scottish Borders, on Scotland's southeast coastline, north of Eyemouth. Parish The parish lies in the east of the Lammermuir district. It is the second-largest civil parish by area in Berw ...

Breviary A breviary (Latin: ''breviarium'') is a liturgical book used in Christianity for praying the canonical hours, usually recited at seven fixed prayer times. Historically, different breviaries were used in the various parts of Christendom, such ...

, illuminated liturgical book made for Coldingham Priory, Berwickshire (1275–80) * '' The Owl and the Nightingale'', one of the earliest substantial texts to be written in

(1275–1300) * North French Hebrew Miscellany, important Hebrew illuminated manuscript containing a wide range of

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserve ...

texts (1278–98) * Alphonso Psalter, ornate illuminated manuscript made for Prince Alphonso, son of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

and Eleanor of Castile, for his betrothal to Margaret, daughter of Floris V, Count of Holland and Zeeland (1284) * Collection of

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tora ...

commentaries by Rabbinic scholar

Isaac ben Melchizedek Isaac ben Melchizedek (; also known by the acronym Ribmaṣ ; c. 1090–1160), , was a rabbinic scholar from Siponto, Italy, and one of the first medieval scholars to have composed a commentary on the Mishnah, of which only his commentary on '' Se ...

from

Siponto Siponto ( la, Sipontum, grc-gre, Σιπιούς) was an ancient port town and bishopric in Apulia, southern Italy. The town was abandoned after earthquakes in the 13th century; today the area is administered as a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' ...

, Italy (1287–1288) * Copy of Sultan Walad's Ibtidānamah, said in a note by the Mughal prince

Dara Shikoh Dara Shikoh ( fa, ), also known as Dara Shukoh, (20 March 1615 – 30 August 1659) was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Dara was designated with the title ''Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba'' ("Prince of High Rank" ...

to be an autograph copy (1298) *

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

Lectionary A lectionary ( la, lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and ...

of Sainte-Chapelle, illuminated collection of Gospel passages read during mass-produced for the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris (late 13th century) * Fécamp Bible, largely intact illuminated bible originally from the Abbey of

Fécamp Fécamp () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in north-western France. Geography Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Alabaster Coast. It is around ...

, Normandy (late 13th century) *Copy of Abd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī's ''Kitāb Ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thābitah'', an illustrated description of the 48 classical constellations in Ptolemy's Almagest (13th century) * '' Chronicle of Melrose'', medieval chronicle written by monks at Melrose Abbey with the earliest independent account of the sealing of the Magna Carta (late 13th century) * Percy Psalter-Hours, rare and early example of an illuminated devotional book from

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, northern England (late 13th century) * Rare manuscript of a

Qur’ān The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

in maghribi script from

, Volume 39 of 60 volumes, originally produced in Granada, Spain (13th century)

1300–1400 AD

* One of the '' Grandes Chroniques de France'', once owned by John II of France, vernacular royal compilation of the history of France (1300–1399) *

Duke of Sussex Duke of Sussex is a substantive title, one of several royal dukedoms, that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It is a hereditary title of a specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. It takes its name ...

's German

Pentateuch The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Book of Genesis, Genesis, Book of Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus, Book of Numbers, Numbers a ...

, Hebrew manuscript richly decorated with mythical beasts in the margins, southern Germany (c.1300) * The Gwentian Code of the Welsh Law or Book of Cyfnerth, medieval legal manuscript in Welsh produced in Neath, south Wales (1300–1325) * Tripartite Maḥzor, one of three volumes from a festival prayer book for the Feast of Weeks and Feast of the Tabernacles, written in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

in southern Germany (1300–1329) *

of Renaud de Bar, originally owned by Reginald of Bar, Bishop of

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est ...

(1302–1303) * Mamluk Sultan Baybars II's seven-volume Qur’an written in gold in thuluth script, the earliest dated Qur’an from the Mamluk period, Cairo (1304–06) * Part 25 of the Qur’ān commissioned by the

Ilkhanate The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm, ...

ruler Sultan Öljaitü, written in a fine gold muhaqqaq script with illuminated frontispiece. Mosul, Iraq (1310–1311) * Stowe Breviary, illuminated manuscript

breviary A breviary (Latin: ''breviarium'') is a liturgical book used in Christianity for praying the canonical hours, usually recited at seven fixed prayer times. Historically, different breviaries were used in the various parts of Christendom, such ...

from England, providing divine office according to the Sarum Ordinal and calendar (1320–1330) * Hours of Saint-Omer, illuminated book of hours produced in

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; vls, Sint-Omaars) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Saint Audomar, ...

, northern France for the use of Marguerite de Beaujeu (1320–1330) * Taymouth Hours, illuminated Book of Hours produced in England with unusually rich decoration, named after Taymouth Castle in Scotland where it was kept for centuries (1325–1335) * Illuminated manuscript of '' Roman de Brut'' in Norman French by Wace, the earliest surviving vernacular chronicle of British history, with the earliest depiction of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting ...

