We are thrilled to announce that the British Library has acquired five medieval manuscripts of outstanding national heritage significance, formerly in the collection of Longleat House. Together, these manuscripts shed exceptional light on the study of Hebrew by Christian monks in medieval England, on the administration of a medieval English town, and on spiritual devotion in medieval England and Ireland. The acquisition has been made possible thanks to substantial grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, The American Trust for the British Library, the British Library Collections Trust, the Friends of the Nations' Libraries, and other donors. They are now available to view in full online and they can be consulted by readers in the Manuscripts Reading Room at St Pancras. We hope that these manuscripts will inspire people worldwide and will lead to new discoveries about their contents, history and use.

Trilingual dictionary, Psalter and Hebrew grammar: Add MS 89788, ff. 35v–36r

The first manuscript was made at Ramsey Abbey (medieval Huntingdonshire, modern-day Cambridgeshire) in the middle of the 13th century, in collaboration between the Christian monks and Jewish scholars. This manuscript (Add MS 89788) contains three works fundamental for the study of Hebrew: a unique trilingual Hebrew-Latin-Middle French dictionary, containing definitions and interpretations of over 3,600 Hebrew words, made by Christian scribes in consultation with Jewish scholars; a Hebrew Psalter, made originally by Jewish scribes but subsequently annotated heavily by Christian monks; and a grammar of the Hebrew language, partly transliterated into Latin, and said to be the most important grammatical work on Hebrew made in medieval Europe. Prior Gregory of Ramsey is renowned as a student of Hebrew around this time, and so this manuscript may have been compiled for him or for the use of his fellow monks. Add MS 89788 is considered to be the most important surviving manuscript for Christian-Jewish relations in the period before the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.

Trilingual dictionary, Psalter and Hebrew grammar: Add MS 89788. f. 190r

The Red Book of Bath (Add MS 89789), so-named because it retains its original leather chemise, originally dyed pinkish-red, was compiled in the 1420s by the officials of the town of Bath. This volume contains an extraordinary array of historical, legal, administrative and medical texts. Among them are a unique Life of King Arthur in Middle English verse; a unique Middle English Life of St Katherine of Alexandria (patron saint of Bath); a diagram of a bloodletting man; and two sketch maps of the Mediterranean. Of particular relevance to Bath is an account of bell-ringing in the town, the oath to be sworn by burgesses to the mayor, and an order for placing the town's pillory. Inside the front cover of the medieval binding is a seemingly unique recess which once held weights and a pair of scales for weighing gold. We can imagine that the town's officials carried this manuscript with them when overseeing trade and carrying out their official duties.

The Red Book of Bath: Add MS 89789

Our third newly-acquired manuscript was made in the region of Dublin in the 15th century, perhaps for a female patron (Add MS 89790). It contains a highly unusual collection of devotional and visionary texts, written by Nicholas Bellewe in the Hiberno-English dialect. This manuscript occupies an important position in the transmission of the works of Richard Rolle of Hampole (d. 1349), being the only copy that addresses The Form of Living to Margaret Kirkby, a Yorkshire anchoress. Also found in this manuscript is the most complete and perhaps the earliest copy of A Revelation of Purgatory, a first-person account of a series of visions experienced by an anchoress in Winchester in 1422.

Richard Rolle’s ‘The Form of Living’ and related works: Add MS 89790, 126r

Next in sequence is a unique collection of Middle English sermons (Add MS 89791), written in the early years of the 15th century, and thought to have been composed by an anonymous Franciscan friar. The author, who has also been credited with a more famous text, Dives and Pauper, was writing at a time of great controversy in the English Church, stoked by the teachings of the English theologian John Wycliffe (d. 1384). Indeed, Dives and Pauper was condemned as heretical around this time by the archbishop of Canterbury, which may throw light on the content and context of the sermons.

Middle English sermons: Add MS 89791, f. 12v

Our final new acquisition contains the Arma Christi and other devotional texts (Add MS 89792), and was written by Theodericus Werken, a Dutch-born scribe who had moved to London by around 1450. The Arma Christi describes the instruments of the Passion of Christ, and this version is accompanied by a series of illuminations, including two major half-page miniatures of Veronica's Veil and Christ as Man of Sorrows. Other texts were added to the manuscript towards the end of the 15th century, including a prayer devoted to St Brigit of Sweden, suggesting that it may once have been owned by a Bridgettine community.

