Conservation Grants
We are delighted to announce that the Library has recently been awarded two significant grants, which will enable the preservation of some of our most important and valuable books.
We have been awarded £25,000 from the J. Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust, to be used for preserving some of the Library's earliest acquisitions. All of these printed books are stored on the original seventeenth-century presses or bookcases on the historic first floor of the Library.
Restoring these works will have a significant impact on scholarship by making a number of exceptional works on the history of theology, science, medicine, literature and history usable once more. In addition, by concentrating on multi-volume sets, it will also have an enormous impact on the visual appearance of the Library, allowing us, for example, to remove the tape which helps keeps boards attached to the text, restoring them to the condition in which they were purchased three hundred years ago. This work will be carries out by Formby's of Ramsbottom
We are equally grateful to the Idlewild Trust for an award of £3,000 to be used for the restoration of some of the most historic titles in the collection. These include:
A Third Folio Shakespeare (1663), the Library’s earliest copy of Shakespeare. The Third Folio is relatively rare, compared to the Second and Fourth, probably because unsold copies were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The Library’s copy has loose front and back boards.
John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), 1st ed. The Library’s copy has a loose front board.
Christopher Saxton, Atlas of 1579, the first printed atlas of England and Wales containing 35 double leaves of hand-coloured maps of all the counties of England and Wales. The largest map, that of Yorkshire, is badly damaged, with several sections detached from the main map. This requires extensive paper conservation.
A printed Book of Hours, printed on vellum in Paris in 1527, with many large and several small illustrations. The spine of this work is split and needs to be resewn and rebacked.
A small collection of books owned by the Elizabethan polymath John Dee, who was warden of the Collegiate Church of Manchester (now Cathedral) in the 1590s and 1600s. Dee was one of the greatest book collectors of his day and our collection includes books written by him (e.g. Monas Hieroglyphica of 1591, which needs completely rebinding in vellum or calf), and books which he owned and annotated (such as his copy of Gesner’s De remediis secretis, which has a damaged spine and needs resewing and rebacking).
An emblem book of 1592, consisting of 21 hand-coloured emblematic plates, and 60 heraldic plates, many of which are hand-painted with heraldic designs, complete with autographs and inscriptions in a large number of late 16th and early 17th century hands. This work requires resewing and a refurbishment of the binding.
A manuscript of the early C17th, which contains poems and prose in a variety of hands. This is an extremely important work, containing verse by Ralegh, Donne and Jonson. The work requires a new binding in full vellum.
Manuscripts by Christopher Towneley (1604-1674). Thirteen volumes of transcripts of local material, chiefly copies, abstracts of deeds, evidences of Lancashire gentry by one of the county’s earliest historians. These works, which are essential to historians of the early history of the region, require refurbishment and repair.
Industrial Archaeology
In recent years the Library has acquired a number of important collections on the industrial archaeology of the region. Much of this material awaits cataloguing and will only be fully accessible once it has been sorted and described, but in the meantime it is worth recording that these collections are available for research.
MRIAS
The Manchester Region Industrial Archaeology Society was founded in 1964, and promotes the recording and study of the industrial archaeology of the Greater Manchester area. The archive contains reports and surveys on mills, works, factories, canals, archaeological digs, docks and transport, as well as much else. A rough handlist giving an idea of the scope of the collection is available here as a pdf.
Champness Collection
An extensive collection of printed books and archival material compiled and collected by Bernard and Jill Champness, founding members of MRIAS, and important historians of the Manchester region. Handlists of the printed and archival collections are available in pdf format.
Richard Hills Collection
Archive of books and papers belonging to Richard L. Hill, distinguished historian of science, founding director and curator of Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry and author of works on Richard Arkwright and James Watt. The archive includes a large number of photographs of buildings, works, mills, engines and machinery which represent a significant resource on the industrial archaeology of the region. Printed books from the Hills collection are gradually being added to the Library catalogue.