(1325–1350) *

of Queen Philippa, illuminated manuscript probably made as a gift for Philippa of Hainault to mark her marriage to Edward III of England (1328) * Holkham Bible with illustrated collection of biblical and apocryphal stories in Norman French, from Holkham Hall, Norfolk (1327–1335) * Regia Carmina, address in verse to Robert of Anjou, King of Naples from the town of

Prato Prato ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city lies in the north east of Tuscany, at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. With more than 200,000 ...

in Tuscany, written by Convenevole da Prato and illuminated by Pacino di Buonaguida (1335–1340) * An early manuscript of the

Samaritan Pentateuch The Samaritan Torah ( Samaritan Hebrew: , ''Tōrāʾ''), also called the Samaritan Pentateuch, is a text of the Torah written in the Samaritan script and used as sacred scripture by the Samaritans. It dates back to one of the ancient version ...

, containing basic text of the first five books of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

Samaritan script The Samaritan script is used by the Samaritans for religious writings, including the Samaritan Pentateuch, writings in Samaritan Hebrew, and for commentaries and translations in Samaritan Aramaic and occasionally Arabic. Samaritan is a dire ...

, Damascus, Syria (1339) * Smithfield Decretals, copy of the glossed Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, renowned for its extraordinary programme of marginal illumination, once owned by St Bartholomew-the-Great church in Smithfield (1340) * Golden Haggadah, Barcelona Haggadah, Sister Haggadah and Brother Haggadah, four illuminated manuscripts for the Jewish Passover from

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

(early 14th century) * Gorleston Psalter, illuminated manuscript containing early music instruction and humorous marginalia (early 14th century) * Queen Mary Psalter, Luttrell Psalter and Howard Psalter and Hours, three lavishly illuminated Gothic manuscripts (early 14th century) * Illustrated copy of

ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat'', ( ar, عجائب المخلوقات وغرائب الموجودات, meaning ''The Wonders of Creatures and the Marvels of Creation'') is an important work of cosmography by Zakariya al-Qazwini, who ...

or "Wonders of Creation" by

Zakariya al-Qazwini Zakariyya' al-Qazwini ( , ar, أبو يحيى زكرياء بن محمد بن محمود القزويني), also known as Qazvini ( fa, قزوینی), born in Qazvin (Iran) and died 1283, was a Persian cosmographer and geographer of Arab an ...

(early 14th century) * Maastricht Hours, book of hours made in Liège, remarkable for its large number of vibrant illuminations (early 14th century) * Kildare Poems, group of sixteen poems written in an Irish dialect of

, one of the earliest manuscripts in

Irish English Hiberno-English (from Latin '' Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland ...

, Kildare, Ireland (c. 1350) * Serres

, made by Kalist Rasoder for Jakov of Serres and written in the Serbian recension of

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herze ...

(1354) * Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, the most important medieval Bulgarian manuscript (1355–1356) * Robertsbridge Codex, earliest surviving music manuscript written specifically for keyboard, Robertsbridge, East Sussex (1360) * Coronation book of

Charles V of France Charles V (21 January 1338 – 16 September 1380), called the Wise (french: le Sage; la, Sapiens), was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380. His reign marked an early high point for France during the Hundred Years' War, with his armi ...

, sumptuous illustrated manuscript recording the rituals of a royal

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

(1365) * Sherborne Missal, one of the finest English examples of

International Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art which began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by th ...

illuminated manuscripts (1385–1415) * Korean manuscript of volume 32 of the

Avatamsaka Sutra The ' (IAST, sa, 𑀅𑀯𑀢𑀁𑀲𑀓 𑀲𑀽𑀢𑁆𑀭) or ''Buddhāvataṃsaka-nāma-mahāvaipulya-sūtra (The Mahāvaipulya Sūtra named “Buddhāvataṃsaka”)'' is one of the most influential Mahāyāna sutras of East Asian Bu ...

, written on gold pigment for a royal patron (1390) * Illustrated Persian manuscript of three of the five poems from the Khamsa by Khvājū Kirmānī (1396) *

Al-Kashshaf ''Al-Kashshaaf 'an Haqa'iq at-Tanzil'', popularly known as ''Al-Kashshaaf'' ( ar, ٱلْكَشَّاف, al-Kaššāf, lit=the Revealer) is a seminal tafsir (commentary on the Qur'an) by Al-Zamakhshari written in the 12th century. Considered a pr ...

, a commentary on the Qurʻān by al-Zamakhshari (14th century)

1400–1500 AD

* Manuscript of

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of f ...

, one of the earliest illustrated English literary works (c. 1400) * London Manuscript, a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Tuscan musical manuscript containing some of the earliest purely instrumental pieces in the Western musical tradition (c. 1400) * The Life and Acts of Lalibela, Ethiopian manuscript of the history of King Lalibela of Lasta (1400) * Lovell

, illuminated codex painted by John Siferwas, Dominican friar and illuminator of the Sherborne Missal, commissioned by John, Lord Lovell, of Titchmarsh (1400–1408) * Copy of Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, historical illuminated manuscript recounting tales of the ancient world, especially the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ha ...

, the conquests of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to t ...

and the greatness of ancient Rome (1400–25) * Hours of René of Anjou, illuminated manuscript made in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

acquired by

René René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...

, Duke of Anjou and King of Naples (1405–1410) * Great Bible, at over half metre long the largest manuscript of the Bible in the British Library's collection, once owned by Henry IV of England (early 15th century) * Codex Bellunensis, illustrated florilegia and botanical codex with 180 full-page painted drawings of plants from

Belluno Belluno (; lld, Belum; vec, Belùn) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites regio ...

