Lincoln Cathedral Library

Library at Lincoln Cathedral

Collections

The finest rare book library in the East Midlands and among the top five cathedral library collections in England. In addition there is a modern reference library which is open to the public.

There are 270 medieval manuscripts, including works of theology, canon law, devotional books, music and literature, and the following:

• Text of the Venerable Bede
• Lincoln’s Chapter Bible - commissioned for the new cathedral by Nicholas, Archdeacon of Huntingdon in the late 11th century
• The fifteenth-century Thornton Romances - includes the earliest written account of the death of King Arthur, and was a source for the poet Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur

The devotional books include books of hours, exquisitely illuminated, and small enough to fit into a pocket.

Medieval manuscripts are among the books on display during the annual exhibition in the Medieval Library, which runs from spring to autumn.

History

Pre civil war

In the medieval era the manuscripts were kept in a chest or cupboard, and scholars came from great distances to consult them.

By 1422 a new, chained library had been built over the east walk of the Cloister, adjoining the Chapter House. Three of the medieval reading desks and one bench survive in the Medieval Library, which was built to accommodate around a hundred manuscripts.

Wren Library

Honywood's tomb in the cathedral nave

Michael Honywood was made Dean of Lincoln at the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, with the huge task of repairing the fabric of the cathedral, ravaged by the Parliamentarian soldiers during the Civil War. General repairs took him until 1674, when he was finally able to begin his cherished project of providing a new library building with £780 of his own money on the site of the ruined north cloister.

Honywood commissioned the design from Sir Christopher Wren, who also supervised throughout, as is indicated by a page which survives in the Cathedral collections, setting out the prices for painting and gilding, and written and signed by Wren. The external Tuscan Doric colonnade of the exterior is serenely classical yet the inside is full of Baroque features: advancing and receding planes and cornice, which all give interest to a long, narrow room; and the trompe l'oeil marbling. Some of the original marbling and gilding survives; the rest has been replicated.

The terms laid out in the contracts for the building specified that the building should be completed in two years.

He bequeathed his 5,000 books (including one of only 250 manuscript versions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) to the Dean and Chapter - these are still in the building built for them, one of only 2 surviving Wren libraries.

Trivia

• Beneath its entrance steps is a Roman mosaic.

External links

• Exterior
  • [1]
  • Exterior image
• Internal image

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