The project, one of the lead priority areas in the Library’s , is intended to prepare the Rylands for the challenges and opportunities of the mid-21st century. When complete, the redesigned spaces will enhance the Library’s contribution to the University’s research, student experience and public engagement with research agendas.

The John Rylands Next Chapter project will deliver:

• Transformed exhibition spaces
• A state-of-the-art Advanced Imaging Laboratory
• Enhanced facilities to host academic and public events
• Refreshed main entrance and reception area

Other developments include enabling access to the historic cellars (to be transformed in a future phase of the project) and improvements to workspaces for Library staff. Work will begin in January 2024 for 12 months.

The Rylands is Grade-1 listed and the proposals are being developed with sensitivity, to protect and enhance one of Manchester’s most important and best loved buildings. Conservation architects Donald Insall Associates are the lead designers for the project, while Nissen Richards Studio are developing the exciting exhibition proposals. Nissen Richards have extensive experience of creating exhibitions within historic environments.

Professor Christopher Pressler, John Rylands University Librarian and Director of The University of Manchester Library, said:

“The Rylands is one of the great libraries of the world. I am tremendously proud to lead this remarkable institution, as we approach our 125th anniversary in 2024/25. The Next Chapter project will deliver world-class facilities for research and engagement, of a quality to match our extraordinary collections and building. It will equip the Rylands to address the many challenges and opportunities of the mid-21st century, and it will reinforce the Rylands’ importance to the University, the city of Manchester, and world heritage.”

It is expected that the Rylands will stay open during the project, with areas of the building closing as needed whilst the redevelopment work takes place. The project team are focused on being able to continue to offer exhibitions and events in different areas of the building or other Library spaces so that visitors can continue to engage with outstanding items from the collections. For up-to-date information on what’s on offer, see the .

About John Rylands Research Institute and Library

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library promotes research in the humanities and sciences using the astonishingly rich special collections of The University of Manchester Library. Based in one of the finest neo-Gothic buildings in Europe and in the heart of Manchester, it is a dynamic community of world-leading researchers, curators, conservators and imaging specialists, all focused on the core mission to define the human experience over five millennia and up to the current day.

This event, rescheduled from November 2022, takes place at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library and sees Stephen in conversation with Professor of Popular Culture (The University of Manchester), , about his career and published works, taking the audience from the Joy Division and New Order years, all the way to the present day. Professor Jon Savage is an English writer, broadcaster, and music journalist, with multiple publications to his name, including his latest book, , which provides an oral history of Joy Division. Both Stephen’s and Jon’s books will be available to buy at the event, and a book signing will be held afterwards.

Booking information

If you would like to see these two of Manchester’s musical legends in discussion, you can register to attend this FREE event via .

This event ties into the John Rylands Research Institute and Library’s , the first specifically designated national popular culture archive in the UK. Based at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, it aims to celebrate and preserve the records of British popular culture, such as popular music, recognising its pivotal influence on the world stage.

This event, taking place at The Whitworth Art Gallery, sees Stephen in conversation with Professor of Popular Culture (The University of Manchester), , about his career and published works, taking the audience from the Joy Division and New Order years, all the way to the present day. Professor Jon Savage is an English writer, broadcaster, and music journalist, with multiple publications to his name, including his latest book, , which provides an oral history of Joy Division. Both Stephen’s and Jon’s books will be available to buy at the event, and a book signing will be held afterwards.

If you would like to see these two industry experts and lovers of music in discussion, you can register to attend this FREE event via .

This event ties into the John Rylands Research Institute and Library’s , the first specifically designated national popular culture archive in the UK. Based at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, it aims to celebrate and preserve the records of British popular culture, such as popular music, recognising its pivotal influence on the world stage.

Now a Senior Lecturer in Sound and Music Technology at , and combined with his industry knowledge, Graeme will be in discussion with The University of Manchester sociologists, and , about their collective project exploring the revival of rave and its importance as part of both musical and urban heritage. The three will draw from interviews with rave fans and music professionals to highlight how rave has evolved from its heyday in the nineties to what keeps it thriving today, and those in attendance will be offered the opportunity to ask questions about the research and Graeme’s role in rave’s revival during a short Q&A.

This event ties into the John Rylands Research Institute and Library’s , the first specifically designated national popular culture archive in the UK. Based at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, it aims to celebrate and preserve the records of British popular culture, such as popular music, recognising its pivotal influence on the world stage.

The latter, Piccadilly Gardens, is the location of a monumental participatory artwork entitled . Covered in 20,000 copies of books that have shaped British politics, this colossal 42m replica of Big Ben will inspire new conversations about what we value, drawing from 91ֱ��’s unique and independent spirit. Our students have been involved in the project at an operational level, helping with the finishing touches of the structure. They’ve also been researching the political and activist books connected with the project, alongside academics and researchers from the team.

The University is also involved with unique and innovative public artwork designed by Christine Sun Kim. All across the city of Manchester, playful, political and powerful captions have been installed on streets and buildings. The University’s Crawford House building, home to the , is one of many iconic locations across the city displaying captions throughout the festival.

The University is also involved in the launch event for – a moment of reflection and hope created with refugee communities in the city. An epic cultural journey across Europe transcending borders, politics and language, The Walk is centred on Little Amal, a 3.5-metre puppet of a nine-year-old refugee girl who is setting out from the Syria-Turkey border in July on an 8,000-kilometre odyssey to 91ֱ�� in search of her mother. Little Amal represents displaced children around the world, many separated from their families and all more vulnerable during the pandemic. The University will host a suite of offshoot events surrounding this launch, including a thought leadership panel event with academics, city leaders and the Creative Producer of The Walk.

More details about these offshoot events will be announced soon. In the meantime, head over to to explore the full programme for this year’s Festival.

Our current exhibition, Seeing the Invisible, and the Rylands Gallery will be closed. The St John’s fragment will not be available to view. You can still visit the Library and explore our famous Historic Reading Room.

The whole building will be back open as normal from Monday, 10 February. We look forward to welcoming you. Remember, always check before you visit the Library to make sure you get the best experience.

Organised by the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology’s AHRC project , and accompanied by an exhibition ‘Old and Rare Editions of Ancient Greek Epistolographers’, the event will take place on 17 June 2019 at the Christie Room, John Rylands Library.