, northern Italy (early 15th century) * One of the earliest copies of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, perhaps the most influential literary text in Middle English (1410) * Book of the Queen, lavishly decorated collection of works by the poet Christine de Pizan presented to Queen Isabeau of France (1410–1414) * Beaufort/Beauchamp Hours, composite book of hours, the main part of which was most likely made for

Margaret Beauchamp Margaret Beauchamp (1404 – 14 June 1467) was the eldest daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and his first wife, Elizabeth de Berkeley. As the eldest child of a family without male issue, Margaret was expected to inherit from h ...

(1411–1443) * Gospel lectionary inscribed in Greek at the Monastery of St Marina in

Berat Berat (; sq-definite, Berati) is the ninth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Berat County and Berat Municipality. By air, it is north of Gjirokastër, west of Korçë, south of Tirana, and east of Fier. Berat is located in ...

, Albania (1413) * Old Hall Manuscript, the largest and most complete source of English sacred music of the late 14th and early 15th centuries (1410–1420) * Wardington Hours, Hours of the Passion illuminated by an artist from the school of the

Bedford Master The Bedford Master was a manuscript illuminator active in Paris during the fifteenth century. He is named for the work he did on two books illustrated for John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford between 1415 and 1435. One is the Bedford Hours ...

, Paris (1410–1440) * Breviary of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria, illuminated manuscript given to the

couple Couple or couples may refer to : Basic meaning * Couple (app), a mobile app which provides a mobile messaging service for two people *Couple (mechanics), a system of forces with a resultant moment but no resultant force * Couple (relationship), ...

to celebrate their betrothal (1413–19) * Bedford Hours, a richly illustrated late-medieval book of hours once owned by the

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third s ...

(1410–1430) * Psalter of Humphrey of Gloucester, illuminated

belonging to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, uncle to King

Henry VI of England Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne ...

(1430–1440) * Windsor Carol Book, manuscript of music and carols for Holy Week, probably written for

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

(1430–1444) * '' The Book of Margery Kempe'', the earliest surviving autobiography in the English language (1436) * Tractatus de Herbis, illustrated treatise of medicinal plants, with nearly 500 representations of plants, animals and minerals, originally from

Lombardy (man), (woman) lmo, lumbard, links=no (man), (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , ...

, northern Italy (1440) * Dunois Hours, highly decorated French Book of Hours by the Dunois Master, commissioned by Jean d'Orléans, Count of Dunois (1439–1450) * Collected commentaries on the Spring and Autumn annals, printed document with early use of Kabin font moveable type under the Korean King Sejong, Seoul (1442) *

Talbot Shrewsbury Book The Talbot Shrewsbury BookLondon, British Library Royal 15 E vi is a very large richly-illuminated manuscript made in Rouen (Normandy) in 1444/5. It was presented by John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury (d. 1453) to the French princess, Margaret of ...

, large richly-illuminated manuscript presented to Margaret of Anjou from Rouen, France (1444–1445) * Illuminated manuscript copy of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

, produced for Alfonso V, king of Aragon, Naples and Sicily, Siena, Italy (1450) * Volume of Poems of Charles of Orleans, illuminated folio of poems written by Charles, Duke of Orléans during his imprisonment in England following the Battle of Agincourt (c.1450) * Leaf from the Hours of Étienne Chevalier, illuminated book of hours commissioned by Étienne Chevalier, treasurer to King

Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F ...

, the only work of the famed illuminator

Jean Fouquet Jean (or Jehan) Fouquet (ca.1420–1481) was a French painter and miniaturist. A master of panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature, he is considered one of the most important painters fro ...

in the collection (1452) * Two

Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its kind, earlier designs w ...

or 42-line Bibles, two copies of a Latin Bible printed at

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Mai ...

, Germany, the earliest major books printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe (1450–1455) * Mainz Psalter, the second work to be produced with movable type in Europe and the first to experiment with multi-coloured

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...

, one of 10 extant copies, Mainz, Germany (1457) * Copy of the

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle ...

or 36-line Bible, the second moveable-type-printed edition of the Bible from

, Germany (c. 1458–60) * Rime and Trionfi by Petrarch, illuminated manuscript of poetry once owned by Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, northern Italy (1465) * Mentelin Bible, the first bible to be printed in any

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

language, one of the first edition copies printed by Johann Mentelin in Strasbourg (1466) *

Shamakhi Shamakhi ( az, Şamaxı, ) is a city in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Shamakhi District. The city's estimated population was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dancers, the Shamakhi Dancers, and also for perhaps giving i ...

anthology of poetry, illustrated by Sharaf al-Dīn Ḥusayn, a royal scribe based at the court of the

Shirvanshah ''Shirvanshah'' ( fa, شروانشاه), also spelled as ''Shīrwān Shāh'' or ''Sharwān Shāh'', was the title of the rulers of Shirvan from the mid-9th century to the early 16th century. The title remained in a single family, the Yazidids, ...

Farrukh Yassar in Shirvan,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

(1468) *

Sanaa Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gov ...

or Five Books of Moses, with stylised representations of mountains and fish swimming in the sea outlined in scriptural micrography,

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

(1469) * Only surviving manuscript copy of

, retelling the legends of

and his Knights (1471-1483) * ''

Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye ''Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye'' or ''Recueil des Histoires de Troye'' (1464) is a translation by William Caxton of a French courtly romance written by Raoul Lefèvre, chaplain to Philip III, Duke of Burgundy. It was the first book printed ...