Mullineux Photographic Archive
The Library has received a large collection of photographs taken by the late Frank Mullineux of Walkden. Frank and his wife Elsie were distinguished local historians, who worked mainly on the industrial history of area around Worsley. The collection consists of c. 4,000 prints (many of which have been digitised) of street scenes, people, buildings, transport, and industries dating from the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1970s. There is a wealth of material on the canals - Bridgewater and the Ship Canal - and on coal mining. We are working with Salford Archives and Local Studies to resolve a number of issues surrounding this collection and are exploring using students on placement next year to complete the digitising.
Hollingworth's Mancuniensis now available to view online!
We are pleased to present the first in a new occasional series of digitised items available to view online as pdfs. Hollingworth's Mancuniensis is the earliest surviving history of Manchester, tracing the origins of the town from Roman times until the 1650s.
This has now been followed by the minute book of the Manchester Association for Preserving Constitutional Order against Levellers and Republicans, one of a number of Library sources shedding light on the fear of revolution in the 1790s.
The work of digitisation has been made possible by a generous grant from the Manchester Statistical Society, to whom we extend our grateful thanks. To read more about the digitisation programme and view the pdfs, please visit our new Digital Resources pages.
New Exhibition! Curios and Curiosities: A Very Peculiar Assortment of Treasures
Since its inception, Chetham's Library has acquired a large number of curiosities and oddities in the form of books, manuscripts and objects that cannot be easily categorised.
Our latest exhibition brings together some of the more surprising and unexpected items in the Library's collection, the majority of which have not previously been displayed.
The exhibition is in the Priest's Wing and is open during normal Library hours.
Chetham's Library Designated as an Outstanding Collection
We are proud to announce that Chetham's has been officially awarded Designation Status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. This prestigious mark of distinction confirms Chetham's entire holdings as a unique collection of national and international importance.
The MLA Designation Scheme recognises the pre-eminent collections held in England's non-national museums, libraries and archives, based on their quality and significance. We are delighted to have been awarded this status, which reflects the high standards and excellent service we aim to provide.
Chetham's Library already holds MLA Accredited Museum Status, a scheme which sets nationally agreed standards for museums in the UK.
Doctor Dee
One of Chetham's most famous residents has provided the inspiration for a new musical work by Damon Albarn, which premieres this week as part of the Manchester International Festival. The modern opera Doctor Dee explores the life and work of this most remarkable of renaissance men, who was warden of the Collegiate Church - now the Cathedral - from 1595 until his death in 1609.
John Dee was a mysterious character, who developed a reputation as an astrologer, alchemist and occultist but was also an important renaissance scientist who believed mathematics was central to human progress and learning, and became a trusted advisor to Queen Elizabeth I.
Members of the creative team behind the work, including Damon Albarn and theatre director Rufus Norris, visited the Library to see the place where he lived and worked in the final years of his life. They looked at a selection of material including letters and books belonging to John Dee, as well as the famous oval burn mark on the Audit Room table which is said to be the hoof print of the devil, conjured up one dark Manchester night by Dee's magic arts.
You can read more about the opera and the man behind it here, including part of a short interview with Librarian Michael Powell. An article on John Dee can be found on the BBC website here, and a Guardian interview with Damon Albarn with a mention for the Library is here.
Doctor Dee runs from 1-3 and 5-9 July at the Palace Theatre. Tickets can be obtained from the MIF website.
It's Brill! A new book about the Library
We are very pleased to announce the recent publication of Matthew Yeo's The Acquisition of Books by Chetham's Library, 1655-1700, part of Brill's Library of the Written Word series. It began life as a thesis submitted by Matthew for his AHRC Collaborative Doctorate at Chetham's Library and the University of Manchester, which he undertook from 2006-2009.
Matthew's eminently well-written and readable work examines the motivation and method behind the Library's earliest acquisitions and their significance for the study of provincial intellectual culture and the early modern book trade.
