Holdings of Lambeth Palace Library
MSS. 1-1221
These twelve hundred manuscripts comprise the core of the collection, from the 9th to the late 18th century. They include most of the mediaeval manuscripts, the Bacon, Carew, and Shrewsbury Manuscripts together with the collections of Archbishops Laud, Tenison, and Secker, and of two Lambeth Librarians, Henry Wharton, and Edmund Gibson.- finding aids are indicated in red, with full bibliographic details where appropriate;
- Finding aids marked with a star (*) are unpublished, and available only at the Library;
- Item reference numbers are given in bold.
- Finding aids marked with a hash (#) are available to purchase exclusively from the Library. Please see details.
The Todd catalogue was the first of the Library's published catalogues, and is still the basic guide for some of the 16th-18th century collections. All the mediaeval manuscripts and a number of the principal post-Reformation collections, such as the Bacon, Commonwealth, Gibson and Shrewsbury manuscripts, have been catalogued and indexed separately (see nos. 1-13 below).
1) Mediaeval MSS. 1...1214
The mediaeval manuscripts number over 600, dating from the 9th to the 15th century. Their range and quality are impressive, covering illuminated manuscripts, biblical texts, law books, liturgical and patristic collections, devotional works, saints' lives, sermons, chronicles, cartularies, and letters.James, M.R. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Lambeth Palace: The mediaeval manuscripts, (Cambridge, 1932).
Ganz, David and Roberts, Jane eds. Lambeth Palace Library and its Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, exhibition mounted for the biennial conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, 3rd August 2007, (London, Taderon Press, 2007).
Pickering, O.S. & O'Mara, V.M. The Index of Middle English Prose: handlist 13. Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library including those formerly in Sion College Library (Cambridge, 1999).
These mediaeval manuscripts, together with a few manuscripts acquired since 1932, are available on microfilm from World Microfilms Publications, arranged in 8 sections: 1) Old English, French etc., 2) law, 3) illuminated, 4) humanistic, 5) theology, 6) biblical, 7) liturgy, 8) patristic manuscripts.
Photographs of a large number of the illuminations and rubricated initials in the mediaeval manuscripts may be purchased from the Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London, WC2R 0RN. Permission to purchase copies must first be given by Lambeth Palace Library.
2) MSS. 113-283
This series comprises 16th-17th century manuscripts, including Elizabethan and Jacobean voyages of discovery (MS. 250), the military system in England, (247, 280), treatises on the English coinage (254-5), lectures of Robert Bellarmine given in Louvain in 1574 (123-6), treatises of Sir John Fortescue, lord chief justice (262), letter book of Sir Isaac Wake, ambassador to France, 1631-2 (281), returns of numbers of parishioners in London parishes, 1638, and a treatise by Brian Walton on London tithes, 1638 (272-3), and heraldic manuscripts, 17th century (257-8).Bill,
E.G.W. Todd Catalogue Revision: catalogue of MSS. 113-283 (typescript,
1981).
This catalogue is available
on the A2A (Access to Archives)
website
3) Musical and Liturgical MSS.
Lambeth MSS are included in pp. 1-8 of:Frere,
W.H. Bibliotheca musica-liturgica. A descriptive handlist of the musical
and liturgical manuscripts of the middle ages..., (1894).
Researchers interested in musical manuscripts
may find the
Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM)
website, of use.
4) MSS. 596-638 (The Carew Manuscripts)
These manuscripts were collected by Sir George Carew during his period in Ireland as president of Munster for the purpose of writing the history of the island from the reign of Henry II to that of Queen Elizabeth. The completion of the project was undertaken by his natural son, Sir Thomas Stafford in Pacata Hibernia, 1633.Brewer, J.S. & Bullen, W. (ed.s) Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, (6 vols., 1867-73).
Report to the right honourable the master of the rolls upon the Carte and Carew Papers in the Bodleian and Lambeth libraries, 1864.
Microfilms of the Carew Manuscripts are available from World Microfilms Publications.
This catalogue is available on the A2A (Access to Archives) website
5) MSS. 643-644 (Papal Documents)
This collection was arranged by A.C.Ducarel in the 18th century and bound up as MSS. 643-4. In 1960 the collection was disbound and numbered, and is classed among the archbishops' archives.6) MSS. 647-662 (Bacon Papers)
Papers of Anthony Bacon, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who entered the service of Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, and was private secretary for foreign affairs. The papers are primarily concerned with his official duties and family matters and cover the years 1579-98. The collection was used extensively by Thomas Birch in Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1754.Bill, E.G.W. Index to the papers of Anthony Bacon (1558-1601) in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS. 647-662), (1974).
