TEMPORARY PARKER LIBRARY CLOSURE

Due to the construction of a new reading room and secure vault, the Parker Library is closed to researchers until Easter 2010. The manuscripts are at present stored off-site. Limited access may be available to the manuscripts during this period, and researchers should contact the library, giving as much advance notice as possible.

Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone 01223 338025.

The Parker on the Web project to digitise the manuscripts is now complete and can be viewed at http://parkerweb.stanford.edu

Library staff will endeavour to maintain a photographic and general enquiries service throughout the closure.

Donnelley Fellow Librarian:

Dr Christopher de Hamel

Parker Sub-Librarians:

Ms Gill Cannell, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr Suzanne Paul, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Library Postal Address:

Parker Library

Corpus Christi College

Cambridge

CB2 1RH.

The Parker Library, named after Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504-1575), former master of the College, is a treasure house of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and early printed books. The magnificent collection was given to the College by Parker and includes the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, principal source book for early English history, and the best manuscript of Chaucer's Troilus. No less important to the collection are also the Middle English, French and Latin texts on subjects ranging from alchemy and astrology to music and medicine.

The Library is a renowned international research centre, welcoming many scholars who come to study its materials. Although undergraduates do not normally work there, it is well worth a visit to see the various exhibitions mounted each term, and they are welcome to bring friends and relations to view the Library in office hours.

An opening from the beginning of the Gospel of St Luke. (MS 286, 6th century)

The collection comprises over 600 manuscripts, around 480 of which were given by Parker, who also donated around 1000 printed volumes. The collection includes a sixth-century Gospel book from Canterbury, which is used for the enthronement of each new Archbishop of Canterbury, the oldest illustrated Latin Gospel book now in existence.

There are around 40 Old English manuscripts, including the oldest version of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle (MS 173), the Corpus Glossary, an alphabetical wordlist in Latin, with Old English equivalents (MS 144), and a lavishly illustrated copy of the Psychomachia of Prudentius (MS 23).

A detail from the Psychomachia;the allegorical struggle for possession of the soul

Two of only half a dozen extant giant Romanesque Bibles form part of the Library's collection: the Bury Bible from the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds (MS 2), and the Dover Bible, from Dover Priory, a cell of Canterbury.

The Library also holds an important collection of sixteenth century documents relating to the European reformers, including letters from Bucer, Melanchthon, and Erasmus, together with many of Parker's working archival records, and personal papers.

Letter from Anne Boleyn to her father.

Digital photos have been taken of almost every page of every manuscript in the Parker Library and the images can be viewed online at Parker Library on the Web

The Parker Library has recently acquired, on loan for five years, seven manuscripts from the James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell Collection, including the Codex Voguë Machaut manuscript For a list and brief description of these manuscripts, see [Ferrell manuscripts]