Displaying items by tag: British Library

The British Library in London has been given Grade I listed status for its “outstanding architectural and historic interest." The distinction places the library under statutory heritage protection, preventing it from being demolished, extended, or altered without special permission.

Completed in 1998—with a nine-year delay and going $546 million over budget—the building is one of the youngest in the UK to have been granted heritage protection.

Just days after four Magna Cartas were united for the first time in 800 years at the British Library in London, another ancient version of the document has been discovered by chance in a medieval coastal town in England.

Mark Bateson, an archivist in Sandwich, southern England, found the previously unknown version of the Magna Carta -- which established the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law -- after historian Nicholas Vincent had asked him to look for a separate document dealing with a local forest that he was researching.

The four known extant copies of the original Magna Carta – often cited as England’s first cautious step toward individual rights — will unite at the British Library in London this week for the first time in their 800-year history.

England’s King John signed Magna Carta in 1215 after rebellious barons seized the Tower of London, threatening his power. Under siege at home and abroad, John put his name to a document which handed over significant powers to the barons. A number of copies stamped with the official royal seal were then drawn up and distributed across England.

Lewis Carroll's original handwritten, illustrated manuscript for "Alice in Wonderland" will travel to the U.S. to mark its 150th anniversary.

The British Library said Thursday it will loan the book -- presented by the author to Alice Liddell, who inspired it -- to New York's Morgan Library and Museum and the Rosenbach Museum of the Free Library of Philadelphia next year.

Durham Cathedral was not given an opportunity to buy the St Cuthbert Gospel, which is regarded by Durham Cathedral as a sacred relic. The Jesuits, who have owned the manuscript for nearly 250 years, are instead selling it to the British Library (BL) for £9m. Dating from the 7th century, it was discovered in the saint’s coffin in the cathedral and is the world’s oldest surviving book in its original binding.

Cathedral dean Michael Sadgrove told The Art News­paper: “We did not know that the St Cuthbert Gospel was on the market until the British Library approached us in confidence about six months or so ago, but by that time the process was well underway. It was all kept very quiet. I am sorry that we were not consulted.”

Nevertheless, Sadgrove is pleased that a tripartite agreement has been reached between the library, Durham University and the cathedral. The British Library has promised that the Gospel will be displayed in the north-east of England for alternating 18-month periods with London.

On 14 July the library announced that it had been offered the chance to buy the St Cuthbert Gospel from the British Province of the Society of Jesus. The National Heritage Mem­orial Fund has pledged £4.5m. A further £1.75m has been raised, including £250,000 from the Art Fund and £250,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation. This leaves a remainder of £2.75m to be found before the 31 March 2012 deadline.

Jesuit Father Kevin Fox points out that the St Cuthbert Gospel has been on loan to the library since 1979, so this “made it natural to offer it to them first”. This was done by Christie’s, the Jesuits’ agent, in late 2009. Agreeing a valuation took nearly a year, and last December the BL informed Durham Cathedral about the sale and offered a loan arrangement. The Jesuits and Christie’s made no direct contact with Durham Cathedral.

A £9m appeal has been launched by the British Library to buy the oldest intact book in Europe, a palm-sized leather-bound copy of the gospels buried 1,300 years ago in the coffin of Saint Cuthbert.

The Cuthbert Gospel, on loan to the library since 1979, is regarded as of such importance that the National Heritage Memorial Fund has raided its reserves to offer a £4.5m grant, half the purchase price and the largest single acquisition grant in the library's history. The Art Fund and the Garfield Weston foundation have each promised £250,000.

If the appeal succeeds, the library has agreed the gospel will be displayed half the time at Durham cathedral, where it was found with the body of the saint when his coffin was reopened in 1104.

The gospel is still in its original 7th century leather cover, which has survived in perfect condition.