Includes indexes col. ill. ;

This volume presents the highlights of the collection. Ranging from part os a 6th century Italian Bible to a 16th century account of monastic cathedral life compiled in the aftermath of the Reformation, the featured items include the 'Durham Gospels' (a sister manuscript to the Lindisfarne Gospels), the St-Calis or Carilef Bible (the first illuminated Romanesque Bible in england), a rare medical and astrological compilation, decorated Bolognese law-books, a Parisian Bible of the 13th century, and a decorated Oxfor compendium of the 14th. A general introducction traces the growth of the collection from the early days of Anglo-Saxon monasticism through to the Reformation.--Publisher