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  1. Binding Books for Chetham’s Library

    22nd October 2026 • Read more

  2. ‘A Sweetness … Which Tickles Even While it Hurts’: Absalom and Achitophel (1681) by John Dryden, a Seventeenth-Century Political Satire

    27th August 2026 • Read more

  3. Fit for a King: Royal Bindings in Chetham’s Library

    5th August 2026 • Read more

  4. Unbound

    18th June 2026 • Read more

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  1. A close-up of the cover of a book bound in dark brown leather, now quite scuffed. In the centre of the cover is a gilt-stamped armorial design featuring the arms of Humphrey Chetham, and beneath it, a scroll bearing the motto ‘QUOD TUUM TENE’. Around the edges is a blind-stamped decorative border.

    Binding Books for Chetham’s Library

    Visitors to the library often ask whether our books are in their original bindings, or whether they have been bound or rebound since they arrived in our collection. Although the...

    22nd October 2026 • Read more
  4. A partial image of the painted foredge of a book, the pages of which are made from palm leaves. At the bottom (the centre of the foredge) the palm leaves are painted read, while at the top, they are gold. A floral design in red against a gold background separates the two sections. The wooden covers are similarly coloured, and are held together by a leather strap with holes and a buckle.

    Unbound

    Everyone is familiar with the old adage that one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but adhering to the most literal sense of that saying is sometimes more easily...

    18th June 2026 • Read more
  6. A row of single beds covered with blankets stand with their heads against a medieval stone wall. Through a ‘Tudor’ arch, another room containing more beds and a medieval arched window is visible. Above, a medieval timbered roof is visible.

    The Mummified Cat in the Library Roof

    Readers are advised that this post contains a photograph of a mummified cat and rat which they may find distressing. Over the years, the medieval buildings that now house Chetham’s...

    18th May 2026 • Read more
  9. A handwritten letter in a cursive hand, beneath which are several signatures.

    Lost and Found in the Library

    In the early years of the nineteenth century, Chetham’s Librarian John Taylor Allen (1812–21) made a remarkable discovery in his apartment at the library: a treasure trove of the private...

    20th March 2026 • Read more
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