LONDON.- The British Library has announced it has acquired five exceptional medieval manuscripts from the private library at Longleat House. The manuscripts provide fresh insight into different areas of medieval life, from Jewish-Christian relations to the administration of a medieval town, theological debates and medieval devotional art. They are vital additions to the British Library’s collection that will help inform the study of the Middle Ages by researchers in the future.


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This acquisition has been made possible with a £1m grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and support from Art Fund, The American Trust for the British Library, British Library Collections Trust and Friends of the Nations’ Libraries’. The works were acquired by the British Library, in negotiations brokered by Christie’s in a Private Treaty Sale.


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The five manuscripts:

• The Trilingual Dictionary, Psalter and Hebrew Grammar is an unparalleled witness to Christian-Jewish relations in medieval England. Around the year 1250, the monks of Ramsey Abbey (in modern-day Cambridgeshire) compiled a unique dictionary of the Hebrew language in consultation with Jewish scholars. Together they translated more than 3,500 Hebrew words into Latin and medieval French. The same volume contains a unique Hebrew grammar made by the monks, the most accomplished medieval Christian grammatical work on the Hebrew language, and a Hebrew Psalter written by Jewish scribes. This remarkable collection sheds new light on how Christian and Jewish scholars sometimes co-operated on the study of Hebrew before the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.

• The Red Book of Bath is an exceptional volume made for the officials of the town of Bath in the 15th century. So-called because it retains its original medieval leather cover, once dyed reddish-pink, the Red Book contains a unique Life of King Arthur in Middle English verse, a unique Life of St Katherine of Alexandria (patron saint of Bath), two rare sketch maps of the Mediterranean, and numerous texts relating to commerce, local customs and the running of the town. The Red Book was clearly compiled for the town’s administrators — inside its front cover is a very unusual recess that would have once held weights and a pair of scales for weighing gold. This compilation provides extraordinary insights into the life of a late medieval English town.

• The manuscript containing Richard Rolle’s The Form of Living is a very unusual example of a Middle English literary manuscript made for a woman in 15th-century Ireland and written in the Hiberno-English dialect. Richard Rolle (d. 1349) was a highly influential English mystical author, and this manuscript is believed to contain Rolle’s personal selection of his own works. Also found in the volume is the most complete surviving copy of A Revelation of Purgatory, an important visionary account by an English anchoress.

• Soon after the year 1400, a Cambridgeshire cleric wrote a series of Middle English sermons, surviving in this single manuscript. The sermons throw fresh light on a controversial period of English Church history, when theologians debated the broadening of access to the Bible and the influence of priests, in reaction to the teachings of John Wycliffe (d. 1384), a famous philosopher and Christian reformer. Although the author of the sermons remains anonymous, another text (known as Dives and Pauper) known to be composed by them was condemned by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time. 

• The Arma Christi manuscript acquired by the Library (with support from Art Fund) is a devotional collection containing an unusual sequence of illustrations. While the artists are unnamed, the manuscript’s scribe has been identified as Theodericus Werken, who was born in the Netherlands but had moved to London by around 1450. Manuscripts of this kind highlight the importance of personal devotion and piety in the Middle Ages.

Julian Harrison, Lead Curator, Medieval Historical and Literary Manuscripts at the British Library, said: ‘The five manuscripts we’ve acquired from the private library at Longleat House help to illuminate a 200-year period of political, religious and civil change in Britain and Ireland. The manuscripts are broad in scope, encompassing relationships between the Christian and Jewish communities, the running of a medieval town, unique literary and devotional works and debates in Christian theology. They represent a significant addition to our collection of medieval manuscripts and will be an invaluable resource for researchers in the future.’ 

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: ‘Each of these five magnificent manuscripts offer unique perspectives and glimpses into medieval life, religion and society. Now, in their new home at the British Library and through digitisation they can be discovered and enjoyed by people across the UK and beyond.

The Memorial Fund exists to save the UK's finest heritage and create a timeless collection that belongs to us all, as a permanent memorial to those who have given their lives for the UK. We are delighted that these five medieval manuscripts are now part of that growing collection.’



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