News

Chetham's in Partnership with Central Library

A chapbook

We are delighted to be able to offer a temporary home for Manchester Central Library's collection of tracts, chapbooks and broadsides while the library is closed for refurbishment. These are now starting to arrive and will be made available for study once they have been organised. For more information, please contact the librarian.

Simon Armitage
Seeing Stars Northern Launch

Simon Armitage addresses the audience in Chetham's Baronial Hall

Simon Armitage's new collection of poems, Seeing Stars, was launched on Tuesday 15 June in the Baronial Hall at Chetham's. Interest was very strong and there was standing room only for many!

For more information click here or contact James Draper at MMU Writing School.

Call for papers for Readings and Representations of the Seventeenth Century

A conference, Readings and Representations of the Seventeenth Century, will be held at Chetham's Library on 28th-29th January, 2011. Read the details and call for papers.

Manchester Literature Festival - Desert Island Poems

Michael Schmidt John McAuliffe

Following last year's successful evening with Michael Schmidt and Frederic Raphael, the Baronial Hall will again be the setting for Manchester Literature Festival's Desert Island Poems event. This year, Michael Schmidt, founder of Carcanet Press and editor of PN Review, will be talking to poet and academic John McAuliffe about the poems that have moved and inspired him. Friday 22nd October at 6pm, tickets £5/£3 concessions. Book on 0843 208 0500 or through the festival website.

The Books of Jonah

Cover of the Books of Jonah by David Blamires

David Shook's review of The Books of Jonah, an illustrated essay written by David Blamires to accompany last year's summer exhibition, is now on the Molossus website.

Copies of the book, beautifully designed and printed by Incline Press, are still avilable to buy from the Library at £17.50 including post and packing to the UK. Please email the librarian for details, or write to us at the address on the homepage.

Mexican Poets' Tour

Chetham's Library was delighted to host a lively evening of readings as part of the Poetry Translation Centre's Mexican Poets Tour. Marking the hundredth anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and the bicentennial of Mexico's revolution, three Mexican poets read in Spanish and Zapotec alongside their translators. You can see the poet Victor Teran and his translator David Shook performing in Chetham's Baronial Hall on this YouTube link, and there are photographs of the tour, including some taken in Chetham's Baronial Hall, here.

Collaborative Doctoral Students

Chetham's Library is fortunate to participate in the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Collaborative Doctoral Scheme.

Our current Collaborative Doctoral student is Joel Swann of the Research Institute for the Humanities, University of Keele. Joel is undertaking a study of the seventeenth-century verse and prose miscellanies at Chetham's Library.

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 recently 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)

Our current exhibition: 'Reasons to Be Cheerful'

Like most libraries and museums, Chetham's is able to display only a small fraction of its holdings. For many years the Library's collecting policy has been to acquire material on the history of the north west of England, but this is interpreted in a very generous way. We seek to acquire by purchase and by gift material that is printed or created in the region and material which helps us interpret what we already have - a remarkable collection of rare books and manuscripts that has been built up over three hundred and fifty years.

This exhibition is intended to show the breadth of the material that has been acquired in recent years. It ranges from early printed books, through original paintings, prints and engravings to local novels, penny dreadfuls, children's books and jobbing printing. It includes beer mats, cartoons, handkerchiefs and postcards as well as books made by some of the greatest writers and book artists of all time.

As the forthcoming elections loom, one case includes a variety of local political ephemera. The Edwardian anti-Tory handbill, a detail of which is pictured above, is just one of a display that includes Victorian satirical prints, leaflets from the 1950s and 60s and material from recent Manchester Party conferences.

This exhibition provides a snapshot of the diverse and disparate body of material that has been brought together, preserved, and made available for future use at Chetham's Library.

The exhibition can be seen in the Priest's Wing of the Library during normal opening hours.

Photography at Chetham's

The Library has been the location for several photoshoots in the past two months. Photographer Kellianne Chandler has shared a few of her results with us. Click on the detail of her photograph above to see the rest of the Geek Chic photos she shared with us. See more of Kellianne's work on her website.