Strange Texts · Libraries & Collections

Royal Manuscripts

A historic body of manuscripts associated with the English royal library, including sumptuous illuminated and scholarly works.

British Library · Royal library heritage

Griffin from the Rochester Bestiary, Royal MS 12 F XIII
Royal MS 12 F XIII, British Library. Image source: Wikimedia Commons ↗

The Royal collection includes books acquired, commissioned, or inherited across generations of English monarchy. Biblical manuscripts, chronicles, devotional writing, and richly illuminated volumes illuminate the changing uses of books in royal and courtly settings. Their decoration is only one part of the story: ownership marks and catalogue records also trace political and intellectual life.

A point of interest

What a royal library reveals about power, learning, and patronage.

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