The Aldine edition of Greek epistolographers, published in 1499 in Venice, is the first printed edition of most of the 36-letter collections that it contains.

Its text was based on earlier medieval epistolaria, and formed the basis of most of the subsequent printed editions of the collections it contained.

Despite its principal position and importance, the current value of this edition for the study of Greek epistolography is not widely understood. The Rylands event aims to examine this collection and explore its roots, its relationship to the medieval Byzantine manuscript epistolary collections, its legacy and relationship to modern critical editions of the Greek epistolographers, and its value to a modern editor and student of Greek epistolography.

Programme:

10.00-10.45 Registration and Coffee

10.45-11.00 Opening Remarks: Professor Roy Gibson (Durham University)

11.00-12.30 Session 1: Aldine edition volume 1 (Chair: Professor Andrew Morrison, University of Manchester)

11.00-11.30 Professor Anna Tiziana Drago (University of Bari): “Alciphron and Theophylact Simocatta”

11.30-12.00 Professor Raphael Gallé Cejudo (University of Cadiz): “Philostratus”

12.00-12.30 Dr Owen Hodkinson (University of Leeds): “Aelian”

12.30-1.30 Lunch/Coffee

1.30-2.00 Collections Encounter: “Old and Rare Editions of Ancient Greek Epistolographers”

2.00-3.30 Session 2: Aldine edition volume 2 (Chair: Dr Vinko Hinz, Goettingen University)

2.00-2.30 Dr Antonia Sarri (University of Manchester): “Basil the Great”

2.30-3.00 Professor Francesca Mestre (University of Barcelona): “Apollonius of Tyana”

3.00-3.30 Dr Émeline Marquis (C.N.R.S., Paris): “Phalaris”

3.30-4.00 Round Table Discussion and Closing Remarks (Chair: Professor Andrew Morrison)

Thanks to generous support from the John Rylands Research Institute and the University of Manchester, a buffet lunch and refreshments will be offered to all attendants free of charge. To aid the estimate of numbers, please contact Antonia Sarri by 1 June 2019 if you wish to attend.

Monday 17 June 2019, 10.00 am – 4.00 pm, Christie Room, John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, 91ֱ�� M3 3EH

For any questions, please contact Antonia Sarri (antonia.sarri@manchester.ac.uk).

The reels of black and white footage capture key moments during Operation Dynamo, the rescue from Dunkirk of over 300,000 British and allied troops trapped by advancing German forces.

The films were shot by Lieutenant Philip Roderick Hall who was serving aboard the destroyer HMS Whitehall, one of hundreds of naval vessels, merchant ships and small boats that took part in the rescue.

The films, which have never been broadcast and have been seen by only a handful of people, were digitised by the North West Film Archive at 91ֱ�� Metropolitan University. The films can now be viewed on YouTube, while the original reels have been donated to the Imperial War Museum in London for specialist preservation.
 

Kay Gladstone, Curator at the Imperial War Museum, said: “Historically the films are important because they capture key moments of Operation Dynamo. We see the camera pan across the scene of fire and smoke over Dunkirk town, with its distinctive white and striped lighthouse in the background.

The footage shows the rapid passage of arriving and departing destroyers, and one Cross-Channel ferry, assisting in the evacuation. Meanwhile a destroyer fires her rear anti-aircraft guns, and another appears so low in the water as to be sinking or aground. We also see evacuated soldiers packed onto destroyers. All the while, other troops waited patiently on the beaches for their turn to be rescued.”

Lieutenant Philip Roderick Hall shot the films while he was serving on HMS Whitehall during the evacuation from Dunkirk. There is also footage of him training as a Fleet Air Arm pilot prior to being killed in action on 14 June 1942.

One hair-raising scene shows planes attempting to land on the aircraft carrier HMS Argus during a storm. There are also scenes of Lieutenant Hall relaxing off-duty in England during the summer of 1941.

The two film reels were discovered at the University’s John Rylands Library by a member of the Heald-Hall family whose remarkable archive of correspondence, letter-books and diaries, spanning from 1866 to 1987, is one of hundreds of outstanding collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, maps and visual materials housed in the Library.

John Hodgson, Manuscripts and Archives Manager, said: “This is a truly remarkable discovery 75 years after Dunkirk, these films are testimony to the bravery of the servicemen and civilians who risked – and in many cases sacrificed – their lives to rescue the stricken army. Without Operation Dynamo, Britain would have lost the war.”

Notes for editors

To coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo The University of Manchester Library is launching the films on its YouTube channel. Please click and to view them.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

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The collection of 132 cartoons, which includes a boat race, a chariot race, a horse race and a foot race, are political in nature, and many relate to general elections or to parliamentary by-elections held in 91ֱ�� or Salford in the 1870s.

The 1874 general election was the first to use a secret ballot. The Conservatives, under Benjamin Disraeli won the majority of seats, although the Liberals, under William Ewart Gladstone, actually won a majority of the votes cast.

The artists and/or printers are often unknown and these and other cartoons held can be viewed on the website of the British Cartoon Archive (see http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/).

The poster of The Boat Race for South East Lancashire illustrates the general election of 1874 showing the Conservative candidates for South East Lancashire, Algernon Egerton (9,187 votes) and Edward Hardcastle (9,015 votes), coasting to victory against the Liberal candidates Peter Rylands (7,464 votes) and J. E. Taylor (7,453 votes).

The poster for the general election of 1874 of a chariot race, released before the results were known, shows the Liberal candidates Thomas Bazley and Jacob Bright triumphing in a chariot race against the Conservative candidates Hugh Birley and William Romaine Callender In fact, although the contest was closely fought, the Conservative candidates were ultimately triumphant.

The printer J. Murray seems to be hedging his bets in a pair of cartoons showing a running race and a horse race drawn for the 1874 general election. The Conservative candidates for 91ֱ��, Hugh Birley and William Romaine Callender, are seen to triumph in the horse race, while the Liberal candidates, Thomas Bazley and Jacob Bright, are shown as triumphant in the foot race. The numbers of votes cast (shown on the signposts) are fictitious. The actual results were:

• Conservative - Hugh Birley -19,984
• Conservative - William Romaine Callender -19,649
• Liberal - Thomas Bazley -19,325
• Liberal - Jacob Bright -18,727

The woman shown in these two cartoons is Lydia Becker, a key campaigner for women’s suffrage.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

This Is (Not) A Love Poem is the result of a Twitter-led project to create a new chaotic poem inspired by The University of Manchester Library’s Special Collections. From 26 January to 6 February, followers were asked to tweet a line of poetry in response to 12 collection images, keeping within Twitter’s 140 character limit.