'', copy of William Caxton's first printed book and the first book printed anywhere in English, from Bruges or Ghent, Belgium (1473) * Constance Gradual, only surviving complete edition of the first printed book of music using moveable type, southern Germany (1473) * First and second printed editions of William Caxton's '' Canterbury Tales'' (1476–1483) * Manuscript copy of '' Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers'',

translation by Anthony Woodville of the original book written in

by the medieval Arab scholar al-Mubashshir ibn Fatik (1477) * Hastings Hours, vellum illuminated manuscript with painted miniatures made in the Low Countries for Lord Hastings (1480) * Lisbon Bible, the most accomplished codex of the Portuguese school of medieval Hebrew illumination (1483) * Huth Hours, elaborately illuminated Book of Hours attributed to Simon Marmion, Flanders (1485–1490) * Early printed editions of the letter written by

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

describing his first voyage to the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, Rome and Basel (1493) * Isabella Breviary,

given to Queen Isabella I by ambassador Francisco de Rojas to commemorate the double marriage of her children and the children of Emperor Maximilian of Austria and Duchess

Mary of Burgundy Mary (french: Marie; nl, Maria; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of ...

(1497) * Most of the Book of Hours of Louis XII produced by Jean Bourdichon for King Louis XII of France (1498–1499) * Luxury illustrated copy of the '' Roman de la Rose'', one of the last Flemish Master illuminated manuscripts, Bruges (1490–1500) * Two copies of the Khamsa of Nizami illustrated by Tīmurid artist

Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād (c. 1455/60 – 1535), also known as Kamal al-din Bihzad or Kamaleddin Behzād ( fa, کمال‌الدین بهزاد), was a Persian painter and head of the royal ateliers in Herat and Tabriz during the late Timurid and ...

, the most famous of Persian miniature painters (late 15th century) * Ritson Choirbook, early manuscript source of English carols (late 15th century) *

Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai (حكاية راج-راج ڤاسا translated as “Chronicle of the Kings of Pasai”) is perhaps the earliest work in Malay on the first Malay-Muslim kingdom of Samudera-Pasai. In the story, Merah Silu met Muhammad in his ...

, the oldest known historical chronicle written in the

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines ...

(15th century) * Križanić

, liturgical manuscript written in Glagolitic script by the Croat monk Ivan Križanić, from the Erberg collection, Croatia (15th century) * Late medieval manuscript copy of the Jónsbók, code of laws promulgated in Iceland by Jón Einarsson in 1280, at the instigation of King

Magnus VI of Norway Magnus Haakonsson ( non, Magnús Hákonarson, no, Magnus Håkonsson, label= Modern Norwegian; 1 (or 3) May 1238 – 9 May 1280) was King of Norway (as Magnus VI) from 1263 to 1280 (junior king from 1257). One of his greatest achievements was the ...

, from the collection of

Sir Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James C ...

(15th century)

1500–1700 AD

* Codex Arundel, one of

's notebooks (1480–1518) * Sforza Hours one of the most richly illuminated books of hours of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass idea ...

(1490–1520) * Petit Livre d'Amour, manuscript collection of love poems written by Pierre Sala, antiquary and

valet de chambre ''Valet de chambre'' (), or ''varlet de chambre'', was a court appointment introduced in the late Middle Ages, common from the 14th century onwards. Royal households had many persons appointed at any time. While some valets simply waited on t ...

of Louis XII of France (1500) * The Hours of Joanna I of Castile, illuminated manuscript by Gerard Horenbout from the Ghent-Bruges school (1500) * Anne Boleyn's Book of Hours, opulent Book of Hours once owned by Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII of England, with lover's inscriptions (1500) * Nimatnama-i-Nasiruddin-Shahi, medieval Indian cookbook, written in Persian language with Naskh (script), Naskh script, commissioned by Sultan Ghiyath Shah of the Malwa Sultanate in central India (1500) * Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay, Stuart de Rothesay Book of Hours, illuminated Book of Hours written by Bartolomeo Sanvito and commissioned by Cardinal Marino Grimani with four miniatures by Giulio Clovio (c.1508–1538 AD) * Family tree of Portuguese monarchs, Portuguese Genealogy, illuminated manuscript made for Infante Ferdinand of Portugal, Duke of Guarda, Dom Fernando of Portugal with paintings by Simon Bening and :es:Antonio de Holanda, Antonio de Holanda (1530–1534) * One of only three wikt:extant, extant copies of the first edition of the Tyndale Bible, Tynedale New Testament, the first bible to be translated and mass-produced in English by William Tyndale (1526) * Diminutive prayer books made for Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, Anne Seymour, Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey; the latter two said to have been taken to the Scaffold (execution site), scaffold at their executions (1536–1544) * Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the earliest notebook in the English language of any major poet that has survived (1530–1540) * Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII's personal copy of the Great Bible, the first authorised version of the Bible in English (1540) * Tahmasp I, Shah Ṭahmāsb's copy of Nizami Ganjavi's Hamsa (literature), Khamsah (Five Poems) with illustrations of The Prophet Muhammad's Celestial Journey by Sultan Mohammed, Tabriz, Iran (1539–1543) * Psalter of Henry VIII, illuminated psalter by Jean Mallard that belonged to Henry VIII of England (1540–1550) * Golf book, Golf Book, illuminated Book of Hours manuscript created by Simon Bening in Bruges, Belgium (1540–1550) * The Glorification of the Great Goddess, beautiful palm leaf manuscript of the Devimahatmya, copied in Nepal in Classical Newari, Newari script during the reign of King Prana Malla of Bhaktapur (1547) * Triumphs of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Charles V, codex of 12 full page miniature paintings by Giulio Clovio celebrating the victories of the Holy Roman Emperor (1556–1575) * ''Yongle Encyclopedia'', 24 volumes of the second edition of the encyclopedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor, containing the most important texts available at that time, China (1562–1572) * Splendor Solis, medical and alchemical treatises attributed to Salomon Trismosin, meticulously painted and highlighted with gold in Germany (1582) * Imperial illuminated copy of the :de:Dārāb-nāma (British Library Or. 4615), Dārāb-nāma in Nastaliq script by Abu Ṭahir Ṭarsusi, originally from the Mughal Library of Emperor Akbar (1585) * Baburnama, Illustrated memoirs of the Mughal Babur, Emperor Bābur and the first volume of Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak's Akbarnamah, both produced for Bābur's grandson Akbar, Lahore, Pakistan (1590) * Illuminated manuscript of the Khamsa of Nizami (British Library, Or. 12208), Khamsa of Nizami, lavishly illustrated manuscript created for the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1590–1600) * An incomplete manuscript of the Razmnamah (British Library, Or. 12076), Razmnama, an illustrated Mughal Empire, Mughal translation of the Hindu epic Mahabharata written by Naqib Khan (1598–1599) * Vologda-Perm, Russia, Perm Chronicle, chronicle of events in Russian

