This app is now the only way of seeing the displays from Lambeth Palace Library’s 2010 exhibition ‘Treasures of Lambeth Palace Library’. It comprises images of the items which were exhibited and supporting commentary from the audio tour.
The Library is one of the earliest public libraries in England, founded in 1610 under the will of Archbishop Richard Bancroft. In celebration of its 400th anniversary in 2010, the Library organised a fascinating public exhibition in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace between May and July 2010. The exhibition was so popular that this App has been produced to allow visitors to explore the treasures ‘virtually’ and at their leisure.
The exhibition drew upon the Librarys incomparably rich and diverse collections of manuscripts, archives and printed books, some of which were displayed for the first time. It revealed how the collections have developed since 1610 and explored the history surrounding the people who owned, studied or used them as aids to prayer and devotion.
Highlights of the exhibition include:
• An introduction to the collection by the Archbishop of Canterbury
• The MacDurnan Gospels, written and illuminated in Ireland in the 9th century
• The Lambeth Bible, masterpiece of Romanesque art
• 13th century Lambeth Apocalypse
• A Gutenberg Bible printed in 1455, the first great book printed in Western Europe from movable metal type
• Books owned and used by King Richard III, King Henry VIII, Queen Katherine of Aragon, Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles I as well as landmark texts in the history of the Church of England
• An exceptionally rare edition of the Babylonian Talmud which survived a 1553 Papal Bull ordering all copies to be burnt, which was rediscovered in 1992
• The warrant for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots
• Papers of archbishops, bishops and leaders of church and state, ranging from the 13th century to the modern day, including papers relating to the rebuilding of St Pauls Cathedral after the Great Fire and physicians reports on the illness of King George III.