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Parker Library's manuscripts as part of a major exhibition at the British Library

The sixth century Gospels of Saint Augustine is one of eleven precious manuscripts from the Parker Library which are part of the largest ever exhibition on the history, literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England.

The exhibition ‘Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War’ opens today 19 October in the British Library and it will remain open until 19 February next year.

The loan of eleven manuscripts to the British Library for their exhibition, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, makes the Parker Library the single largest lender to the exhibition as a whole. As the holder of a quarter of all Old English Manuscripts that survive to the modern day, our loans form the core of the exhibition, from one of the earliest objects, the sixth century Gospels of Saint Augustine (MS 286) in the second case, to the portrait of King Æthelstan offering a book to Saint Cuthbert (MS 183), to the haunting polyphony of the tiny Winchester Troper that can be heard for the first time in almost 1000 years (MS 473). Billed as ‘once in a generation’ exhibition, we’re proud that the Parker’s loans take their rightful place alongside treasures from across Europe clearly showing that the ‘Dark Ages’ really weren’t ‘dark’ at all.

For more information about the exhibition, please click here.

The Parker Library regularly loans items from the collection to exhibitions all over the world. This provides opportunities for people who cannot come to the library to see those items and also presents parts of the collection in new contexts, highlighting the variety of interests the Library's collection can address. Items from the collection are currently on loan can be seen here.