Collection items

St Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah

Manuscript Created date: 1st half of the 9th century

This eighth-century copy of St Jerome’s (b. 347, d. 420) Commentary on the Old Testament book of Isaiah is an early vers...

St Jerome’s translation of Eusebius’ Chronicon

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

The Greek scholar and historian Eusebius of Caesarea (d. c. 340) prepared a world chronicle of history from Abraham to t...

Sulpicius Severus, Lives of St Martin and St Bened...

Manuscript Created date: 1st half of the 11th century

The lives of two important early saints, Sts Martin and Benedict, have been copied together in this volume dating from t...

Symeon of Durham, De Exordio Ecclesiae Dunelmensis

Manuscript Created date: 1st quarter of the 12th century

Symeon of Durham (active c. 1090–c. 1128) was an English monk and historian, known for writing a number of chronicles, i...

The First Arrival of the Saxons and the Normans

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

This volume includes a diverse range of texts, two of which were copied in northern England in the middle of the 12th ce...

The Life and Miracles of St Nicholas

Manuscript Created date: 4th quarter of the 11th century

From the early Middle Ages onwards many monasteries produced libelli (small books), each of which contained the life of...

Tiberius Bede

Manuscript Created date: 1st half of the 9th century

Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People was completed in 731. The work tells the story of the conversion of ...

Vitae sanctorum (Lives of saints)

Manuscript Created date: 4th quarter of the 11th century

Saints’ Lives or Vitae sanctorum were a new and popular form of historical writing developed in Europe in the Middle Age...

Winchester Benedictional

Manuscript Created date: Late 10th century–1st half of the 11th century

Benedictionals (from the Latin benedicere, to bless) are books that contain lists of blessings given by bishops during t...

Ælfwine’s Prayerbook

Manuscript Created date: 3rd decade of the 11th century

Many manuscripts reveal a surprising amount about their makers and owners. One such is this small prayer book, which mea...