Lambeth Palace Library and the Church of England Record Centre regularly embark on new projects and acquire and catalogue new material, from rare books and manuscripts to modern publications.  In this blog series, we post brief updates on some of our latest acquisitions, projects and upcoming events, to keep you up-to-date with our most recent news.

New books!

Highlights from our most recently acquired modern books include:

• King James, his Bible and its translators, by Laurence M. Vance (Orlando: Vance Publications, 2016). More information available here.
• Reformation divided: Catholics, Protestants and the conversion of England, by Eamon Duffy (London: Bloomsbury, 2017). More information and reviews available here.
• Jesus in the theology of Rowan Williams, by Brett Gray (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016).  More information and reviews available here.
• Reformation unbound: Protestant visions of reform in England, 1525-1590, by Karl Gunther (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).  More information available here.
• Understanding England’s cathedrals, by Dave Hennis (Bury St. Edmunds: Arena Books, 2015).  More information available here.
• Magna Carta: origins and legacy, by Nicholas Vincent (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2015).  More information and reviews available here.
• The history of the church in art, by Rosa Giorgi; translated by Brian Phillips (Los Angeles, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008).  More information and reviews available here.
• Emblem of faith untouched: a short life of Thomas Cranmer, by Leslie Williams (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016). More information available here.
• Medieval cantors and their craft: music, liturgy and the shaping of history, 800-1500, edited by Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis, A.B. Kraebel and Margot E. Fassler (Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2017). More information available here.
• Straightening the altars: the ecclesiastical vision and pastoral achievements of the progressive bishops under Elizabeth I, 1559-1579, by Scott A. Wenig (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2000). More information available here.

 

Magazines and journals

Lambeth Palace Library also collects a variety of magazines and journals.  You are very welcome to visit us to consult these too.

A few titles for which we have recently received new issues are:

• British Catholic History
• The Journal of Anglican Studies
• The Preacher: the College of Preachers magazine
• Theology

 

Upcoming events

Lambeth Palace Garden Open Days
with Great Hall entry and exhibition

Every first Friday of the month 12 noon to 3pm, April to September

An opportunity to visit the Palace’s beautiful 11-acre gardens, enjoy a cup of tea and slice of cake, and purchase plants and honey from the gardens.  This year, the 17th century Great Hall will also be open throughout the Open Days, with a chance to view a display of highlights from the Library’s collections.  Do come along and bring your friends and family. There is an entrance fee of £5, which will go to a chosen charity each month, and there is no need to book.
 

CERC Update

Post-war architecture archive 

The Church of England Record Centre has opened an archive of almost 1000 files on post-war church architecture. Faced with a need for new building projects to reflect demographic change and respond to the destruction of the Second World War, in the late 1950s, the Church Commissioners created a record of new Anglican churches and church halls constructed after 1946, which they maintained into the 1970s. Compiled initially to provide a pool of inspiration and knowledge for future building projects, the resulting series now offers researchers an opportunity to explore a wide range of architectural styles, techniques and regional variations. The records cover a period when architecture was feeling the effect of restrictions on building materials as well as the impact of new thinking on the interaction between church building and function, as vocalised by the Liturgical Movement. Search CC/ARCH/4 on our online catalogue: http://archives.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/calmview/

The diary of Eli Pritchard

The Record Centre has also digitised the diary of Eli Pritchard, a White Cross League rescue worker who endeavoured to find alternative employment and assistance for boys soliciting at a number of sites around London in 1912. The diary entries are available here: Diary of Eli Pritchard. The Record Centre has also digitised the reminiscences of Deaconess Isabella Gilmore (1842-1923) including life among the London poor and of the early days of the Rochester and Southwark Diocesan Deaconess House: Reminiscences of Isabella Gilmore. Both volumes can be found on LUNA: http://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet.

 

Archives news

Newly-catalogued collections 

Newly-catalogued collections include papers relating to the Anglican diocese in Hong Kong (ref: HK); records of the Philip Usher Memorial Fund, founded to enable a student to spend time in a country where the Christian religion is practised according to the doctrine and ritual of the Eastern Orthodox Church (ref: PUMF); and records of the Parish and People Movement, formed in 1949 to promote reform in liturgy within the Church (ref: PAP). For more information on these collections, please see the online archives catalogue. A project on records of the Court of Arches is also in progress.