Micropublication of
the Bacon Papers is available from
World
Microfilms Publications.
This catalogue is available on the A2A (Access to Archives)
website
7) MSS. 694-710 (Shrewsbury Manuscripts)
Papers of the earls of Shrewsbury from the 15th century to the death of Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl, in 1616, though they do not survive in any quantity before Francis Talbot who succeeded to the earldom in 1538. The earls, whose principal family seat was at Sheffield, with large estates radiating into Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire, were influential figures, both locally and nationally, as lord lieutenants and privy councillors. Francis, 5th earl, was also president of the Council of the North, and Gilbert, 6th earl, was custodian of Mary Queen of Scots. See also Talbot MSS. (MSS. 3192-3206).Jamison, C., revised by Bill, E.G.W. A calendar of the Shrewsbury and Talbot Papers in Lambeth Palace Library and the College of Arms. Volume I: Shrewsbury MSS. in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS. 694-710), (H.M.C., JP6, 1966).
Micropublication of the Shrewsbury papers is available from World Microfilms Publications.
This catalogue is available on the A2A (Access to Archives) website
8) MSS. 889-901 (Carte Miscellanee)
These MSS. comprised records of the archbishops from the 12th century onwards. The collection was brought together and numbered as MSS. 889-901 in the early 18th century, but was disbound and renumbered as Carte Antique et Miscellanee (CM I-XX) in the early 1960s. This series has been continued, and is now classed among archbishops' archives.9) MSS. 902-922c, 944-50, 966-1021 (Commonwealth Records)
These MSS. comprised records of ecclesiastical administration during the Commonwealth period. They were renumbered in the 1960s as a separate collection known as Commonwealth Records (COMM).10) MSS. 929-942 (Gibson Manuscripts)
Papers belonging to Edmund Gibson, Lambeth Librarian, and later bishop of London, comprising correspondence of Archbishop Tenison, papers of Anthony and Francis Bacon, and of Thomas Murray, secretary to Charles I as prince of Wales, relating to foreign affairs.Bill,
E.G.W. Catalogue of the Gibson Papers in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS.
929-942) (typescript, 1985).
This catalogue is available
on the A2A (Access to Archives)
website
Micropublication of the Gibson MSS. is available from Research Publications Ltd., Reading.
11) MSS. 960-965 (Notitia Parochialis)
Parochial returns from fifteen hundred incumbents to an enquiry into the value of benefices in 1705, prepared for a publication on the 'present state of parish churches'.Ducarel, A.C. Index to the Notitia Parochialis, (manuscript, 18th century).*
12) MSS. 1118-1128, 1130, 1134 (Secker Manuscripts)
Correspondence and papers brought together by Archbishop Secker relating to the American and West Indian Plantations, S.P.G., foreign protesants overseas, the Sons of the Clergy, the Faculty Office, and the royal family, 1758-1768. These are very summarily noted in the Todd Catalogue. For other Secker papers, see MSS. 2559-98, and Archbishops' Papers.MS. 1123 (3 vols.) on the American and West Indian Plantations is partly calendared in: Andrews, C.M. & Davenport, F.G. Guide to the manuscript materials for the history of the United States to 1783, in the British Museum, in minor London archives, and in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, (1908: pp.290-301).
Kershaw,
S.W. Index to MS. 1124, the minutes of the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, 1758-66, (manuscript, 1890).*
Note: Lambeth Palace Library
also holds some records
relating to the SPG.
MSS. 1123, 1124 are available on film in the micropublication by World Microfilms Publications: Lambeth Palace Library. Miscellaneous American material 16th-18th centuries.
13) MSS. 1175-1207 (Greek Manuscripts)
Greek manuscripts collected during his visits to the East by J.D. Carlyle, professor of Arabic, Cambridge, some of which were returned to their rightful owner, the patriarch of Jerusalem, shortly after their acquisition from Carlyle's executors by Archbishop Manners Sutton.Todd, H.J. An account of Greek manuscripts, chiefly biblical which had been in the possession of the late Professor Carlyle ... now deposited in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth Palace, [1823].
The Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library, An exhibition held on the occasion of the 21st International Byzantine Congress, London, 22-23 August 2006, (London, 2006).