Holdings of Lambeth Palace Library

Sion College Collection

On the closure of Sion College Library in June 1996, the manuscripts, the pre-1850 printed books, and the entire pamphlet collection were transferred to Lambeth Palace Library.  The post-1850 collections were removed to King's College London.

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Please note that, in this page,
  • finding aids are indicated in red, with full bibliographic details where appropriate;
  • existing micropublications and photographic reproductions are underlined;
  • Finding aids  marked with a star (*) are unpublished, and available only at the Library;
  • Item reference numbers are given in bold.

Manuscripts

The manuscripts total some 200 volumes, ranging from the 11th century Greek manuscripts to 20th century correspondence. There are some 40 mediaeval manuscripts, including a 13th century psalter belonging to Archbishop Meopham, a 15th century York breviary, and Wycliffite New and Old Testaments. Later material includes the minutes of the Presbyterian Provincial Assembly of London, 1647-60, an augmentation order book of the Committee for the Reformation of the Universities, 1650-2, and works of the mathematician Nathaniel Torporley (d. 1632).

Sion College manuscripts card index.*

C.J. Kitching, 'Summary list of the Latin and English manuscripts in Sion College Library London' (typescript, Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1990) 
[Compiled before the manuscripts were transferred to Lambeth Palace Library. Does not include manuscripts in languages other than Latin and English.] 

Ker, N.R. Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries vol.1: London, (Oxford, 1969: pp. 263-91).
Includes manuscripts sold by the College in 1977 - see below.

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).

The following manuscripts did not come to Lambeth Palace Library when the collection was transferred : 
English MSS
E 15 (Thomas Bray) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 76)
E 21 (Joye's school minute book) - at Guildhall Library c.1953
E 23 (Chaucer) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 73)
E 41 (Bennet & Clements booksellers memorandum book) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 75)
E 76 (Langland Piers Plowman) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 74)
Latin MSS
L8 (Syon Abbey processional) - missing in 1932.  Now Syon Abbey, South Brent, Devon: MS 1
L9 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 71)
L21 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 70)
L28 (Hugo Folieto & the Bestiary of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 72) - now Getty Museum
L34 (Merchant Taylor's School admissions register 1644-1662) - at Merchant Taylor's since 1930
 

Printed


Of the 35,000 printed books, many complement the Lambeth collections.  Of the 57 incunabula, 51 are editions previously lacking at Lambeth.  There are some 1,600 STC and 4,000 Wing books.  Significant collections were donated or bequeathed to Sion College by Walter Travers, the puritan opponent of Richard Hooker; Henry Compton, bishop of London; John Lawson, M.D., brother-in-law of Archbishop Tenison; Thomas James (c.1650-1711), a London bookseller and mathematical printer to the King; and Richard Chiswell, bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, specialising in the works of Anglican divines. Other collections of note include the Jesuit Library seized at the time of the Popish Plot and transferred to Sion College in 1679, some 500 books from the Library of Archbishop Tenison, and the Port Royal Library, collected in the first half of the 19th century.

The extensive pamphlet collection includes some 3,700 items belonging to Edmund Gibson, bishop of London (1669-1748), 5,800 to John Russell, headmaster of the Charterhouse, and rector of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate (1787-1863), 1,600 to William Goode, dean of Ripon (1762-1816), and 7,100 to William Scott, vicar of St. Olave, Jewry, London, (1801-68).

The catalogue of holdings at King's College London is now available online.
 

Sion College Library card catalogues.*

Bibliography


Bloomfield, B.C. (ed.), A directory of rare book and special collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, (1997, pp. 366-9).

Edmonston, E. 'Unfamiliar libraries 9: Sion College', (in Book Collector, 14 (2); 1965: pp. 165-77).

Huelin, G. Sion College and Library, 1912-1990, (1992).

Pearce, E.H. Sion College and Library, (1913).

Sion College Library A complete catalogue of the Sion College 'Port Royal Library', (1898).
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