Arma Christi: Add MS 89792, ff. 6v–7r

The British Library is extremely grateful to the many funders who have supported the acquisition of these five manuscripts. We would be delighted to hear how researchers and other audiences make use of them, and we will blog more about each manuscript in turn over the coming months.

 

 

The British Library has loaned the Moutier-Grandval Bible to the Musée Jurassien d'Art et d'Histoire in Delémont, Switzerland. This enormous manuscript of the whole Bible was made in the scriptorium of the abbey of St Martin in Tours in the 830s or 840s. It was subsequently held at the Abbey of Moutier-Grandval near Delémont in north-west Switzerland. The manuscript is celebrated for its four, spectacular, full-page illustrations. The first of these, facing the opening of the book of Genesis, in on display in Delémont.

The page facing the opening of the Book of Genesis, from the Moutier-Grandval Bible (Tours, France, c. 830–c. 840): Add MS 10546, f. 5v 

The illustration on this page is a narrative sequence in four panels. The scenes depict events described in the second and third chapters of Genesis: the Creation of Adam and Eve; God’s warning not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge; the Temptation and Fall; the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden; and Eve suckling and Adam toiling. Within the borders of these scenes is a Latin poem written in chrysography, or gold letters, that summarises the events.  

This monumental manuscript, which has 449 leaves, making 898 pages in total, weighs 22 kg. It is the work of some twenty scribes and contains the Latin text of the Bible as revised by Alcuin of York, who had been abbot at Tours from 796 until his death in 804.

The Moutier Grandval Bible (Add MS 10546), on display at the Musée Jurassien d'Art et d'Histoire

The exhibition includes other manuscripts and objects made in the early Middle Ages, most notably the crozier of St Germain, the first abbot of Moutier-Grandval, which dates from the 7th century.

The opening of the exhibition attracted great press attention, and both His Excellency James Squire, His Majesty’s Ambassador to Switzerland, and Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider spoke at the inaugural event. Radio Télévision Suisse have also made a TV documentary about the manuscript which will be broadcast in April.

Claire Breay, Head of Medieval Manuscripts, being interviewed at the press preview for the exhibition: © [email protected] 2025

This is not the first time that the Moutier-Grandval Bible has been on display in Delémont. In 1981, the manuscript was loaned to the Musée Jurassien d'Art et d'Histoire for three months, where it was seen by more than 30,000 visitors. 

The Moutier-Grandval Bible is again on display there until 8 June 2025 and the museum has organised an extensive programme for visits by school groups to introduce a new generation to the manuscript. 

There will also be a research colloquium on 9–10 May in Tramelan, organised by Mémoires d’Ici, Centre de recherche et de documentation du Jura bernois, in collaboration with the University of Geneva.  

For more information on the exhibition and opening times, visit the website of the Musée Jurassien: https://www.mjah.ch/e/expositions/detail/784-la-bible-de-moutier-grandval-fait-son-retour-en-2025  

 

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The exhibition Unfolding Time: The Medieval Pocket Calendar is now open at Lambeth Palace Library. Curated by Dr Sarah Griffin, it explores medieval conceptions of time by bringing together a remarkable group of manuscripts, known as concertina-fold almanacs, for the first time alongside treasures from Lambeth Palace Library itself. The British Library has loaned a number of items to the exhibition, including two English concertina-fold almanacs (Add MS 17367 and Egerton MS 2724), two bound calendar almanacs (Harley MS 2332 and Royal MS 17 A XVI) and several printed examples, made in the 15th and 16th centuries. The exhibition is free to visit and runs from 14 February to 15 May 2025.  

An opening from a concertina-fold almanac, showing a perpetual calendar: Add MS 17367  

During the medieval period, there were various ways of tracking time, from charting the movements of the planets and other celestial bodies, and the change in the seasons, to the marking of historic events and anniversaries and other significant days in the liturgical calendar. Such was the complexity of representing these different temporal cycles, manuscript makers moved away from the conventional format of the codex (or bound volume) to explore other means of recording the passage of time. By the end of the Early Modern period, a whole range of formats had developed to express this type of temporal information, from volvelles and other diagrams with moveable elements, to genealogical rolls, roll chronicles, and bat books. Perhaps the most ingenious of all these developing formats was the concertina-fold almanac.  

