Collection items

Alphonso Psalter

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript, Parchment Codex

This manuscript was begun for Prince Alphonso (b. 1273, d. 1284), son of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, who was betrot...

Anne Boleyn’s Book of Hours

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript, Manuscript annotation

King Henry VIII and the court regularly attended Mass in the royal chapel, sometimes more than once a day. The King oft...

Barcelona Haggadah

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript, Illumination

The haggadah is the service book used in Jewish households on Passover Eve to celebrate the Israelites' deliverance from...

Beaufort Book of Hours

Illuminated manuscript

This Book of Hours, inherited by Henry’s grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, contains a calendar of Church festivals an...

Collectanea satis copiosa

Illuminated manuscript

For about two years, a team of scholars and royal agents gathered together and studied manuscripts that would provide ev...

Coloured illustrations of Buddhist heavens and hel...

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript, Image

A folding book manuscript in 59 folds made in Upper Burma. It has tooled leather covers with paper labels dated Manadala...

Coronation of Henry VIII with notes by Henry

Illuminated manuscript

On acceding to the throne, monarchs were crowned in a magnificent and elaborate ceremony in which the new king swore to ...

Cosmological diagram

Manuscript, Image, Illuminated manuscript

This is one of a set of delicate drawings depicting the world, the heavens and the hells of Buddhist cosomolgy. Here, va...

Design for Henrician castle on the Kent coast

Illuminated manuscript

This fortification plan or ‘plat’ is a survivor of the many that were stuffed into drawers in Henry’s office in Holbein ...

Double canon dedicated to Henry VIII

Illuminated manuscript

This grand manuscript was prepared for Henry in 1516 by a successful Flemish merchant

Duke of Sussex's Catalan Bible

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript

The messianic imagery found in these splendid Hebrew Bibles is unique. Crystallised in Spain in the 13th century and app...

Duke of Sussex's Italian Pentateuch

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript

This Pentateuch shows a rare example of the embellishing of initial letters in a Jewish manuscript – a practice commonly...

Harley Golden Gospels

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript

The Harley Library was founded in 1704 when Robert Harley purchased 600 manuscripts. The library was later given to the...

Henry VII on his deathbed

Illuminated manuscript

Though he may not have been present, the Garter King of Arms, Sir Thomas Wriothesley (d. 1534), wrote a detailed account...

Henry VIII’s coastal defence maps

Illuminated manuscript

In February 1539 Thomas Cromwell ordered certain ‘sadde and expert men of every shire in Ingland beyng nere the see&hell...