Parker Library, Corpus Christi College
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The Parker Library is the rare books and manuscripts library for Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; it is known throughout the world due to the invaluable collection over 600 manuscripts, particularly medieval texts, the core of which were bequeathed to the College in 1574 by Archibishop Matthew Parker.
The original gift from Parker, a former Master of the College, consisted of about 480 manuscripts and around 1000 printed books spanning the sixth to sixteenth centuries. Parker himself was, as one of the architects of the Elizabethan Settlement and the modern Anglican church, keenly interested in collecting and preserving manuscripts from Anglo-Saxon England as evidence of an ancient English-speaking church independent of Rome. Parker wished to demonstrate an apostolic succession for the English Church.
The library houses nearly a quarter of all extant Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in the world, including the earliest copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Old English Bede, and King Alfred’s translation of Pastoral Care (a manual for priests), as well as the Latin St. Augustine Gospels, one of the oldest bound books in existence. The collection also includes key middle English texts, such as the Ancrene Wisse, illuminated manuscripts (including the Bury Bible, c. 1135), and one of the oldest pieces of extant written music.
Even in the sixteenth century, this collection was recognised as a unique treasure, and Parker did not bequeath it without any strings. Within the terms of his endowment, Parker stated that if any more than a certain number of books were lost, the rest of the collection would pass first to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and then (in the advent of any more losses) to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Every few years, representatives from both of those colleges ceremonially inspect the collection for any losses. Parker placed a similar condition on the silver that he also bequeathed to the college, and these stipulations are part of the reason that Corpus Christi College retains to this day the entirety of the library and the silver collection, as they were unable to sell off (or melt down) the less valuable parts of either collection without losing both.
Use of the original manuscripts in the collection is restricted to scholars, however the Parker on the Web project is currently digitising the manuscripts to make them available more widely to both scholars and to the public. Exbitions of some of the materials have been also periodically held.
[edit] External links
- The Parker Library (webpage from Corpus Christi)
