The manuscripts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance are rich resources for understanding the historical and literary culture of the British Isles. The British Library’s collections include key sources for politics, law, and society before 1600, alongside outstanding works of literature such as Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

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Readers at desks in the Manuscript Reading Room

Manuscripts Reading Room

The Manuscripts Reading Room is the enquiry point for the Library's western language manuscript collections (i.e. written by hand, not printed). The collection includes literary, historical manuscripts and private papers.

  • Find information on the shelves about the British Library’s collection of western manuscripts and those held elsewhere
  • Access online databases and electronic journals and books relating to archives and manuscripts
  • Order collection items to the Reading Room via our Explore Archives & Manuscripts Catalogue

Some of our manuscripts may require a Letter of Introduction, or may have other Access Conditions.

We offer a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

You’ll need a Reader Pass

Mon: 10.00 – 17.00
Tue – Sat: 09.30 – 17.00
Sun & English Public Holidays: closed

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

For enquiries, please contact the Manuscripts Reference Team.

Over 500 collection items from the British Library and institutions across Europe

Illustrations of Gawain, King Arthur and members of the court, and the green knight holding a decapitated head, from the manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

c. 1400

Matthew Paris's 13th century Map of Britain. Rivers are marked in dark blue, the sea is blue-green. The shape of Britain is not as we know it to look now but the island is clearly recognisable as Britain. Scotland is joined to the mainland by a bridge at Stirling, Hadrian's wall is clearly visible, and Rochester, Canterbury and Dover are erroneously situated due south of London. Windsor (‘Windleshores’) is depicted as a castle straddling the River Thames, but Runnymede is not represented. No fewer than 252 places are recorded on this particular map, including 81 cathedrals and monasteries, 41 castles and 33 ports. Place names are highlighted in red ink

Matthew Paris's map of Britain

1200-99

Matthew Paris's Itinerary Map of a route from London to Palestine, showing Jerusalem, a plan of Acre – the large walled enclosure with a camel outside it - and other coastal cities marked by castles and towers.

Matthew Paris's itinerary maps from London to Palestine

c. 1250

Maps of Britain by Matthew Paris

Map of Britain by Matthew Paris, Royal MS 14 C. VII

mid-13th century

A linear map showing the route from London to Beauvais from Matthew Paris's Itinerary from London to the Holy Land.

Itinerary from London to Beauvais

about 1250-59

images of four English kings holding buildings that represent their religious foundations. The images are in grid formation. 2x2. Each king in seated on a throne. From left to right, top to bottom: Henry II with Waltham Abbey; Richard I the Lionheart with the church of St Thomas of Canterbury; John with the Cistercian Abbey of Beaulieu; Henry III with Westminster Abbey

Portrait of King John from Matthew Paris's Historia Anglorum

1200-99

Manuscript page, the lower half of the page is shown here. The text is in two columns. The bottom margin is filled with a coloured line illustration. An archer shoots arrows from the top turret of a castle causing tow horsemen to flee the walls of the castle. The siege of Lincoln Castle and battle of Sandwich

The siege of Lincoln Castle and battle of Sandwich

1200-99

Section of a manuscript roll. Circular miniature portraits are linked by coloured lines to depict genealogical links

The ancestry of King John

c.1300-07

Matthew Paris's Itinerary Map of a route from London to Palestine, showing Jerusalem, a plan of Acre – the large walled enclosure with a camel outside it - and other coastal cities marked by castles and towers.

Matthew Paris's itinerary maps from London to Palestine

c. 1250

Burnt copy of Magna Carta with the seal attached

Burnt copy of Magna Carta with the seal attached

1215

Open book manuscript. Two pages of text, Blue and red incipit letters

Coronation charter of Henry I

1100

The Forest Charter of 1225. Manuscript with large seal attached the the bottom of the Charter

The Forest Charter of 1225

11 February 1225

Charter of King John to Robert of Braybrooke

Charter of King John to Robert of Braybrooke

1208

Page containing the Prologue, from a manuscript of the Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Late 14th century

The Devonshire Manuscript

The Devonshire Manuscript

16th century

Page containing the Prologue, from Caxton's Canterbury Tales

William Caxton's illustrated second edition of The Canterbury Tales

A page from an English bestiary, showing an illustration of the rebirth of a phoenix.

Bestiary, with extracts from Gerald of Wales

Late 12th-century–early 13th century

Gerald of Wales's The Conquest of Ireland

Gerald of Wales's The Conquest of Ireland

c.1196 -1223

Manuscript page, the lower half of the page is shown here. The text is in two columns. The bottom margin is filled with a coloured line illustration. An archer shoots arrows from the top turret of a castle causing tow horsemen to flee the walls of the castle. The siege of Lincoln Castle and battle of Sandwich

The siege of Lincoln Castle and battle of Sandwich

1200-99

A page from a 12th-century collection of the letters of Thomas Becket, showing an illustration of the events of his martyrdom.

Martyrdom of Thomas Becket

1174–1176

Seal of Stephen Langton

Seal of Stephen Langton

1228

A page from a medieval manuscript, with an illustration of an enthroned king, with a man and woman kneeling before him

John Lydgate, Troy Book and The Siege of Thebes

c. 1457–1530

The opening of the Old English poem Beowulf, from the Beowulf Manuscript.

Beowulf

c. 1000

Page containing the Prologue, from a manuscript of the Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Late 14th century

Manuscript page of text. Verse account of Magna Carta in the Chronicle of Melrose Abbey

Verse account of Magna Carta in the Chronicle of Melrose Abbey

1200-99

Manuscript page, the red ink has been used for every second line of text. The page is headed by a colourful miniature image which depicts King John being offered a cup of poison: as the accompanying text relates, in Anglo-Norman French, ‘e fuit enpoysone par une frere de la meson’ (he was poisoned by a brother of the house). King John accepts the chalice with a look of suspicion, while the monk’s brethren watch eagerly to see whether the ruse will succeed.

The poisoning of King John and coronation of King Henry III

1200-99

Royal MS 18 E I, f. 175r

Jean Froissart, Chronicles

4th quarter of the 15th century

Open book image. Manuscript of Chronicon Anglicanum. Capital letters are in red ink, the rest of the text is in black ink

Chronicon Anglicanum

1200-99

Cloth of Gold

Tent design for the Field of Cloth of Gold

Music with rose

Double canon dedicated to Henry VIII

John Rogers, Proposal for Remodelling the First Floor of Hull Manor, Jun 1542 or 1543, Cotton, Augustus I.i.84

Plan of King Henry VIII’s manor-house at Kingston upon Hull

1542-3

Thomas More's History of King Richard III

Thomas More's History of King Richard III

Letter

Letter from Henry VIII to Wolsey

Manuscript

Sir Thomas More writing on the coronation of Henry VIII

1509

Letter

Last letter of Sir Thomas More to Henry VIII

The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatnes or the life of Sir Thomas More

The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatnes or the life of Sir Thomas More

Thomas More's Utopia

Thomas More's Utopia

Thomas More's History of King Richard III

Thomas More's History of King Richard III

Thomas Cromwell's 'Rememberances'

Thomas Cromwell's 'Rememberances'

1530-39

Henry Vlll Psalter. The illustration shows King Henry Vlll siting in his ante-chamber reading his Psalms, f.3

Henry VIII’s Psalter

c. 1540–1541

Map

Henry VIII’s coastal defence maps

Letter

Letter from Henry VIII to Wolsey

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Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts

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Dr Scot McKendrick

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