This exhilarating fraternity, and the fellow enthusiasts who come with it, throw new light on how manuscripts have survived and been used by very different kinds of people in many different circumstances. Christopher de Hamel's unexpected connections and discoveries reveal a passion which crosses the boundaries of time. We understand the manuscripts themselves better by knowing who their keepers and companions have been. Chapter 28: A good-humoured Christmas Chapter, containing an Account of a Wedding, and some other Sports beside/which although in their Way even as good Customs as Marriage itself, are not quite so religiously kept up, in these degenerate Times Chapter 15: In which is given a faithful Portraiture of two distinguished Persons; and an accurate Description of a public Breakfast in their House and Grounds/which public Breakfast leads to the Recognition of an old Acquaintance, and the Commencement of another Chapter For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. By the time we reach Sir Frederic Madden, of the British Museum (The Librarian), we are used to moving into an imaginative version of the historic present, as when the author tells Madden about progress on this book, and is asked by the librarian for more information on David Oppenheim (The Rabbi), “as he asked the Bodleian in reality in 1865”. Madden “knows more about Simon Bening than anyone in Europe”, but is less impressed by the Duc de Berry (The Prince).

The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. But we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. De Hamel’s tale is punctuated with detailed descriptions of prize manuscripts and lamentations at the odd tragedy, such as a fire in 1731 at the portentously named Ashburnham House that destroyed dozens of texts, badly damaging the only manuscript of Beowulf and the fourth- or fifth-century Genesis, both collected by England’s pre-eminent antiquarian, Sir Robert Cotton. Chapter 32: Describes, far more fully than the Court Newsman ever did, a Bachelor’s Party, given by Mr. Bob Sawyer at his Lodgings in the Borough Chapter 39: Mr. Samuel Weller, being intrusted with a Mission of Love, proceeds to execute it; with what Success will hereinafter appear In this talk we will meet the patrons and illuminators, but also the antiquaries and collectors, the librarians, the dealers, the scholars and a rabbi and even a forger, all brought together by their passion for the books of the Middle Ages. We learn more about manuscripts by knowing the company they have kept throughout history.De Hamel acquired his first antiquarian book at the age of 15 and promptly defaced it with his signature

If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. The earliest member of de Hamel’s notional “Manuscripts Club” is Saint Anselm, an 11th-century Benedictine monk who ran the scriptorium in Bec Abbey in Normandy before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. De Hamel walks us through Bec Abbey, vividly capturing the collegiate culture of lending and copying that allowed European scribes to produce and disseminate learned texts. You don’t need to know your psalters from your breviaries to be swept away by his scholarly but conversational style. Reading the Posthumous Papers is like taking a walk in excellent company. The story of the people who created, saved and collected Europe's most sumptuous manuscripts, it's beautifully illustrated, a rich feast of scarlet and gold. Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Books of the YearChange the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Alamy The Duc de Berry at his New Year feast in the January miniature of the Très Riches Heures illuminated by the Limbourg brothers, c.1415. This depiction is illustrated in the book The people selected for de Hamel’s imaginary manuscripts club, inspired by real groups such as the Roxburghe Club and the Grolier Club, are drawn from eight centuries. The subjects have been selected carefully to showcase different kinds of engagements with manuscripts, beginning with the 12th-century monk, Saint Anselm, and the culture of copying and distributing manuscripts that he promoted at the abbey of Le Bec in Normandy and later at Canterbury where he was archbishop. De Hamel imagines meeting his subjects, drawing on surviving places as well as manuscripts. There is, of course, much more evidence for the more recent subjects, so these imagined meetings become rather less speculative as the book progresses. The central premise, however, is that these people who lived in very different times and places would find common ground with de Hamel, the reader and each other in their shared love of manuscripts.

Details will be confirmed to registrants ahead of the event. If you have booked to attend online, you will receive a link to the Zoom webinar in the week before the event. Friends of the BodleianChristopher de Hamel introduces his newest and largest book yet, about people who spent their lives with medieval manuscripts, from the eleventh century to the twentieth. It imagines a fraternity of enthusiasts sharing very different obsessions with some of the most beautiful books ever made.

Chapter 21: In which the old Man launches forth into his favourite Theme, and relates a Story about a queer Client This book is really a series of twelve mini-biographies of people who, through the course of history, have been collectors of manuscripts and who very well may have saved (or at least preserved) many rare manuscripts from destruction. Something that comes across as relatively common is the desire to own a rare item more than owning a specific item due to its significance. What is also common among the people included here is a real joy among the collectors for manuscripts. In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eight centuries - de Hamel imagines meeting them, sharing precious discoveries, trading gossip. The illustrations emit a light of their own, but what shines even brighter is the author's boyish enthusiasm for his subject. Times Books of the Year I dream of stealing it away, and I am not alone in my weakness for these singular objects (as centuries of light-fingered clergymen could attest). My bibliophilia, however, cannot compete with that of Christopher de Hamel, the Cambridge fellow and ex-Sotheby’s expert whose 2017 Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts saw him wrangle with hundreds of the things. For this follow-up, The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club, he takes us into the strange world of bibliomaniacs across time, presenting 12 portraits of collectors and their surprisingly “restless” texts, that shuffle across nations and continents as they pass between collections.

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This talk is supported by the Friends of the Bodleian. To enjoy closer access to the Bodleian, including exclusive events and priority access to online content, join the Friends today. Chapter 44: Treats of divers little Matters which occurred in the Fleet, and of Mr. Winkle’s mysterious Behaviour; and shows how the poor Chancery Prisoner obtained his Release at last Dr Michael Wheeler is a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and the author of The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age: Lives, loves and letters of 1845 (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Chapter 55: Mr. Solomon Pell, assisted by a Select Committee of Coachmen, arranges the affairs of the elder Mr. Weller