The project hashtag #jrlpoem15 received over 1.3 million timeline deliveries, reaching over 400,000 accounts.  It received support and retweets from poetry associations across the UK, regional poets and writers, other North-West cultural assets and art movements such as 91ֱ�� International Festival. Over 200 tweets were considered for the final poem, which was constructed in a public-led poetry workshop held at the Library on Saturday 7 February.

The project is part of a wider initiative to explore how social media can help to open up the Library’s collections for new interpretations and the new audiences. The chosen images were created during The University’s digitisation programme, which is aimed at increasing accessibility to over one million rare and precious books, maps, manuscripts and visual materials. Featured images included carbonised Greek papyri, William Blake artwork, an illustrated Latin anatomy text and even a cartoon from Punch magazine.

Head of Special Collections at The University of Manchester Library, Rachel Beckett said: “We really want to open up our Special Collections to new media formats and encourage our social media followers to interpret items in a new way. I’m delighted with what they have given us”.

Project Manager, Gwen Riley-Jones said: “It’s been exciting to work on a project that created something virtual and then made it a physical part of the Library. The poetry workshop was immense fun - some people taking part said this was their first attempt at poetry since school”.

This Is (Not) A Love Poem is on display in the main atrium at The John Rylands Library along with a sound recording in the Chamber Gallery. A special poetry corner has also been installed in the Historic Reading Room, where visitors inspired by the poem can leave their love declarations.

The poem is currently being translated into other languages, including Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Mandarin and Braille, to reflect the broad appeal of The John Rylands Library, 91ֱ��’s #1 rated visitor attraction on Trip Advisor.
 

Notes for editors

Images of the Greek Papyri and the poem on display as well as a copy of the final poem are available upon request.

The John Rylands Library located in central 91ֱ�� is acknowledged to be one of the great libraries of the world and one of the finest examples of neo-Gothic architecture in Europe. The Library was founded by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands as both a tribute to her late husband John and as a gift to the people of Manchester. Since its opening in 1900, the Library has held rare and precious maps, books, manuscripts and visual materials spanning over 5000 years. Now part of The University of Manchester Library, it houses over 1.4 million items from The University’s Special Collections. Today, the Library is open to the general public and its growing archive is used extensively by The John Rylands Research Institute and visiting academics from across the world.

Press enquiries:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Mob: 0161 275 0790
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

To coincide with the 500th anniversary of the death of the world’s most famous commercial printer, the exhibition will celebrate the legacy of the Italian Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) who brought the Greek and Roman classics to the public through the new technology of printing and pioneered the pocket sized book we now take for granted.

The exhibition celebrates the legacy of Aldus, who also introduced the world to italic type, as an innovative scholar-businessman who founded the Aldine Press in Venice at the end of the fifteenth century and sought to produce critical editions of the classical authors.

Called ‘Merchants of Print: from Venice to 91ֱ��’, the exhibition will examine how such a rich collection was amassed in 91ֱ�� which is a city more famous for its textiles than its texts and more associated with mills than libraries.

The John Rylands Library, now part of the University of Manchester Library, became home to the world-leading collection of Aldines which were drawn together by the merchant collectors and citizen scholars of the industrial North of England during the nineteenth century.

Stephen J. Milner, Serena Professor of Italian, at The University of Manchester said: “A story of cultural translation emerges in which the parallels between mercantile Renaissance Venice and mercantile industrial 91ֱ�� were not only registered in the neo-Gothic architecture of Manchester’s palaces, but also in the literary and educational cultures of both cities.

“In the nineteenth century, 91ֱ�� imagined itself in the image and likeness of the great merchant cities of Renaissance Italy: Venice and Florence. This exhibition showcases part of the outstanding Italian cultural patrimony left to the city’s libraries and museums by the merchant collectors, theologians and educators of the day.”

Rare Books and Maps Manager Julianne Simpson said: “The Aldine collection at The John Rylands Library is truly remarkable for its size and depth, containing editions of the finest quality printing the Renaissance had to offer. Rarely has such an exquisite display of books from the foremost centre of early printing been on public display.”

The spotlight will be turned on local collectors, from Bishops to mill-owners and gynaecologists, and explores how they looked to the texts of Renaissance Venice for education and instruction. It will be accompanied by a full programme of public events – including:

• Learning about how books were made with demonstrations of printing and a closer look at paper and parchment
• Discovering the journeys undertaken by books printed by Aldus 500 years ago
• Finding out how the books found their final home in The John Rylands Library.

The exhibition runs until Sunday 21 June.

Notes for editors

The exhibition’s curators Julianne Simpson, Caroline Checkley-Scott and Professor Stephen J Milner are available for interview via the Media Relations Office.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

This cartographic treasure, hand drawn by the Elizabethan Herald William Smith, is on show at The John Rylands Library, in 91ֱ�� city centre, this week until December 22.

Dr Ian Saunders, a historian specialising in printed maps of Lancashire, believes that the map was made between 1602 and 1604. It was the final draft for a rare map of Lancashire which recently appeared in Dr Saunders’s book: Printed Maps of Lancashire: the first two hundred years.

Dr Saunders said: “It is a full size design for a copper plate to be engraved in Amsterdam by Jodocus Hondius, who was the finest map engraver of the period. This plate was intended for the printing of a map of Lancashire, almost certainly as part of a county atlas, but the plates for only 12 counties were produced and the atlas project never came to fruition. For the first fifty years of its existence the plate was not used.”

Smith’s maps were based on earlier ones by Saxton and Norden, but introduced additional features such as boundaries of the Hundreds into which counties were divided, extra place names and a table of symbols. 

Dr Saunders continues: “It is thought that the county series was never completed due to Hondius taking on the commission for engraving a new atlas by John Speed, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, which has been celebrated for 400 years as one of the world’s most popular cartographic treasures. 