, important early source for the history of Russia (16th century) * Important music manuscripts for keyboard, including ''Elizabeth Rogers' Virginal Book'', The Mulliner Book, ''My Ladye Nevells Booke'' and the Susanne van Soldt Manuscript from Holland (16th–17th centuries) * The Book of Sir Thomas More, one of a small number of Elizabethan plays to survive in manuscript form with three pages attributed to William Shakespeare (1601–04) * Rare first edition of Don Quixote, the first modern novel (1604) * Illuminated manuscript of Panchatantra, Anvar-i Suhayli or Lights of Canopus, copied for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir with 36 beautiful miniatures (1604–1614) * Five copies of William Shakespeare's First Folio of plays (1623) * Lavishly decorated scroll of Chapter 8 of the Lotus Sutra, presented by Emperor Go-Mizunoo to the Nikkō Tōshō-gū, Tōshō-gū Shrine in Nikkō. Japan (1636) * Kaifeng Torah Scroll, sheepskin scroll with 239 columns of text in

, one of only seven complete scrolls to have survived from the Kaifeng Jews, Synagogue in Kaifeng, China (1643–1663) * Second edition of the Bay Psalm Book, earliest printed book in British North America (1647) * Most volumes of the Mewar Ramayana, illustrated manuscript with 450 paintings of the Hindu Epic, commissioned by Acarya Jasvant for the library of Jagat Singh I of the Rajput kingdom of Udaipur State, Mewar in Rajasthan (1649–1653) * Ethiopian manuscript collections, Ethiopian manuscript of Canonical gospels, The Four Gospels, richly illustrated manuscript displaying European artistic influences, Gondar, Ethiopia (1664–1665)

1700 AD – present

* The Revelation of Saint John, profusely illustrated manuscript with 126 paintings, Gondar, Ethiopia (1700–1730) * One of only two extant copies of Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, the oldest printed edition of an anthology of English nursery rhymes (1744) * Rare edition of the Qianlong Emperor's 'Eulogy on Shenyang, Mukden', poem written in thirty-two seal-script forms in both Manchu language, Manchu and

(1748) * Luxury Sinhala script, Sinhalese manuscript containing bilingual Atthakatha, Buddhist scriptures incised in gold on palm leaves, Sri Lanka (1756) * Statue of William Shakespeare (Roubiliac), Statue of William Shakespeare by the French sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac, commissioned by the celebrated Shakespearian actor David Garrick (1757) * Copy of the poetical works in the Chaghatai language of Sultan Husayn Bayqara and the Mughal Emperor Babur (1776) * Menggu Ziyun, unique copy of a 14th-century rime dictionary of Chinese written in the 'Phags-pa script (18th century) * The Acts and Life of Saint Tekle Haymanot, profusely illustrated manuscript with the only known example of a metal cover with carvings of figures and the cross outside of Ethiopia (18th century AD) * Serat Selarasa, one of the earliest finely-illustrated Javanese script, Javanese manuscripts known, retelling the adventures of Selarasa, prince of Champa and his two brothers, originally owned by Colonel Colin Mackenzie (1804 AD) * Anthology of poetry by the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar (early 19th century AD) * Copy of Taj al-Salatin or The Crown of Kings, one of the finest illuminated Malayic languages, Malay manuscripts known, Penang (1824) * Rare copy of The Birds of America by John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds from the United States (1827–1838) * Rani Jindan's Prayer Book, luxurious manuscript written in the Gurmukhi script produced for Maharani Jind Kaur, Regent of the Sikh Empire (1828–1830) * Manuscript copy in Arabic script of the Rawz al-jinan wa ruh al-jinan, Meadows of Paradise by Gidado dan Laima, close associate of Usman dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, northern Nigeria (1840) * Delhi Book or Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi, album with collection of 120 paintings mostly by the Mughal painter Mazhar Ali Khan (painter), Mazhar Ali Khan, commissioned by Sir Thomas Metcalfe (1844) * First edition of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, one of only 25 copies that survive today (1848) * Emancipation Proclamation, one of 27 surviving copies of the Charles Godfrey Leland, Leland-George Henry Boker, Boker "Authorized Edition" printed by Frederick Leypoldt, USA (1863) * Pageant of King Mindon manuscript, the finest example of Burmese manuscript art before it became influenced by Western artistic conventions, depicting the procession of King Mindon and his court to dedicate the Kyauktawgyi Buddha Temple (Mandalay), Kyauk-daw-gyi Buddha image in Mandalay (1865) * Imperial manuscript copy of the Tale of Kiều, Vietnamese Epic (genre), epic poem written in Chữ Nôm, Sino-Vietnamese script illustrated with scenes from the story, once owned by the French orientalist Paul Pelliot, (1894) * Kelmscott Chaucer, one of 13 vellum copies of the magnificently decorated book of The Works of

, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and printed by William Morris's Kelmscott Press, with 87 illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones (1896) * Balfour Declaration, public statement issued by the British government announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine (1917) * The original hand-written lyrics of Beatles songs including "The Fool on the Hill", "A Hard Day's Night (song), A Hard Day's Night", "Help! (song), Help!", "In My Life", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "Michelle (song), Michelle", "She Said She Said", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Ticket to Ride (song), Ticket to Ride", and "Yesterday (Beatles song), Yesterday" from the Hunter Davies collection (1960s)

Maps, music, manuscripts and literature

* Important maps such as the Anglo-Saxon Map and Psalter world map, two early medieval Mappa mundi from England, one of the earliest maps of Great Britain by the Benedictine monk Matthew Paris, World Map by Ranulf Higden, a Venetian hand-written re-creation of Claudius Ptolemy's British Library, Harley MS 3686, Geographia, the Pinelli–Walckenaer Atlas, Pinelli–Walckenaer and Cornaro Atlas, Cornaro Atlases of Portolan charts from Venice, World Map by Henricus Martellus Germanus, the first map showing the Dragon's Tail (peninsula), Dragon's Tail meaning the Indian Ocean was not landlocked, the Contarini–Rosselli map, first printed map showing the new world, several hand-produced Dieppe maps produced for wealthy Renaissance patrons including one by Pierre Desceliers, the Queen Mary I of England, Queen Mary Atlas made by Portuguese map-maker Diogo Homem, one of only two copies of a Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio, Map of America by Diego Gutiérrez (cartographer), Diego Gutiérrez, part of a Mercator 1569 world map by Gerardus Mercator, a decorative Atlas drawn by the Portuguese cartographer Fernão Vaz Dourado, the Atlas of England and Wales made by Christopher Saxton for William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Lord Burghley, the earliest extant Chinese Globe made by Nicolò Longobardo and Manuel Dias the Younger, Manuel Dias, the Klencke Atlas, the largest atlas in the world, a rare copy of the Velarde map of the Philippines and a copy of the Mitchell Map of North America (11th–18th centuries) * Original manuscripts of musical scores including Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach's ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'' and ''Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5, Wo soll ich fliehen hin'', Michael William Balfe, Balfe's ''The Bohemian Girl'', the Sketch (music), sketchbook of Beethoven's ''Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven), 6th Symphony'', his ''Violin Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven), Violin Sonata No. 8'', ''Lied aus der Ferne'' and a Fair copy (music), fair copy of the ''Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven), 9th Symphony'', Johannes Brahms, Brahms's ''Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119 (Brahms), Rhapsodie in Eb (op. 119, no. 4) for Piano'' and ''Zigeunerlieder (Brahms), Zigeunerlieder'', Benjamin Britten, Britten's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera), A Midsummer Night's Dream'',''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'' and ''War Requiem'', Frédéric Chopin, Chopin's ''Barcarolle (Chopin), Barcarolle in F sharp major for piano, op 60'' and ''Polonaises Op. 40 (Chopin), Polonaises Op. 40'', Claude Debussy, Debussy's ''Brouillards'', ''La chute de la maison Usher (opera), La chute de la maison Usher'' and ''Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (Debussy), Fantaisie for piano and orchestra'', Frederick Delius, Delius's ''Brigg Fair'', ''On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring'' and ''Piano Concerto (Delius), Piano Concerto in C minor'', Edward Elgar, Elgar's ''Enigma Variations'', ''Pomp and Circumstance Marches'' and ''Violin Concerto (Elgar), Violin Concerto in B minor'', Gilbert and Sullivan's ''The Gondoliers'', ''Patience (opera), Patience'' and ''Ruddigore'', Edvard Grieg, Grieg's ''Peer Gynt Suite'', Handel's ''Messiah (Handel), Messiah'', ''Music for the Royal Fireworks'', ''Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne'' and ''Zadok the Priest'', Haydn's Symphony's ''Symphony No. 40 (Haydn), No. 40'', ''Symphony No. 95 (Haydn), No. 95'', ''Symphony No. 96 (Haydn), No. 96'' and ''Symphony No. 97 (Haydn), No. 97'', Holst's ''The Planets'', Franz Liszt, Liszt's ''Christus (Liszt), Christus'', Mahler's ''Symphony No. 9 (Mahler), Symphony No. 9'' and ''Ulrich'' from ''Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Mahler), Des Knaben Wunderhorn'', Mendelssohn's ''Symphony No. 1 (Mendelssohn), Symphony No. 1'', ''A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn), A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and ''String Quartet in E-flat major (1823) (Mendelssohn), String Quartet in E flat'', Mozart's ''Adagio and