The upper cover and edge of a closed concertina-fold almanac, showing its distinctive folds: Egerton MS 2724 

A view of a printed concertina-fold almanac, showing its accordion or concertina-like structure: c. 36. aa. 5 

Concertina-fold almanacs were made from long sheets of parchment, which were folded to create a concertina-like structure composed of different compartments. Cuts made in the folds would then form a pop-up mechanism, allowing the reader to access the interior of the almanac and the information it enclosed, without the need to unfold the whole sheet each time. In the video below, we show how one of these almanacs unfolds (Add MS 17367): 

The benefit of the concertina-fold almanac as a format was both its portability – many of these items are small and compact enough to fit easily in the palm of a hand – and its capacity to compress a huge amount of calendrical and other information within relatively few leaves of parchment. Such information tended to be expressed in the form of tables and diagrams and through symbols and pictograms rather than through words alone. Here are just some of the different kinds of information that can be found within the manuscripts and printed items on display in the exhibition.  

Chronicle tables 

Chronicle tables chart the entire history of the world at the time of the manuscript’s production in a condensed form, referencing only a few significant events. For example, in the concertina-fold almanac below (Add MS 17367), we find a record of the number of years that have elapsed since Creation (here symbolised by a large orb), the Flood (symbolised by Noah’s Ark), and the number of years that Adam remained in Hell (symbolised by a fiery hell-mouth).  

A chronicle table from a concertina-fold almanac: Add MS 17367 

A hell-mouth from the chronicle table: Add MS 17367

Labours of the Month 

Many concertina-fold almanacs mark the change in the seasons through representations of the so-called Labours of the Month, the agricultural or domestic activities conventionally associated with different calendar months during this period. In this printed example below (C.41.a.28), the tasks for January-April show a labourer sitting by the fire, pruning trees, and ploughing the fields. Opposite these images, circular diagrams in red and black with an orange orb in the centre handily indicate the number of hours of daylight and darkness in each calendar month.   

Labours of the month for January to April, and accompanying diagrams illustrating the daylight hours and periods of darkness: C. 41. a. 28 

Perpetual calendars 

Concertina-fold almanacs often feature ‘perpetual calendars’, recording both saints’ days and other feasts celebrated on the same day each year (e.g. Christmas), together with the information a reader could use to determine moveable feasts (e.g. Easter). In this calendar for November and December from a finely illuminated example (Egerton MS 2724), the feast days for different saints are accompanied by an illustration, either a portrait of the saint, an attribute closely associated with them or a scene from their life. St Andrew, who appears at the top right-hand side of this calendar, is depicted with an image of his martyrdom, in which he was crucified upon a saltire or x-shaped cross. Likewise, the second row illustrates Thomas Becket’s feast day with a depiction of his murder in Canterbury Cathedral.  

A calendar opening within a concertina-fold almanac: Egerton MS 2724 

An illustration of the martyrdom of St Andrew on a saltire, or x-shaped cross: Egerton MS 2724 

An illustration of the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral: Egerton MS 2724 

Prognostications 

This calendar almanac (Harley MS 2332) has been bound into a codex format, but its contents share many features with the corpus of concertina-fold almanacs that survive. Notably, it includes a table of prognostics concerning the dominical letters, a method of predicting the future based on the day of the week (the big A to G letters on the left) on which the new year falls. Here, different possible outcomes that might befall the reader are shown pictographically, in the form of vibrant and entertaining symbols (some more easily interpretable than others), including crops, barrels, sleeping figures, pairs of flying eyes, axes and swords, demons, beehives, and sinking ships.  

 

A table of prognostics concerning the dominical letters within a bound calendar almanac: Harley MS 2332, ff. 19v-20r  

A sinking ship, beehives, daggers and a demon from the dominical letter prognostics: Harley MS 2332, f. 20r

We highly recommend you explore the world of the concertina-fold almanac in the exhibition, Unfolding Time: The Medieval Pocket Calendar at Lambeth Palace Library, where all these unique manuscripts and printed books and more will be on display, from 14 February until 15 May 2025.   

For more information on the exhibition and opening times, visit the Lambeth Palace Library website: www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/unfolding-time 

Calum Cockburn