New to the image database 

New additions to the image database include Socinian papers intended for the Moroccan Ambassador in London in 1682 (MS 673); volumes from the Library’s collection of Greek manuscripts (MSS 1176, 1178-9); and further medieval manuscripts (MSS 3339, 3344, 3774, 4838).

Archives in print and on loan 

The Library received a copy of True man a long season: poems of Gordon Shrive SSJE (2016) which relates to the records of the Society of St John the Evangelist held at the Church of England Record Centre. Images from the Library’s manuscripts relating to John Newton were displayed at an event at St Andrew by the Wardrobe. An item from the Library featured in an online exhibition by King’s College London on Shakespeare’s world.

 

Sion College Library Collection

The Sion Project continues to make good progress, with more material being added to the catalogue every week which you can search for on Lambeth Palace Library’s online printed books catalogue. Some of the latest volumes which have been added include:

• Ludolf, Hiob. Iobi Ludolfi aliàs Leutholf dicti Ad suam Historiam Aethiopicam antehac editam commentarius, Francofurti ad Moenum, 1691 [B78.2/L96C] Hiob Ludolf (1624-1704) was a German orientalist and linguist who has been described as having “the most illustrious name in Ethiopic scholarship.” Said to have been acquainted with twenty-five languages, he was one of the first scholars in Europe to devote study to Ethiopia and published widely on the history and languages of the region; his Historia Aethiopica was printed in 1681 and quickly translated into English, French and Dutch. With 10 folded leaves of plates and numerous other maps and illustrations, the Sion copy of Historia Aethiopica was bequeathed to the College by John Lawson, a surgeon and enthusiastic collector of books.
• Pidou de Saint-Olon. The present state of the empire of Morocco, London: 1699 [B79.1/SA2] This work is the first English translation of Pidou de Saint-Olon’s (1649-1720) Estat present de l’empire de Maroc. It was edited by Peter Motteux and published in London in 1699 and was to be sold by booksellers including Richard Bentley who operated from his shop at the Post Office in Russel-Street, Covent Garden. The book offers an intriguing cultural and historical study of life in Morocco around the 17^th century, which is illustrated with an assortment of engravings. However, there is further human interest added to the volume with the manuscript inscriptions which can be found on the front and rear flyleaves. These tell us that the book once belonged to one Robert Lundie, who came into possession of the book in 1699. We don’t have any further details about Lundie at this time, but perhaps the little pen and ink sketch (seen here) is a self-portrait!
• Fisher, John. De veritate corporis et sanguinis Christi in Eucharistia, Cologne, 1527 [A56.3/F53] Written by John Fisher, this work examines the subject of the Last Supper and the Real Presence. It was printed in Cologne in 1527 by Franz Brickman and Peter Quentel and within you will find the woodcut arms of Henry VIII, but this is far from the most interesting feature of the book. There is a diminutive inscription on the title page, “Pierce Connelly, Rome”. This has proved a rather intriguing find as Connelly was a notorious figure in the Victorian age.  The Reverend Pierce Connelly (1804-1883) was an Episcopal clergyman, who was married to Cornelia Peacock (1809 –1879) with whom he would have five children.  Around 1835 Pierce and his family journeyed to Rome where they would reside for two years (this is possibly the point when Pierce acquired this book). Eventually both he and Cornelia converted to Catholicism, but Pierce wished to go further and declared his intention to become an ordained priest. His greatest obstacle to his new calling, however, was his marriage and so he “asked” Cornelia to enter a convent. A heartbroken Cornelia obliged and took her vows in 1844. An astounding and resilient figure, Cornelia would go on to be foundress of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. The story of Cornelia and Pierce over the forthcoming years was to be complex, turbulent and harrowing, but there was to be a final and unsavoury twist in the tale. Pierce, the Catholic priest, sued Cornelia, the nun, for restitution of conjugal rights. Cornelia won the case and Lambeth Palace Library holds the Court of Arches records in its archives collection (Arches Aaa 48, Arches H 762/1-10). To find out more, please read the forthcoming blog post.

 

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