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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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)...

Decorated copy of Gratian’s Decretum

Manuscript Created date: 1171–1180

The Decretum, an encyclopedia of Church or canon law compiled by the Bolognese scholar, Gratian, in around 1140, became...

English copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of ...

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

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s (b. c. 1100, d. 1154) History of the Kings of Britain was an influential medieval account of the ...

English illustrated copy of Church law

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

This illustrated copy of Church or canon law features the distinctive layout common to medieval legal manuscripts. The m...

Flavius Josephus, Antiquities and The Jewish Wars

Manuscript Created date: 1171–1180

Flavius Josephus (d. c. 100) was one of the most important historians of the Greco-Roman era. He was born in Jerusalem,...

Foigny Abbey Bible

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

This giant Bible includes the entire text of the Old and New Testaments. Each biblical book opens with a large initial l...

French collection of historical works

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

Produced in Normandy in the 12th century, this manuscript contains a collection of works by the Venerable Bede (b. c. 67...

Homiliary produced at Corbie Abbey

Manuscript Created date: 1179

Homiliaries are compilations of sermons or explanations of biblical texts, arranged according to significant days in the...

Illuminated copy of St Augustine's De Trinitate

Manuscript Created date: 1121–1130

In the early fifth century the theologian, St Augustine of Hippo (b. 354, d. 430) wrote a treatise on the Trinity (De Tr...