Weston Library Celebrates Anniversary with Unveiling of Newly Discovered Royal Manuscript

The Bodleian Libraries in Oxford is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Weston Library, the home of its outstanding special collections, by unveiling a manuscript designated a 'national treasure' which has now been saved for the nation.

The 13th century manuscript, a translation of the New Testament into Old French, was owned by a future King of France, before passing through the hands of three members of the English Royal Family. Over the weekend of March 22 and 23, visitors will be able to see the manuscript on public display for the first time, alongside a programme of talks, tours and workshops celebrating a decade of discovery and knowledge sharing.

Held in private ownership for 300 years and previously entirely unknown to scholars, the manuscript will go on display in Blackwell Hall on March 21 and will be available to read on Digital Bodleian following an academic symposium revealing new information about the manuscript’s provenance. It was purchased with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Art Fund, with a contribution from The Wolfson Foundation, Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, Friends of the Bodleian and other private benefactors, following a temporary export bar by the UK Government.

An Old French translation of the New Testament, it has finely decorated initials attributed to the artist known as the Cholet Master. As well as containing the visible autograph of Jean le Bon, who went on to rule as King of France from 1350–1364, ultraviolet light has revealed a series of erased inscriptions showing the manuscript was subsequently owned by three members of the English royal family in the 1400s, Thomas of Lancaster, Edmund Beaufort, and Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester. 

Duke Humfrey gave the University of Oxford a priceless collection of books, though this New Testament does not appear to have been part of this gift. The university built a specially designed room, now known as Duke Humfrey’s Library, in the middle of the 15th century, to house the books given by the Duke, together with the books already in the University Library. 

It is not yet known how the manuscript came into the hands of its Lancastrian owners, but King Jean II of France was captured at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, and taken into captivity in England. All three subsequent owners were grandsons of John of Gaunt and descendants of King Philippe IV of France, and were thus King Jean II’s distant cousins. In the context of the Hundred Years’ War, the ownership and gift-exchange of this French royal book suggests a political agenda, perhaps being used to boost the English claim to the throne of France.

Later in the year, the manuscript will go back on display in the exhibition Treasured (June 5 - October 26), which will allow visitors to get up close to some of the Libraries’ most magnificent and culturally significant items. Other highlights include the recently acquired autograph manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein, one of only four manuscripts in the UK in the hand of the great composer.

“Ten years ago, the Weston Library opened as a place where our unique collections could be preserved, studied, and shared in new and compelling ways," said Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries. "Today, as we unveil this extraordinary manuscript, documenting the role of books in diplomacy, and the intertwined histories of France and Britain, we also celebrate the profound contribution that the Weston Library has made to the preservation of knowledge, to the enrichment of learning, the education of students, and the pleasure of engaging the broadest possible public with culture and science."