Treasures Of The University Of Canterbury Library

The University of Canterbury is the guardian of a rich and varied inheritance, which is reflected in the diverse material held by its libraries. These collections enable us to discover not only the history of Christchurch, the South Island of New Zealand's largest city, but also into the history of an emerging nation and the broader Pacific region. This book presents reflections on some of the distinctive and exceptional items in the University's keeping. Written by Canterbury academics and members of the wider community, it considers material ranging from medieval European manuscripts to Maori whakapapa books. The items surveyed vary from an original printing of the 1611 King James Bible, to the papers of Karl Popper and the Pacific Leprosy Foundation Archive. Together these tell many stories. They offer insights into the minds of kings, intellectuals, musicians, artists and explorers. They chart the development of a university and the building of a community. They are a history of the written word, but also of a settler society. Canterbury's treasures offer fascinating windows onto the past and occasion to reflect on the present; they highlight many of the opportunities for future research opening up in an increasingly digital age.

This volume is the first to explore the vibrant history of Magna Carta in Aotearoa New Zealand’s legal, political and popular culture. Readers will benefit from in-depth analyses of the Charter’s reception along with explorations of its roles in regard to larger constitutional themes. The common thread that binds the collection together is its exploration of what the adoption of a medieval charter as part of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements has meant – and might mean – for a Pacific nation whose identity remains in flux. The contributions to this volume are grouped around three topics: remembrance and memorialization of Magna Carta; the reception of the Charter by both Māori and non-Māori between 1840 and 2015; and reflection on the roles that the Charter may yet play in future constitutional debate. This collection provides evidence of the enduring attraction of Magna Carta, and its importance as a platform of constitutional aspiration.

This volume maps the phenomenon of medievalism in Aotearoa, initially as an import by the early white settler society, and as a form of nation building that would reinforce Britishness and ancestral belonging. This colonial narrative underpins the volume’s focus on the imperial relationship in chapters on the academic study of the Middle Ages, on medievalism in film and music, in manuscript and book collections, and colonial stained glass and architecture. Through the alternative 21st-century frameworks of a global Middle Ages and Aotearoa’s bicultural nationalism, the volume also introduces Maori understandings of the ancestral past that parallel the European epoch and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the phenomenon of global right-wing medievalism, as evidenced in the Alt-right extremism underpinning the Christchurch mosque attack of 2019. The 11 chapters trace the transcultural moves and networks that comprise the shift from the 20th-century study of the Middle Ages as an historical period to manifestations of medievalism as the reception and interpretation of the medieval past in postmedieval times. Collectively these are viewed as indications of the changing public perception about the meaning and practice of the European heritage from the colonial to contemporary era. The volume will appeal to educationists, scholars, and students interested in the academic history of the Middle Ages in New Zealand; enthusiasts of film, music, and performance of the medieval; members of the public interested in Aotearoa’s history and popular culture; and all who enjoy the colourful reinventions of medievalism.

When scholars discuss the medieval past, the temptation is to become immersed there, to deepen our appreciation of the nuances of the medieval sources through debate about their meaning. But the past informs the present in a myriad of ways and medievalists can, and should, use their research to address the concerns and interests of contemporary society. This volume presents a number of carefully commissioned essays that demonstrate the fertility and originality of recent work in Medieval Studies. Above all, they have been selected for relevance. Most contributors are in the earlier stages of their careers and their approaches clearly reflect how interdisciplinary methodologies applied to Medieval Studies have potential repercussions and value far beyond the boundaries of the Middles Ages. These chapters are powerful demonstrations of the value of medieval research to our own times, both in terms of providing answers to some of the specific questions facing humanity today and in terms of much broader considerations. Taken together, the research presented here also provides readers with confidence in the fact that Medieval Studies cannot be neglected without a great loss to the understanding of what it means to be human.

This is the latest in an important series of reviews going back to 1928. The book contains 26 chapters, written by experts in their field, and reviews developments in the principal aspects of British librarianship and information work in the years 2006-2010.

