Blog

1. 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...

   23rd January 2013 • Read more

2. 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...

   18th January 2013 • Read more

3. 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...

   16th January 2013 • Read more

4. 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...

   16th January 2013 • Read more

5. 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...

   4th January 2013 • Read more

6. “When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled”…

   Fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail will no doubt agree that this fleeing demon does look remarkably like he is being played by Eric Idle… The delightful image...

   2nd January 2013 • Read more

7. Happy New Year!

   A very Happy New Year to all our readers and friends – we are open as usual today – why not come in out of the rain and catch the...

   2nd January 2013 • Read more

8. See you next year!

   The Library closes today for the Christmas break and reopens again on January 2nd. We look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year and leave you with...

   20th December 2012 • Read more

9. Merry Christmas from the Elven Librarians

   Library staff have been busy this morning taking a rest from interpreting the Elvish archive and have put on a little Christmas show for you all…

   20th December 2012 • Read more

10. Ambassador, you are spoiling us!

    This is only one of the unofficial captions for this year’s Library Christmas card… others included, ‘What? You know I’m allergic to eggs!’ and other less printable suggestions. Whatever your...

    17th December 2012 • Read more