“Speed openly acknowledged his friend Smith’s influence on his own maps and it is probable that his publisher George Humble bought the twelve plates and stored them away to prevent their use for a competing publication.” 

The 12 county maps drawn by Smith were previously known as the Anonymous Series and their origin was a cartographic mystery, which seemed impossible to solve for over 300 years. 

Confirmation of Smith as the map-maker finally came in 1958, when four manuscript originals of Hertfordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Cheshire were discovered by Mr R. V. Tooley in Holland and acquired by the British Museum. 

Dr Saunders said: “It is not known how the Lancashire map became separated from the manuscripts of the other four counties. It was bequeathed to the Library by Leonard Penna, who informed his friend Mr Alan Monks of its significance. Mr Monks recognised the printed version of the map when he saw it in Dr Saunders’s book.  

“Dr Saunders was astounded when Mr Monks alerted him to the existence of the original drawing at the John Rylands Library.” 

John Hodgson, a manuscripts and archives manager and Donna Sherman, who is a map librarian at the Library, have worked with Dr Saunders to bring the map to light.

Dr Saunders said: “It is thrilling to be one of the very few people who had seen and handled this map during the past 400 years.”

Notes for editors

Experts from John Rylands Library are available for interview via the University’s Media Relations Office.

High resolution images of the Lancashire map are available upon request.

The University of Manchester Library has digitised both sides of this map, so that it can be examined in terms of content as well as demonstrating these 17th century cartographic printing techniques.

The map was bequeathed to the John Rylands Library in 91ֱ�� by Mr Leonard Penna of Holywell Bay, Cornwall, and upon his death in 1979 it was transferred to the Library.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

The recordings featured in his BBC Radio 6 show , as part of 6 Music Celebrates Libraries.

Guy visited the John Rylands Library as well as two other 91ֱ�� libraries, The Portico Library and Central Library.

During his visit Guy was presented with the Gutenberg Bible; a 1,500-year-old papyrus fragment; a concrete poetry book; and a Charles Wesley hymn book including the original lyrics of ‘Hark! How All the Welkin Rings!’, more commonly known as ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’.

Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour – Library Special was broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music on Sunday, 16 November at 2pm.

You can read an article about the making of the programme in the Independent:

A manuscript predating the Magna Carta is to be seen, in full, online, by the public for the first time thanks to a project involving digital experts at The University of Manchester working in partnership with Rochester Cathedral.

The Textus Roffensis, a 12th century legal encyclopaedia compiled by a single scribe at Rochester Cathedral, in Kent, in the 1120s has been digitised by the University’s .

The medieval manuscript, which is almost 100 years older than King John’s Magna Carta and has been described as ‘Britain’s Hidden Treasure’ by the British Library, has never before been seen in its entirety by the public.

The University of Manchester’s Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care provides specialist and bespoke solutions for the digitisation and collection care of heritage and cultural collections.

Dr Chris Monk, a specialist at the University who worked with Rochester Cathedral on the project, said: “The team here has vast experience digitizing rare books and manuscripts.  To work with this particular national treasure, one of such historical significance, has been remarkable.  And it will be just as exciting and remarkable for the public to see it up close – no longer a hidden treasure.

“The Textus Roffensis is truly a unique manuscript: it predates the Magna Carta by almost a hundred years, contains the only copy of the oldest set of laws in English, and was penned by an English scribe within 60 years of the Norman Conquest.  That it is being made accessible to the public is worth shouting about, and is a tribute to all those involved with the project.

Written in Old English and Latin in 1123-24 AD, the Textus Roffensis is so called because of a 14th century inscription within the book, The Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum (The Book of the Church of Rochester through Bishop Ernulf). It contains the Law of Aethelberht of Kent which dates back to 600AD – it is the only surviving copy of the oldest law in English.

The book was originally two manuscripts. The first has the only surviving copies of three Kentish laws, including the Law of Aethelberht who was the King of Kent, from 560 to 616AD, and seen by some as ‘foundation documents of the English state’. King Alfred’s Domboc (book of laws) and King Cnut’s laws are also in this section of the book alongside the oldest copy of the coronation charter of Henry I - the wording of which is echoed in the Magna Carta (1215) and the American Declaration of Independence (1776).

The second part of the manuscript includes the earliest charters of England’s second oldest cathedral – founded at Rochester in 604AD, the oldest known catalogue of books in England and documents concerning the Danish conquest of England in 1016.

A number of pages in the manuscript display signs of water damage after it became submersed, possibly, in either the River Medway or the River Thames, sometime between 1708 and 1718, when it was being returned by boat to Rochester from London.

The early legal codes are concerned primarily with preserving social harmony, through compensation and punishment for personal injury. Compensations are arranged according to social rank, descending from king to slave. The initial provisions of the code offer protection to the church. Though the latter were probably innovations, much of the remainder of the code may be derived from earlier legal custom transmitted orally.

The Textus Roffensis has been safeguarded by Rochester Cathedral since its inception and has been digitised by The University of Manchester team as part of a Heritage Lottery Funded renovation and community engagement project at the Cathedral.

The Textus Roffensis itself will go on display in Rochester Cathedral next year, as part of the Cathedral’s Heritage Lottery Fund project, ‘Hidden Treasures: Fresh Expressions’, and will enable public access to its remarkable library and other collections and include exhibitions, workshops, events and activities.

Janet Wilkinson is The University of Manchester’s Librarian and Director of . She said: “The University of Manchester Library has long recognised the need to preserve its digital material, as well as print, for future generations. I am reassured that this significant piece of history will now survive for future research purposes.” 

Notes for editors

Interview and filming requests can be made through the University’s press office. Images of Textus Roffensi’ are available and interviews can be arranged with Dr Chris Monk from The University of Manchester, Canon Dr Philip Hesketh and Armand De Filippo from Rochester Cathedral.

A link to download a film about Textus Roffensis will be sent on request.

The newly digitised version of Textus Roffensis is being unveiled for the first time at Rochester Cathedral on Wednesday 5th November 2014 at 7pm. Canon Dr Philip Hesketh will give a welcome and introduction to the text and the digitization of the Textus Roffensis will be explained by Gwen Riley Jones and Carol Burrows of The Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care at The John Rylands Library (part of The University of Manchester). Dr Chris Monk will explore this book, so full of national and local drama, in his talk at the launch event.

