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:
- The clergy of the Church of Ireland, 1000-2000: messengers, watchmen and stewards, edited by T.C. Barnard & W.G. Neely (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006). More information and reviews available here.
- The education of the Anglican clergy 1780-1839, by Sara Slinn (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017). More information available here.
- ‘This great firebrand’: William Laud and Scotland 1617-1645, by Leonie James (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017). More information available here.
Heretics and believers: a history of the English Reformation, by Peter Marshall (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017). More information and reviews available here.- A little history of religion, by Richard Holloway (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016). More information and reviews available here.
- Martin Luther: rebel in an age of upheaval, by Heinz Schilling; translated by Rona Johnston (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). More information and reviews available here.
- Monastic sign language in Medieval England, by David Sherlock (Suffolk: Suffolk Institute of Ar
chaeology and History, 2016). - The Oxford handbook of Anglican studies, edited by Mark D. Chapman, Sathianathan Clarke and Martyn Percy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). More information and reviews available here.
- The Oxford history of Protestant dissenting traditions: Vol. III, the nineteenth century, edited by Timothy Larsen and Michael Ledger-Lomas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). More information available here.
- Pilgrim to unholy places: Christians and Jews re-visit the Holocaust, by Raymond Pelly (Bern: Peter Lang, 2017). More information available here.
The power of laughter and satire in early modern Britain: political and religious culture, 1500-1820, edited by Mark Knights and Adam Morton (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017). More information available here.- The rise of Thomas Cromwell: power and politics in the reign of Henry VIII, by Michael Everett (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015). More information and reviews available here.
- Victorian reformations: historical fiction and religious controversy, 1820-1900, by Miriam Elizabeth Burstein (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014). More information and reviews available here.
Magazines and journals
Lambeth Palace Library also collects a variety of magazines and journals. You are very welcome to visit the Reading Room to consult these too. A few titles for which we have recently received new issues are:
- Alcuin Club Joint Liturgical Studies
- Crucible: the journal of Christian social ethics
- European Anglican
- The Journal of Ecclesiastical History
- Parliamentary History
- The Prayer Book Society Journal
- Reformation
- The Tablet
- The Tyndale Society Journal
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.
Lambeth Heritage Festival
Library Open Days with Reformation 500th Anniversary exhibition
Monday 4, 11 and 18 September, 12pm-3pm. At Lambeth Palace Library
Lambeth Palace Library’s collections date from the ninth century to the present day, their broad scope reflecting the Church of England’s involvement in national and international history. Visit our reading room, talk to our staff, and learn more about our collections and services. There is also a chance to see the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace, which includes an exhibition commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
There is no need to book. Entry is via the Library entrance on Lambeth Palace Rd. Contact archives@churchofengland.org or 020 7898 1400 with queries. Photo (right) by Jonty Sexton.
Guided tours of Lambeth Palace Library
Friday 1 and 15 September at 11am only.
A rare opportunity to see behind the scenes at Lambeth Palace Library. This tour, lasting approximately 75 mins, will include a visit to the conservation studio and talks from archives and printed books staff about the history of the library and its collections, as well as the work that goes on in the library today. There will also be an opportunity to see the Great Hall and an exhibition commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Booking is essential and places are limited to a maximum of 12. Entry is via the main Palace entrance on Lambeth Palace Rd. Contact archives@churchofengland.org or 020 7898 1400 to book.
‘Remembering the Reformation’: launch of a major digital exhibition linked with the Arts and Humanities Research Project
Thursday 28 September, 6pm (admittance not before 5.30pm). In Lambeth Palace Library Great Hall
Based at the Universities of Cambridge and York, this project explores how the Reformation in Britain and Europe was remembered, forgotten, contested and reinvented. The exhibition is a collaborative enterprise incorporating some of the many treasures of the Cambridge University Library, York Minster Library and Lambeth Palace Library. 