Fugue in C minor (Mozart), Adagio and Fugue in C minor'', ''God is our Refuge'', ''Horn Concerto No. 3 (Mozart), Horn Concerto No. 3'', ''String Quintet No. 6 (Mozart), String Quintet No. 6'', his last ten string quartets including ''String Quartet No. 19 (Mozart), No. 19'' and the thematic catalogue of all his works from 1784 to 1791, Jacques Offenbach, Offenbach's ''Fantasio (opera), Fantasio'', Henry Purcell, Purcell's ''My Heart is Inditing'', Maurice Ravel, Ravel's ''Boléro'', Schubert's ''An die Musik'', ''Mass No. 3 (Schubert), Mass No. 3'' and ''Piano Sonata in G major, D 894 (Schubert), Piona Sonata in G Major'', Gioachino Rossini, Rossini's ''List of compositions by Gioachino Rossini, Il pianto delle muse in morte di Lord Byron'' and part of ''Ivanhoé'', Schumann's ''Piano Sonata No. 3 (Schumann), Piano Sonata No. 3'', Richard Strauss's ''Die schweigsame Frau'', Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky's ''Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra'' and part of ''The Firebird'', Vaughan Williams's ''The Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams), The Lark Ascending'' and ''Pastoral Symphony (Vaughan Williams), Pastoral Symphony'', Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi's ''Attila (opera), Atilla'' and part of ''La traviata'', Richard Wagner, Wagner's ''Die Feen'', ''Der fliegende Holländer'', ''Polonia (Wagner), Polonia'', and ''List of compositions by Richard Wagner, Overture in D, Rule Britannia'', William Vincent Wallace, Wallaces's ''Love's Triumph'', Anton Webern, Webern's ''List of compositions by Anton Webern, Sechs Stücke für grosses Orchester'', and many more (18th–20th centuries) * Autograph letters, diaries, notes and other manuscript material from famous people such as Marie Antoinette, W H Auden, Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Hector Berlioz, Bertold Brecht, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Isambard Brunel, Catherine the Great, Charles I of England, Winston Churchill, Hans Christian Andersen, Captain James Cook, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Daniel Defoe, René Descartes, John Dryden, Albrecht Dürer, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Elizabeth I of England, E M Forster, Michael Faraday, Benjamin Franklin, Sigmund Freud, Galileo, Mahatma Gandhi, Garibaldi, Edward Gibbon, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Goethe, Adolf Hitler, William Hogarth, Victor Hugo, Henrik Ibsen, Henry James, John Maynard Keynes, Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Lord Kitchener, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Lafayette, D.H.Lawrence, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gottfried Leibniz, Lenin, Abraham Lincoln, Carl Linnaeus, David Livingstone, Louis XVI of France, John Locke, Martin Luther, Karl Marx, Michelangelo, John Milton, Sir Thomas More, Mussolini, Horatio Nelson, George Orwell, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sir Isaac Newton, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon, Florence Nightingale, Laurence Olivier, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Pope, Ezra Pound, Sir Walter Raleigh, Grigori Rasputin, Rasputin, Rembrandt, Robert the Bruce, Robespierre, Franklin D Roosevelt, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Captain Scott, Mary Shelley, Adam Smith, George Stephenson, Jonathan Swift, Tchaikovsky, Dylan Thomas, Tolkien, Alan Turing, Jules Verne, Voltaire, George Washington, John Wesley, Walt Whitman, Sir Christopher Wren, and many others (14th–20th centuries) * Autograph manuscripts of famous novels and poetry from literature including ''

'' and ''Persuasion (novel), Persuasion'' by

, ''The Drowned World'', ''Empire of the Sun'' and ''High-Rise (novel), High Rise'' by J. G. Ballard, ''Heartbreak House'' and ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' by George Bernard Shaw, the Notebook of William Blake (also known as the Rossetti Manuscript) with many of his most famous poems, ''

'', ''Shirley (novel), Shirley'' and ''Villette (novel), Villette'' by

, ''Gondal (fictional country), Gondal poetry'' by Emily Brontë, ''Pan is Dead'', ''The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point'' and ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ''The Ring and the Book'' by Robert Browning, ''The Cotter's Saturday Night'' and ''A Red, Red Rose'' by Robert Burns, ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' and ''Don Juan (poem), Don Juan'' by Lord Byron, ''Past and Present (book), Past and Present'' by Thomas Carlyle, ''Crewe manuscript, Kubla Khan'' and ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' by Samuel Coleridge, ''The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter'', ''The Adventure of the Retired Colourman'' and the ''Brigadier Gerard'' stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ''The Rescue (Conrad novel), The Rescue'', ''Suspense'' and part of ''Romance (novel), Romance'' by Joseph Conrad, ''Une ténébreuse affaire, A Murky Business'' by Honoré de Balzac, ''

