Archive: 2013

  1. Let us together be bound!

      If this Valentine’s Day sees you short of ideas for a suitable declaration of your love and respect, you could do worse than take inspiration from one of the...

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  2. In defence of Richard III

    The current excitement about the discovery of the body of Richard III prompts us to draw attention to the Library’s copies of the two earliest published defences of the king....

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  3. A Cure for the Winter Blues

    What with some of the staff trapped in the snowy North (i.e. Oldham), others gridlocked in icy South Manchester, and the weather forecast, according to the Metro,set to be the...

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  4. A Bacchanalian Garland

    Did you know that the National Anthem of the United States gets its melody from a popular 18th-century British drinking song? We learned that from listening to Radio Four’s In...

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  5. Our latest newsletter is now live!

    The latest edition of our Newsletter is now out! As well as a round-up of all the latest news and events, it includes special material only available to subscribers, including...

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  6. Prince Albert and his memorial

    On this day in 1867 the Albert Memorial in Manchester was unveiled. It took several years of very slow progress by a committee set up to provide an appropriate memorial...

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  7. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum

    This beautiful woodcut is taken from our 1539 edition of the plays of Terence, part of a remarkable series of illustrations depicting scenes from medieval theatre productions. The attention to...

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  8. Who can stand before His cold?

    Who, indeed. This seasonal sermon on snow from the seventeenth century was written by the aptly named John Shower, a Presbyterian minister working in London, who was inspired to respond...

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  9. The Library of Cool

      The Library’s position on the cool wall has improved slightly this week, thanks to the presence of several members of indie bands Everything Everything, Delphic and Dutch Uncles, who...

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  10. Happy Birthday, Archbishop!

    The Library holds a large number of works by the prolific scholar and Archbishop James Ussher, whose 432nd birthday it would have been today. Ussher is perhaps most famous for...

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