Collection items

12th-century calendar and annals

Manuscript Created date: Late 12th century–Early 13th century

In the Middle Ages, as today, calendars served to organise time into days and months. This fragment collection contains...

12th-century Horologion

Manuscript Created date: 12th century

A Horologion, or Book of Hours, contains the outline of the services (aside from those relating to the Eucharist) of the...

12th-century miscellany of Latin texts

Manuscript Created date: Early 12th century

The oldest surviving copy of the History of the Britons (Historia Brittonum) is found in a miscellany of late Antique an...

Amalarius of Metz, De Ecclesiasticis officiis

Manuscript Created date: c. 1100

Amalarius of Metz (d. c. 850) was one of the great writers of the Carolingian age. He participated actively in political...

Anselm of Canterbury's theological treatises

Manuscript Created date: 4th quarter of the 12th century

This composite volume, consisting of two originally separate booklets, contains seven of Anselm’s thirteen scholarly tre...

Askew Gospel Book

Manuscript Created date: 12th century

This 12th-century Gospel book (now divided into two volumes) was copied by the monk Gregory. A note at the end of the se...

Astronomical texts

Manuscript Created date: 12th century

Astronomy, the science of the stars, was an important part of the early medieval curriculum. This astronomical collectio...

Baudri of Bourgueil, History of Jerusalem

Manuscript Created date: 2nd half of the 12th century

The Historia Hierosolimitana (History of Jerusalem) is one of the most sophisticated accounts of the First Crusade (1095...

Bestiary, with extracts from Gerald of Wales

Manuscript Created date: Late 12th-century–early 13th century

A bestiary contains Christian allegorical lessons based on the characteristics and habits of animals found in nature and...

Bilingual Psalter

Manuscript Created date: 4th quarter of the 12th century

Produced in England during the last quarter of the 12th century, this manuscript is one of only a few bilingual Psalters...

Boethius, De institutione arithmetica

Manuscript Created date: 3rd quarter of the 12th century

Written by the sixth-century Roman philosopher Boethius, De institutione arithmetica (On Arithmetic) was the principal m...

Canterbury or Anglo-Catalan Psalter

Manuscript Created date: 4th quarter of the 12th century

The Canterbury Psalter is amongst the most lavishly illustrated of English manuscripts. The luxurious decoration is part...

Cartulary of Reading Abbey

Manuscript Created date: 1190–1199

The 12th-century Cartulary of Reading Abbey gives a list of works held at the medieval libraries at Reading Abbey and Le...

Chartres Bible (first of two volumes)

Manuscript Created date: Mid-12th century

The 12th century saw the production of large-format ‘giant’ Bibles. In part, their popularity was due to the needs of ne...

Chartres Bible (second of two volumes)

Manuscript Created date: Mid-12th century

Named after its probable place of origin, The Chartres Bible is divided in two volumes. (The first is now BnF, Latin 55)...