'' and ''The Pickwick Papers'' by

, part of ''Humiliated and Insulted'' by Fyodor Dostoevsky, ''The Forty-Five Guardsmen'' by Alexandre Dumas, ''Adam Bede'', ''Middlemarch'', ''The Mill on the Floss'' and ''Silas Marner'' by George Eliot, ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' by T.S. Eliot, ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights, The Living Daylights'' and ''The Fabulous Pay-Off'' by Ian Fleming, ''The Forsyte Saga'' by John Galsworthy, part of ''The Counterfeiters (novel), The Counterfeiters'' by André Gide, part of ''The Wind in the Willows'' by Kenneth Grahame, ''The Captain and the Enemy'' by Graham Greene, ''Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' by Thomas Hardy, ''The Marble Faun'' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''The Masque of Queens'' by Ben Jonson, ''Finnegans Wake'' and part of ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' and ''Ulysses (novel), Ulysses'' by James Joyce, ''Ode to a Nightingale'' and ''Isabella, or the Pot of Basil'' by John Keats, '' Just So Stories'', ''Kim (novel), Kim'' and ''The Jungle Book'' by

, ''History of the Seven Families of the Lake Pipplepopple'' by Edward Lear, ''Dulce et Decorum est'' by Wilfred Owen, ''The Birthday Party (play), The Birthday Party'' and ''No Man's Land (play), No Man's Land'' by Harold Pinter, ''The Deep Blue Sea (play), The Deep Blue Sea'' by Terrence Rattigan, ''Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man'' by Siegfried Sassoon, ''Kenilworth (novel), Kenilworth'' by Sir Walter Scott, ''Hymn to Intellectual Beauty'', ''The Masque of Anarchy'', ''Mont Blanc (poem), Mont Blanc'' and ''Queen Mab (poem), Queen Mab'' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Percy Shelley, ''A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy'' and ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Tristram Shandy'' by Laurence Sterne, ''Dracula'' (theatrical version) by Bram Stoker, ''La Fille du Policeman'' by Algernon Charles Swinburne, A.C. Swinburne, ''The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem), The Charge of the Light Brigade'' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Lord Tennyson, ''The Wolves and the Lamb'' by William Makepeace Thackeray, part of ''The Kreutzer Sonata'' by Leo Tolstoy, ''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'', ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', ''An Ideal Husband'' and ''De Profundis (letter), De Profundis'' by Oscar Wilde, ''

'' by

, ''I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud'', ''My Heart Leaps Up'' and ''Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, Upon Westminster Bridge'' by William Wordsworth, and many others (17th–20th centuries) * Manuscript of '' Alice's Adventures Under Ground'' by

(given to the British Library by a consortium of American bibliophiles "in recognition of Britain's courage in facing Hitler before America came into the war") (1865)

Collections of manuscripts

Foundation collections

The three foundation collections are those which were brought together to form the initial manuscript holdings of the British Museum in 1753: * Cotton library, Cotton manuscripts *Harleian Library, Harley manuscripts *Hans Sloane, Sloane manuscripts

Other named collections

Other "named" collections of manuscripts include (but are not limited to) the following: * Arundel Manuscripts * Egerton Collection, Egerton manuscripts * King's manuscripts, British Library, King's manuscripts * Lansdowne manuscripts * Royal manuscripts, British Library, Royal manuscripts * Stefan Zweig Collection * Stowe manuscripts * Henry Yates Thompson, Yates Thompson manuscripts Other collections, not necessarily manuscripts: * Lawrence Durrell Collection

Additional manuscripts

The Additional Manuscripts series covers manuscripts that are not part of the named collections, and contains all other manuscripts donated, purchased or bequeathed to the Library since 1756. The numbering begins at 4101, as the series was initially regarded as a continuation of the collection of Sloane manuscripts, which are numbered 1 to 4100.

Chief executives and other employees

British Library employees undertake a wide variety of roles including curatorial, business and technology. Curatorial roles include or have included librarians, curators, digital preservationists, archivists and keepers. In 2001 the senior management team was established and consisted of Lynne Brindley (chief executive), Ian Millar (director of finance and corporate resources), Natalie Ceeney (director of operations and services), Jill Finney (director of strategic marketing and communications) and Clive Field (director of scholarship and collections). This was so the problems of a complex structure, a mega hybrid library, global brand and investment in digital preservation could be managed better ; Chief Executives * 1973 to 1984: Sir Harry Hookway, first Chief Executive * 1991 to 2000: Brian Lang * 2000 to 2012: Dame Lynne Brindley * 2012 to present: Roly Keating ; Chief Librarians * 2013 to 2018: Caroline Brazier (librarian), Caroline Brazier, first Chief Librarian * from September 2018: Liz Jolly"Jolly to succeed Brazier as BL's chief librarian"
, 23 May 2018 by Benedicte Page, ''The Bookseller''

References

; Citations

Early foundations

Legal deposit

Using the library's reading rooms

Online, electronic and digital resources

Material available online

Electronic collections

Digital Library System

Exhibitions

Services and departments

Business and IP Centre

Document Supply Service

Sound archive

Moving image services

Periodicals and philatelic collections

Newspapers

Philatelic collections

Other projects

Highlights of the collections

1300 BC – 500 AD

500–800 AD

800–1000 AD

1000–1200 AD

1200–1300 AD

1300–1400 AD

1400–1500 AD

1500–1700 AD

1700 AD – present

Maps, music, manuscripts and literature

Collections of manuscripts

Foundation collections

Other named collections

Additional manuscripts

Chief executives and other employees

See also

References

Further reading

External links