Matthew studied Modern History at Oxford and Princeton Universities, and now teaches History at Charterhouse School. We all enjoyed his spell with us at Chetham's enormously, and miss his scholarly ways, his cheerful countenance and his enthusiasm and talent for tea-making very much indeed. We wish him all the best for the future, not least in respect of his recent marriage to Ellie.
A Visit from the Archbishop of Canterbury
We were delighted to welcome the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Library in February as part of his four-day visit to Manchester. Dr Rowan Williams spent the best part of an hour looking at some of the treasures of the Library, which included the C14th Sarum Missal, the C14th Flores Historiarum of Matthew Paris containing a picture of the coronation of Edward the Confessor by Archbishop Stigand, a selection of material relating to the history of Manchester, and Bomberg's Biblia Rabbinica, which contains marginal annotations by persons involved in the King James translation.
The Archbishop is pictured here examining the Earl of Ellesmere's Manchester Scrapbook with the Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch and Chetham's Librarian Michael Powell.
Who do you think they were?
The Library's recent exhibition 'Who do you think they were: The history of a Manchester family', displayed a remarkable collection of diaries and other items from the Leech family archive.
In recent years, members of the Leech family of Manchester and Ashton-under-Lyne have presented the Library with a large and diverse collection of personal and business memorabilia stretching over two centuries.The family papers comprise many hundreds of letters, business and household accounts, cashbooks, photographs and sketches, as well as an enormous amount of carefully hoarded ephemera, juvenalia, genealogical research, travel documents, souvenirs and postcards.
The archive is a uniquely personal collection, dominated by an astonishing series of journals and diaries. It begins with a short journal by the young Thomas Leech (1790-1863), written in 1815-16. Thomas appears to have encouraged his wife and their children to produce their own diaries, thus starting a family tradition that at times borders on the obsessional. There are almost two hundred diaries in the collection, a remarkable record that is unlikely to be matched by any other collection in the country.
Although the exhibition is now closed, an online version is available on this website. Click here to view the online exhibition.
Raines Lancashire Manuscripts now available on DVD
The forty-five volumes of transcripts and original material compiled by Canon F. R. Raines represent the largest collection of antiquarian papers held at Chetham's. We are very pleased to announce that these have now been scanned by Peter Davenport for the Family History Society of Cheshire and are available to buy on a beautiful new DVD.
Mainly South East Lancashire, the collection also contains material from other counties such as Cheshire and Yorkshire. F. R. Raines was the Vicar of Milnrow in Lancashire from 1832 - 1878 and had access to the records of many of the leading gentry families. He also transcribed some Parish Records. Over nearly fifty years he transcribed and made notes on a vast number of records, some of which have since disappeared.
The DVD can be purchased directly from the FHSC website. We extend our sincerest thanks to Peter and the Society for all the hard work that has gone into producing this excellent resource.
Chetham's Treasures Digitised
We are delighted to announce that a number of our eighteenth century periodicals, including copies of the Harrops Manchester Mercury from 1752-1775, have been digitised and made available on the Eighteenth Century Journals Portal to Newspapers and Periodicals c.1685-1815. A free trial of this excellent resource is available to libraries and academic institutions on the Adam Matthew website.
Chetham's is also pleased to have contributed six Middle English manuscripts to be digitised as part of the Rylands Medieval Collection. Click on the links below to go to the high resolution images.
MS 6680 (A.4.99) Astrologica, etc (late C14th)
MS 6709 (A.4.104) Lydgate, Life of Our Lady (late C15th)
MS 6711 (A.4.107) Mandeville's travels (early C15th)
MS 6723 (A.2.160) Wycliffite New Testament (early C15th)
MS 8009 (A.6.31) Ipomadon, etc. (mid C15th)
MS 11379 (A.6.90) Polychronicon in Trevisa's ME trans. (turn of C14th/15th)
MS 27911 (A.2.166) Life of Christ (early C15th)
MS 27938 (A.3.127) Medical recipes (turn of C15th/16th)