Here, in just two rooms, are the literary treasures of Western civilization, from early Bibles to Shakespear’e Hamlet to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to the Magna Carta. The British Empire built its greatest monuments out of paper; it’s through literature that England made her most lasting and significant contribution to civilization and the arts.
Entering the Library courtyard, you are welcomed by a friendly place with a nice little coffee shop and a place for a snack or two.
Stepping inside, we find ourselves in the middle of the building a 50-foot-tall wall of 65,000 books teasingly exposing its shelves. In 1823 King George III gifted his collection to the people under the condition that the books remain on display for all to see. The high-tech bookshelf – with moveable lifts to reach the highest titles – sits behind glass, inaccessible to commoners but ever visible. I wish I had remembered to take a picture – it was pretty cool. 🙁
Everything that matters for our visit is in a tiny but exciting area variously called “The Sir John Ritblat Gallery,” “Treasures of the British Library,” or just “The Treasures.” I’m going to concentrate on a handful of documents – literary and historical – that changed the course of history. The exhibits change often, and many of the museum’s old, fragile manuscripts need to “rest” periodically in order to stay well preserved. So your visit might be a little different than ours.
Upon entering the gallery, we moved to the far side of the room with the display case showing historic maps and views, illustrating human’s shifting perspective of the world.
Next we visited the area dedicated to sacred texts and early Bibles, including the Codex Sinaiticus. This bound book form around AD 350 is one of the oldest complete Bibles in existence – one of the first attempts to collect various books by different authors into one authoritative anthology.
In the display cases called “Art of the Book”, we find various medieval-era books, some beautifully illustrated or “illuminated.
The lettering is immaculate, but all are penned by hand.
The most magnificent of these medieval British “monk-uscripts” is the Lindisfarne Gospels, from AD 698. The text is in Latin, the language of scholars ever since the Roman Empire, but you can read an electronic copy of these manuscripts by using one of the touchscreen computers scattered around the room.
In the glass cases featuring early printing, we see the Gutenberg Bible – the first book printed in Europe using movable type (c. 1455).
Suddenly, the Bible was available for anyone to read, fueling the Protestant Reformation.
Through the doorway is a small room with the Magna Carta.
Though historians talk about the Magna Cara, several different versions of the document exist, some of which are kept in this room.
The basis for England’s constitutional system of government, this “Great Charter” listing rules about mundane administrative issues was radical because of the simple fact that the king had agreed to abide by them as law.
Until then, kings had ruled by God-given authority, above the laws of men.
Now, for the first time, there were limits – in writing – on how a king could treat his subjects.
Back in the main room, we find display cases featuring trailblazing art and science documents by early scientists such as Galileo, Isaac Newton, and many more.
Pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook shows his powerful curiosity, his genius for invention, and his famous backward and inside-out handwriting.
Nearby are many more historical documents. Some of these were not allowed to be photographed (guard standing nearby), but one will see letters by Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Darwin, Freud, Gandhi, and others.
Next, we trace the evolution of English literature. Check out the AD 1000 manuscript of Beowulf, the first English literary masterpiece, and The Canterbury Tales (c.1410), Geoffrey Chaucer’s bawdy collection of stories. This display is often a greatest-hits sampling of literature in English, from Bronte to Kipling to Woolf to Joyce to Dickens.
The most famous of England’s writers – Shakespeare – gets a significant chunk of space. Look for the first folio – one of the 750 copies of 36 of the 47 known Shakespeare plays, published in 1623.
The last section we visited was the music section. No pictures were again allowed of some items – like the Beatles section. There were photos of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. There are also manuscripts of song lyrics written by Lennon and McCartney.
I was moved by the manuscripts by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and others. George Frideric Handel’s famous oratorio, the Messiah (1741), is often on display and marks the end of our tour. Hallelujah!
This geek truly enjoyed this wander thru the manuscripts. You can sample as shallowly or as deeply as you wish. But it is pretty awe-inspiring to be in the presence of these great historical documents. Very cool.