Funding for the digitisation project was provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Media enquiries to:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

The John Rylands Research Institute officially launched last night, bringing together the world class expertise from the Faculty of Humanities and The University of Manchester Library.

Hosted in the neo-gothic splendour of The John Rylands Library's Historic Reading Room, the evening commenced with a drinks reception, followed by presentations from the President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nancy Rothwell, University Librarian and Director of The John Rylands Library, Jan Wilkinson and Founding Director of the Institute, Professor Peter E Pormann.

Professor Peter E Pormann, said: “The Institute will bring together library and academic staff from inside and outside the University to explore our breath-taking Special Collections. Experienced curators and conservators look after this national treasure of global importance, which has rich, untapped potential for research and discovery.”

Rachel Beckett, Head of Special Collections at The University of Manchester Library and Associate Director of the Institute said: “The close collaboration between Library staff and academic colleagues will help us to reveal the riches of the Rylands, which is home to many of the finest collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives in the world.”

The Institute was opened by the Professor Nancy Rothwell, on Monday, 13 October. Over 100 guests attended the event. 

Notes for editors

For further information please contact Kath Paddison, Media Relations Officer, The University of Manchester, 0161 275 0790 or kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

Harmonious Society, which launched this week, is a major exhibition showcasing contemporary visual art created by emerging and established Asian artists in response to the theme of 'Conflict and Compassion'.

The six key city centre venues are the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, ArtWork, The John Rylands Library, 91ֱ�� Cathedral, Museum of Science & Industry and National Football Museum.

The John Rylands Library is showcasing artwork from four inspirational artists – Samson Young, Wang Yuyang, Annie Wan and Zhao Yao.

Samson Young’s sound installation Chamber Music II: Silent Scores & Non-Events explores the cultural construction of deaf people as disabled, in both its current and historical dimensions. This work draws extensively from the Henry Baker papers and the Deaf Education Collection at the Library, the largest collection of such materials in the UK. The work will feature a series of small, low volume, sound making objects, installed at various locations within the Library’s atrium area.

An equally intimate work of seemingly breathing books by Wang Yuyang will also intrigue and captivate visitors to the Library. Positioned in the grand Historic Reading Room, Wang’s books will move, almost imperceptibly, in a slow, breathing motion, re-enforcing the notion of the written word as a living, breathing force, ageless and alive.

Annie Wan will be exploring the unique linguistic dynamic that exists in her home country, Hong Kong, where public announcements can be heard primarily in Cantonese, English, and then Mandarin. For ‘Harmonious Society’ Annie will be creating ceramic versions of the dictionaries used by herself and her friends, taking these essential tools for learning and rendering them fragile, non-functional and devoid of text.

Zhao Yao will be creating carpets depicting aerial views of international airports especially for one of the Library’s corridors. Visitors will be invited to tread across the carpets, adding a subtle performance aspect to the work as the visitors unwittingly re-enact the travellers who pass through these airports.

Notes for editors

Harmonious Society will run from 27th September – 23rd November 2014. A press visit is scheduled for 25th September.  

A 1,500 year old papyrus fragment found in The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library has been identified as one the world’s earliest surviving Christian charms.

The remarkable document uniquely contains some of the earliest documented references to the Last Supper and ‘manna from heaven’. It is the earliest surviving document to use the Christian Eucharist liturgy - which outlines the Last Supper - as a protective charm.

Dr Roberta Mazza, a Research Fellow of the recently established John Rylands Research Institute came across the Greek ‘amulet’ while working on thousands of fragments of unpublished historical documents that are kept in the library’s vaults.

According to the researcher, the charm casts important new light on early Christianity - just 300 years after the Roman emperor Constantine converted to the religion.

It shows how Christians adopted the ancient Egyptian practice of wearing amulets to protect the wearer against dangers. This practice of writing charms on pieces of papyrus was continued by the Christians who replaced the prayers to Egyptian and Greco-Roman gods with extracts from the Bible.

Dr Mazza also discovered the document was written on an ancient version of recycled paper by using cutting-edge spectral imaging techniques.

Faint lettering on the back of the charm is thought to be a receipt for the payment of grain tax which was certified by the tax collector from the village of Tertembuthis – this is in the countryside of the ancient city of Hermoupolis (modern el-Ashmunein).

Dr Mazza said: “The amulet maker would have cut a piece of the receipt, written the charm on the other side and then he would have folded the papyrus to be kept in a locket or pendant. It is for this reason the tax receipt on the exterior was damaged and faded away.”

The document had been held at the library since around 1901, but its significance had not been realized until Dr Mazza spotted it. She said: “This is an important and unexpected discovery as it’s one of the first recorded documents to use magic in the Christian context and the first charm ever found to refer to the Eucharist – the last supper – as the manna of the Old Testament. The text of the amulet is an original combination of biblical passages including Psalm 78:23-24 and Matthew 26:28-30 among others.

“To this day, Christians use passages from the bible as protective charms so our amulet marks the start of an important trend in Christianity.

“Though we know almost nothing about the owner of the charm, we think it could have been owned by a resident of the village nearby Hermoupolis (el-Ashmunein). We can say this is an incredibly rare example of Christianity and the Bible becoming meaningful to ordinary people - not just priests and the elite.

“It’s doubly fascinating because the amulet maker clearly knew the Bible, but made lots of mistakes: some words are misspelled and others are in the wrong order. This suggests that he was writing by heart rather than copying it.

“It’s quite exciting.  Thanks to this discovery, we now think that the knowledge of the Bible was more embedded in sixth century AD Egypt than we previously realized.”

Professor Peter E Pormann, Director of the John Rylands Research Institute said: “We’re very excited about this find - it’s a great way to herald the official launch of the John Rylands Research Institute on 13 October.”

“It is a statement of intent of how the Institute will bring together library and academic staff from inside and outside the University to explore our breathtaking Special Collections. Experienced curators and conservators look after this national treasure of global importance which has rich, untapped potential for research and discovery.

“So by bringing the together the world class expertise at the University’s Faculty of Humanities and the library, we shall help unlock the secrets of these treasures.”