Treasures of Durham University Library explores the extensive library collection through illuminating illustrated text and fascinating behind-the-scenes details. The historic core of the collection, which consists of over seventy thousand rare books and manuscripts printed before 1850, is the library assembled by John Cosin, bishop of Durham (1660-72) and the more recent deposit of the library from Bamburgh Castle.The full collection of Durham University ranges from late antique papyri to modern literary manuscripts, as well as embracing substantial archival and photographic materials. The medieval manuscripts include the best-preserved service-book produced in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, and a collection of the works of Thomas Hoccleve that was transcribed by the poet himself; while amongst the modern literary manuscripts are extracts from Kilvert's Diary and letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins. ''Surprisingly few people, including many within the university itself, are aware of just how extensive and diverse the University Library's holdings. This is clearly a collection worth knowing. It is a very real joy to welcome here such a handsome and readable survey.'' - Bill Bryson

Over two hundred items are catalogued in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in New Zealand Collections (1989). Most are in institutional collections and were donated by late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century book collectors, notably Sir George Grey (1812–98), Governor and later Premier of New Zealand. Having been transported across the globe, the manuscripts have remained, for the most part, beyond the purview of northern hemisphere scholars. The contributors to this interdisciplinary collection of essays include international experts such as Christopher de Hamel, Richard Gameson, Margaret Manion and Michael Orr, curators of New Zealand manuscript collections, New Zealand academics, and a PhD student. Migrations has two main aims: to lodge the Early European manuscripts in New Zealand within the international discourse of postcolonial heritage; and to place them within the mainstream of manuscript studies by drawing attention to their intrinsic significance and their relationship with manuscripts held in overseas collections. Part One focuses on the motives and historical circumstances underlying the formation of the principal collections and the subsequent changes in the ways that this heritage has been regarded. Three of the essays centre upon the bibliophiles who donated their manuscripts to public libraries. Others consider specific manuscripts as indices of changing attitudes to European, particulary British, cultural heritage. National identity, pedagogy, and curatorial practices are among the issues canvassed. Part Two consists of new scholarly studies of particular manuscripts, which examine them in relation to the cultural and documentary context in which they were produced or transmitted. Manuscripts studied include: a twelfth-century copy of music treatises by Boethius and Guido of Arezzo, probably from Christ Church, Canterbury; a Perugian breviary owned by an Augustinian friar, Antonio da Macerata; a book of hours adapted for Scottish use (the Rossdhu Hours); and a fragment of an early fifteenth-century book of hours produced by a London workshop and added to the Hours of Margery Fitzherbert. “Migrations is an imaginative and ambitious contribution to twenty-first-century manuscript studies. Most notably, the editors have invited manuscript scholars to address the issues raised by the manuscripts' location: New Zealand itself and its colonial history become tools for thinking with - about dispersal, about cultural memory, about access, about the meanings ascribed to artefacts. The editors have assembled a distinguished group of scholars in order to produce a collection of essays that is a coherent whole and at the same time individually driven by the intellectual curiosity that is the true sign of distinction. The book is a triumph.” Professor Felicity Riddy, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of English, University of York “This excellent book makes a major contribution to the study of medieval manuscript collections in New Zealand, and will open up a little known area of extremely important material to an international audience. The quality of the scholarship throughout the book is very high, and the essays on the individual manuscripts present the material in the context of recent new approaches in the study of medieval and Early Modern manuscripts.” Nigel Morgan, Hon. Professor of Art History, University of Cambridge, Head of Research, Parker Library MSS Project, Corpus Christi College

James I described Lambeth Palace Library as 'a monument of fame' in his kingdom. It is the historic library of the Archbishops of Canterbury; its records date from the 9th century to the present day. In this new collection of treasures from the Library, sixty items are reproduced in glorious detail alongside extended expert commentary. These include illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages such as the Macdurnan gospels and Hours of Richard III; manuscripts from the Tudor and Stuart eras, including a Venetian Atlas, a letter from Elizabeth I on her recovery from smallpox and the execution warrant for Mary Queen of Scots; early printed books, among them a Gutenberg Bible with English illumination, possibly the first printed book to come to England, and Elizabeth I's own prayer book with her portrait. Later items include the medical reports on the madness of George III and the Golden Cockerel Press Four Gospels, one of the masterpieces of Eric Gill. An introduction by Dr Palmer traces the history of the Library and sets the selected treasures in the wider context of the Library's collections. AUTHOR: Dr Richard Palmer has been Librarian and Archivist of Lambeth Palace Library since 1991. He was formerly Curator of Western Manuscripts at the Wellcome Institute and honorary lecturer in the history of medicine at University College London. Michelle Brown is Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She was formerly Curator of Medieval and Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library. 200 colour illustrations