The launch will include a display and demonstration of the exhibition website, and will be accompanied by short talks by the four members of the project team, Brian Cummings, Ceri Law, Bronwyn Wallace and Alexandra Walsham. Some of the Lambeth items that feature in the digital exhibition will also be on display, together with associated material relating to Martin Luther and the Reformation. This event will be followed by a drinks reception.
All are welcome, but those wishing to attend are asked to register with juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org not later than Friday 22 September.
‘Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet’: talk by Professor Lyndal Roper (University of Oxford)
Thursday 5 October, 5.30pm (admittance not before 5pm). In Lambeth Palace Library Great Hall
This event will be accompanied by a small exhibition of material relating to Martin Luther and the Reformation and will be followed by a drinks reception.
A joint event with the Faculty of History, University of Oxford. All are welcome, but numbers will be limited and those wishing to attend are asked to register with juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org not later than Friday 29 September.
Sion College Library Provenance Project Relaunch!
The Sion College Library Provenance Project has been officially relaunched on an exciting new platform. The site is now available for viewing on WordPress where users are warmly invited not only to look at images of the wonderful and rich provenance evidence that can be found in the Sion College collection, but also to contribute comments which will help us to identify former owners, assist with transcriptions, identify bindings and much more – enabling us to enrich our catalogue records yet further for the benefit of researchers. Please do have a look at the new site – we would love to hear your thoughts and get your input. You can find out more by reading the related blog post, which can be found here.
On Monday 3rd July we celebrated Sion College Founders Day, where c.100 guests were invited into the Great Hall to view the latest exhibition of Sion material showcasing volumes relating to travel and discovery (which is surprisingly well represented in the collection), as well as introducing some of the former owners of Sion books, such as George Berkeley and John Wall Callcott.
Viewers had the chance to see works such as the beautifully illustrated Campi phlegraei: Observations on the volcanoes of the two Sicilies, written by William Hamilton (Naples, 1776, E61.1/H18). The book documents the late eighteenth century eruptions of Mount Vesuvius and includes numerous hand-coloured plates after the sketches of Peter Fabris, an example of which you can see in the image below. The exhibition also features Athanasius Kircher’s China monumentis, qua sacris quà profanis (London, 1789, B75/K63) which is abundantly illustrated with copper engravings and was intended to give the western world a glimpse of the mysterious and exotic kingdom of China.
CERC update
Archbishops’ Commission to Revise the Psalter
Cataloguing of the papers of the Archbishops’ Commission to Revise the Psalter from the 1960s is now finished. Highlights of this collection include letters from CS Lewis and TS Eliot. Here is a link to the collection
Archives news
Newly-catalogued collections
Newly-catalogued collections include various papers relating to ‘episcopi vagantes’ (wandering bishops) and their interactions with the Church of England, complementing existing holdings in this area. For more information, please see the online archives catalogue.
Archive projects
A project on records of the Court of Arches has been completed. As part of the project to prepare material for the move to a new Library building, certain Library collections have been moved to the Record Centre.
Collections in focus
Further blog posts included a wartime prayer list for Lambeth Palace chapel, and the coronation of George VI eighty years ago.
Archives on display
Images from the Mothers’ Union archive were displayed at a conference on women in religious archives. Various items from the Library’s collections are on display as part of the ‘Battles and Dynasties’ exhibition in Lincoln, including the St Alban’s Chronicle, Richard III’s Book of Hours, a royal genealogy from Adam to Henry VI, and the execution warrant of Mary Queen of Scots. Material on 
display in the Great Hall on 1 September, which takes place in tandem with the Lambeth Palace garden opening, will include items from the Council on Foreign Relations archive, cataloguing of which is nearing completion.
Archives in print
New publications appeared which relate to the Library’s research areas, including works on the education of the Anglican clergy and on the church of St James, Clerkenwell.
Don’t forget you can also keep up-to-date with our news and events, and enjoy glimpses of some of the treasures in our collections, by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, as well as on our blog.
A Monument of Fame 