For Visitors

Guided tours of the College including the Parker Library are available on Thursday afternoons at 14.00 (except during the exam period April-June). Tours leave from the Tourist Information Centre and last one hour. Tickets should be booked in advance by phoning 01223 457574 or online.

For Readers

If you wish to consult a Parker Library manuscript as part of your academic research, please see the New Readers page for details of how to make an appointment at the library.

Contact Details

Donnelley Fellow Librarian: Dr Christopher de Hamel

Parker Sub-Librarians: Ms Gill Cannell & Dr Suzanne Paul

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tel: 01223 338025

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

The Parker Library blog is at http://theparkerlibrary.wordpress.com

Contact Details for College Archives

Dr Elisabeth Leedham-Green ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for material dated before 1900

Dr Lucy Hughes ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for material dated after 1900.

The Parker Library

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]