Rachel Beckett, Head of Special Collections at University of Manchester Library and Associate Director of the John Rylands Research Institute said: “This is a truly remarkable discovery, and clearly demonstrates the strength and global significance of the library’s collections. It also demonstrates the value of close collaboration between library staff and academic colleagues, helping us to reveal the riches of the Rylands which is home to many of the finest collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives in the world.”

Notes for editors

Images of the papyrus fragment are available upon request.

Roberta Mazza is available for interview.

Details of this discovery are being unveiled for the first time at a conference on 4th September at The John Rylands Library entitled ‘From Egypt to 91ֱ�� Unravelling The John Rylands Papyrus Collection’. 

The full text of the papyrus:

“Fear you all who rule over the earth.

Know you nations and peoples that Christ is our God.

For he spoke and they came to being, he commanded and they were created; he put everything under our feet and delivered us from the wish of our enemies.

Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord’s immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins.”

For more information please contact:

Kath Paddison

Media Relations Officer

Faculty of Humanities

The University of Manchester

Tel. +44 (0)161 275 8155

Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

Academics at The University of Manchester and Bristol are marking the 700th birthday of one of the medieval world’s greatest writers, credited with establishing the European storytelling traditions we know today.

Italian Giovanni Boccaccio, author of the 1351 Decameron, a collection of 100 tales ranging from the erotic to the tragic, will be honoured through a five-month exhibition at the University’s .

It is curated by and   from The University of Manchester and Dr Rhiannon Daniels from the University of Bristol.

The same team are also hosting 60 Boccaccio scholars from around the world at a conference at 91ֱ�� Town Hall on 11-12 July.

Called ‘Locating Boccaccio in 2013’, the exhibition will showcase some of the world-renowned Boccaccio exhibits held by The John Rylands Library, alongside loans from other libraries and private collections.

Exhibits span the period from the fifteenth century to the digital age, from medieval manuscripts and early printed books, through private press editions and popular classics right up to the internet resource, the Decameron Web.

As well as the historic books, it contains a collection of new artists’ books, specially commissioned for the anniversary to offer new responses to Boccaccio and his works.

Professor Milner said: “We are delighted to be hosting the world’s leading scholars in Boccaccio studies and showcase 91ֱ��’s outstanding collection of Boccaccio’s works.

“His impact as a writer is vast, both as a founding father of the Renaissance and the revival of interest in the classical world and as an innovator in writing prose stories”

“His influence on figures as diverse as Chaucer and Salvador Dali reflect the scale of his literary heritage ”

Dr Armstrong said: “Boccaccio was a great humanist, and unlike Dante and other writers of the time, one of the first people to give women a voice.”

“He’s often described as the writer of ‘dirty stories’, but he’s so much more than that because we can credit him with establishing the great European traditions of storytelling.

“But he is also the master of the double entendre and the sexual farce.”

The star of the show is the ‘Roxburghe Decameron’, purchased by Mrs Rylands in 1892 from the Earl Spencer, and is the founding volume of the world’s most exclusive book club - The Roxburghe Club.

The Roxburghe Club, which boasts just forty members at any one time, was founded in 1812 after the auction of the 1471 printed edition of Boccaccio’s Decameron for a then world record price of £2,260 after a dramatic bidding war.

Notes for editors

The academics will also be involved in a further public Boccaccio event at the British Library in September 2013, while the artists’ book exhibition will move on to the University of the West of England in December 2013.

Dr Guyda Armstrong and Professor Stephen Milner  from The University of Manchester and Dr Rhiannon Daniels the University of Bristol are available for comment

Images are available

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

A 165-year-old envelope addressed to one of the Victorian era’s greatest writers has been reunited with its letter, unexpectedly discovered by an American academic.

The items, dated 8 November 1848 and penned by another influential Victorian figure, Thomas Carlyle, are now reunited at The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library.

Intended for Cranford author Elizabeth Gaskell, Carlyle’s letter praises her first novel Mary Barton, published on 18 October that year.

Carlyle, a historian and radical social commentator, did not know who wrote the novel, which was a closely guarded secret, but suspected it was by a woman opening his letter ‘Dear Madam’.

The letter, one of a substantial collection bequeathed by Gaskell’s daughter Meta to The John Rylands Library in 1913, was almost certainly read by the novelist.

David Southern, Managing Editor of the Carlyle Letters Project at Duke University Press, North Carolina, spotted the envelope in a random search on the internet.

He said: “I make regular trawls for Carlyleana that show up in catalogs of manuscript dealers, major auction houses and even on eBay.

“We have had a special relationship with The John Rylands Library since the 1950s,  when we acquired copies of a number of its manuscript letters and list 39 Carlyle letters from in our masterlist.

“So knowing of the Gaskell collection in 91ֱ��, I immediately knew what it was when I spotted it and contacted Fran Baker at the Library to let them know.”

Mary Barton, based on Gaskell’s own observations, sympathetically portrayed the lives of the 91ֱ�� cotton workers, creating a sensation amid criticism from mill owners.

When it was published, Gaskell asked for copies to be sent to writers she admired, including Thomas Carlyle.

In a letter dated 5 December she complained of the ‘impertinent and unjustifiable curiosity of people’ about the authorship of her novel but that ‘in the midst of all my deep and great annoyance, Mr Carlyle’s letter has been most valuable; and has given me almost the only unmixed pleasure I have yet received from the publication of MB’.

Fran Baker, archivist at The John Rylands Library, said: “The letter this envelope originally held was sent before the author’s identity became known, and directed to 186 The Strand; the address of Gaskell’s publishers, Chapman and Hall.

“It was forwarded to Gaskell by Chapman and Hall, and was definitely in her hands by December 1848.

“The envelope bears no postage marks, suggesting it was handed in at the office, perhaps by a messenger sent on Carlyle’s behalf.”

She added: “At what point Carlyle’s letter became separated from the envelope that originally contained it remains a mystery. We don’t even know whether the envelope was forwarded to Gaskell with the letter.

“If it was, one explanation for its subsequent disappearance might be that Gaskell was an avid autograph collector, and was always ready to pass on the letters and signatures of well-known figures to friends and acquaintances. She may therefore have forwarded the envelope, with Carlyle’s precious signature, to a fellow collector.

