The Sion College Library Provenance Project has been relaunched with a dedicated new site showcasing provenance marks and evidence of previous ownership in early printed books from the Sion College collection, held here at Lambeth Palace Library since 1996. The bookplates, inscriptions, ink stamps and armorial bindings that we uncover during cataloguing can help reveal the hidden history of an individual book and the new project page will enable us to share all our discoveries with you.

Sion College Library was founded in the early 17th century for the benefit of the clergy of the City of London. The collections have been greatly enriched over the years by numerous donations and bequests, and strongly reflect the wide community of citizens who supported the Library – from nobility, surgeons and attorneys to merchants, stationers and clergymen. Many of these individuals left physical evidence of their ownership within their books which we are seeking to interpret and identify to enhance the library’s catalogue records. The public are now warmly invited to help with this endeavour through the Sion Provenance Project.

Inspired by the wonderful Provenance Online Project (POP), the Sion initiative was first set up in July 2015. The project and galleries have now been updated and have moved to a dedicated site on WordPress, providing a resource which users can freely access and browse. In addition to showcasing the different marks of provenance within the Sion collections, we are once again seeking collaboration and comments to help decipher and identify as many of our provenance marks as possible, shedding new light on the history of the collection. If you can help identify any of our mystery entries or can add valuable additional information to our records, please feel free to leave us a comment or transcription!

The project’s welcome page allows you to view all of our images, with the most recent discoveries shown first. There are separate galleries for each different category of provenance mark, with most types divided into “Identified” and “Unidentified” examples. You can also browse the collections using the tags we have added to each entry. It provides an exciting platform through which to discover and engage with the Sion Collection. If you wish to help, ask a question or simply look at the variety of images  available, please do visit the website and follow us at: Sion College Library Provenance Project

We look forward to hearing from you!