“Its peregrinations during the past 150 years or so may never become known, but I’m delighted it has finally reached a permanent resting place, reunited with its original contents.”

Notes for editors

Visit to see The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle.

Images are available of the letter, envelope, and portraits of Elizabeth Gaskell and Thomas Carlyle. Please credit: Gaskell Collection

• Letter dated 8 November 1848.
• Envelope dated 8 November 1848
• B&w photograph of Gaskell taken by the photographer Alexander McGlashon in c. 1864, the year before Gaskell’s death.
• Portrait miniature painted by William John Thomson in Edinburgh in 1832. Gaskell would have been 21, almost 22; she was also called Elizabeth Stevenson at this point – it was a couple of months before her marriage. Thomson was Scotland’s leading miniaturist and he was also the brother of Elizabeth’s stepmother, Catherine.

Fran Baker is available for comment

For media enquires contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

A University of Manchester has discovered how the Methodist Church built some of Britain’s most important and successful community buildings in the early twentieth century - now mostly forgotten.

says that 99 ‘Methodist Central Halls’ were built costing an equivalent of £90 million in today’s terms.

Today, the Methodist Church owns only 18 of the original buildings, many of which have been substantially altered. Twenty seven have been completely demolished or bombed in the war.

Nineteen are protected as listed buildings and all, she says, were large buildings designed not to look like a church.

Dr Connelly, who is based at , said: “Nearly everyone in the UK will have seen a Methodist Central Hall: Pavarotti performed at Kingsway Hall and the UN Declaration was signed in Westminster Central Hall.

“But few of us know what they are, how they are used or what has happened to them.

“Because they do not look like churches or cathedrals, the public aren’t aware of those that remain at all – especially those which have been converted into other uses such as bars and pubs.

“But in their hey day they attracted big crowds: the 91ֱ�� and Salford mission headquarters once boasted 2000 volunteers.”

The decline, she will say in a Bulletin of University Library of Manchester paper next month, is down to a long period of drops in Methodist congregations nationally, as well as even steeper losses through inner-city demographic and economic changes.

Her funded study shows how the Missions promoted cultural activity to make their religion relevant to everyday lives and tempt people away from the lure of alcohol.

These included popular entertainment such as film shows, concerts and variety performances.

Joseph Rank – of Rank Hovis – provided much of the capital to build the Central Halls.

His son, J Arthur Rank, the film producer, was also a prominent Methodist who became interested in the movie industry after seeing the pioneering use of religious films at the Methodist Missions in the 1920s.

The wife of the Methodist Times founder and reformer  Hugh Price Hughes, also established the nation’s first ever crèche for working girls at the West London mission in the 1880s.

She said: “As numbers dropped and maintenance costs spiralled, rooms were let out to other organisations and the Halls were used for a wide variety of events.

“Through the twentieth century, more space was rented out to other organisations for theatres, libraries, social services and even school exams.

She added: “Grimsby and Southampton are now theatres, Liverpool’s Central Hall on Renshaw Street now hosts a collection of independent traders. At Bristol and Bradford, the Central Halls are converted into flats.

“These halls were, and in several cases still are, the best venue in town.

“But it’s sad how many of these important buildings are no longer standing - quite moving when you read of the read of the struggles the Methodists had to keep them going.

“But I would rather these buildings are used by the public - even as a bar - rather than lose them altogether as they are such an important part of Britain’s urban history.”
 

Notes for editors

' will be published in the Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 89:1, 2012-13 in October. The issue is themed issue under the title: Architecture and Environment: 91ֱ�� in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Published by the library since 1903, The Rylands Bulletin publishes articles in any subject area from the arts and social studies and on the historical or philosophical aspects of the natural and physical sciences. It concentrates on inter-disciplinary analyses which incorporate the results of research on the extensive collections of The John Rylands University Library.

Images are available

Dr Connelly is available for interview

A complete list of location and status of each Methodist Hall is available

Cities where at least one Methodist Hall was built included (in alphabetical order):
Ashington, Bargoed, Barking, Barrow-in-Furness, Birmingham, Bolton, Blackburn, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Carlisle, Chester, Coventry, Edinburgh, Gateshead, Glasgow, Great Yarmouth, Grimsby, Hartlepool, Hull, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, 91ֱ��, Newcastle, Nottingham, Paisley, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Rochdale, Salford, Scarborough, Southampton, Sheffield, Slough, Stoke-on-Trent, Stockton-Upon-Tees, Swindon, Tonypandy, Walsall, Wigan, Wednesbury.

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

An exquisite handwritten edition of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, kept at The John Rylands Library, is now available on the iBookstore.

The iBookstore is included in the free iBooks app for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and at www.itunes.co.uk.

The manuscript, written by little known 91ֱ�� artist Alan L Tabor, was digitised using state-of-the-art technology by specialist photographers at the world famous university library.

Tabor wrote the entire text by hand and decorated it with medieval style illustrations. His widow donated the manuscript to when he died in 1957.

In 1937 Tabor  produced a loyal address from the City of Manchester upon the accession of George VI and in 1943 designed the scroll conferring the freedom of the city upon Winston Churchill.

Published in facsimile by George G. Harrap in 1916, this title is the latest Rylands addition to the ground-breaking ‘eBook Treasures’ series, which enables iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to explore rare works from UK collections in ultra high-definition.

Also being made available from the John Rylands Library is a first edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets, published during the poet’s lifetime in 1609. They are one of only 13 copies in existence.

The sonnets were bought by the Spencer family for £8 in 1798, then acquired by the John Rylands Library in 1901 as part of the Spencer Collection.

Developed with media company Armadillo Systems, each eBook is £4.99 to download and uses realistic page turning software linked to additional video and audio content.

A Christmas Carol was first published in December 1843, inspiring a genre of Victorian Christmas books.

The first edition of the classic was illustrated by John Leech, and the book has been a favourite with illustrators ever since.

, a Senior Lecturer in 19th Century writing at The University of Manchester said: “It’s very appropriate that A Christmas Carol inspired a 91ֱ��-based artist to create this stunning work, because it was during a visit to 91ֱ�� that Dickens first got the idea to write the story.

“It has been working its magic ever since it was first published, continuing to this very day.

“In 1843 that was immediately recognised by Dickens’ fellow-novelist, Margaret Oliphant, who declared it to be 'unique as a work which actually made people behave better'.

“In 1867 when a Boston factory owner attending  a Christmas Eve reading of A Christmas Carol by Dickens himself was so moved by the tale he ordered the works to be closed on Christmas Day and gave a turkey to every employee.

“Thackeray described it as "a national benefit" and in the early part of the twentieth century, the Queen of Norway sent presents annually to disabled children in London inscribed "With Tiny Tim's Love".

Director of the John Rylands Library Jan Wilkinson said: “We are delighted that general readers as well as Dickens fans will  be able to see this  beautifully illustrated manuscript in high resolution. It will be the next best thing to owning the original.

“A key aim of the University is engage with the public by sharing our knowledge and expertise and this is a strong example of that.

“We know very little about the origins of this work and the artist Alan Tabor, so if any members of the public have any further information, the library would be grateful to receive it.”

Michael Stocking, Managing Director of Armadillo Systems, said: "This is one of the most evocative books we have in eBook Treasures, and we're delighted to be working with the John Rylands Library on this project.

“I thought I was familiar with A Christmas Carol, but this version made me re-read the book from cover to cover."

Notes for editors

Book treasures are being made available by the British Library, National History Museum and Royal Society in partnership with Apple Europe. More information can be found at www.ebooktreasures.org or find ebook treasures on Facebook.

It is available to download for £4.99 from the iBookstore on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/iBookstore  

A Christmas Carol is now on display to the public at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate, 91ֱ��.

Images are available.

Dr Sanders, Michael stocking and John Rylands Library project manager Carol Burrows are available for interview.

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

A 350-year-old notebook which describes the execution of innocent women for consorting with the Devil, has been published online by The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library.

Puritan writer Nehemiah Wallington wrote passages on his attitudes to life, religion, the civil war as well as the witchcraft trials of the period.

By 1654 Wallington catalogued 50 notebooks, of which only seven are known to survive.

Each is unique, and the Tatton copy documenting battles and skirmishes of English Civil War period and the disturbing violence of the 1640s in which dozens East Anglian women were killed.

There are also 4 in the British Library, 1 in the Guildhall Library, 1 in the Folger Library, Washington DC, and 1 at Tatton Park in Cheshire.

Last year, a team of experts from the John Rylands’ Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care (CHICC) team funded by JISC, spent a week at Tatton Park, Cheshire, to capture the document on camera.

Wallington tells how a supposed coven of witches was found in the Essex village of Manningtree.

Manningtree is the home village of Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, notorious for his brutality against women.

In 1645 Hopkins had been appointed to examine villager Elizabeth Clarke for ‘devil’s marks’ like warts or moles.

Under torture, she named other women, including her daughter Rebecca. When Rebecca was herself tortured, she implicated her own mother as a witch.

A total of 19 women were eventually hanged, though Rebecca was saved thanks to her confession.

At the Chelmsford trial in July 1645, Wallington wrote about Rebecca.

On the ‘many witches in Essex, Suffolk and Northfolk’, he wrote:
“July the XX111 there were at Least XXXV111 wiches imprisoned in the Town of Ipswich…divers of them voluntarily and without any forcing or compulsion freely declare that they have made a covenant with the Devill, to forsake God and Christ ant to take him to be their Master and Like wise do acknowledge that divers Cattell; and som Christians have been killed by their meanes …By this wee may see the grand delusions and impostures of Satan by which we works upon men & women in these Latter times of the world What sins so hanious what crimes so grevious will not they run in to from whom God is gone’

James Robinson, Senior Photographer at  the John Rylands Library, said: “Our work at Tatton Park  involved careful documentation of each and every page of this fragile and important notebook.

“We’re delighted the public, free of charge, will now be read for themselves the horrors of that period.”

Tatton Park Mansion and Collections Manager Caroline Schofield said: “Nehemiah Wallington, a turner by trade and a Christian by religion, was an intelligent working man battling with the adversities of life in the seventeenth century.

Of his brood of children only his daughter Sarah survived into adulthood.

“At times he doubted his salvation to the degree that he suffered a mental breakdown and tried to take his own life.

“He began to keep his diaries in an effort to record his own sins and God’s mercies.

“The Wallington manuscripts are hugely important primary sources for scholars of the period.”

Notes for editors

More details online at or visit Open the Insight browser, select Rylands Collection and search for Wallington.

Caroline Schofield and Jamie Robinson are available for comment.

Images are available.

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Media Relations
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

However, the collection of poster-sized prints, discovered at the University’s John Rylands Library, contains a mysterious unfinished colour painting .

The 250-year-old views of summer palaces were found by Dr Yangwen Zheng while researching material for a book to be published next year.

No other complete set of these prints known as ‘Twenty views of the European palaces in the Garden of Perfect Brightness’ are thought to exist in the UK.

Estimating their value is difficult, says Dr Zheng, though a figure of up to half a million pounds is possible, she adds.

“The figure is a far cry from the cost of these lovely works when they were sold for £5 in the 1870s - probably to Lord Crawford, “said Dr Zheng.

“Enriqueta Rylands purchased them for the Library in 1901 – ever since they have been  part of the renowned Crawford Collection of over 6000 manuscripts and books from around the world.

“But their significance has not been recognised until now.”

According to Dr Zheng, a Qing dynasty specialist, they provide a unique depiction of European palaces designed and built in the mid eighteenth century by French Jesuits missionaries for the Qianlong Emperor. One of the prints even shows a Western style street.

The European palaces and an entire 350 square kilometre garden were looted and burned by British, French, American and Russian forces which marched into Beijing at the end the Second Opium War in 1860.

There is now little trace of Chinese architecture’s European influences.

Dr Zheng is Research Director at The University’s Centres for Chinese studies. She said: “This is a sensational find – and raises our understanding of the importance of the John Rylands Chinese collections immensely.

“The images are very important as they help to dispel the myth that China was closed to the world in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

“In fact, partly because of the French Jesuit missionaries influence as architects and painters, the Chinese knew more about Europe than the Europeans knew about China.”

Elizabeth Gow, John Rylands Library Manuscript Curator and Assistant Archivist said: “As we are not aware of any other complete set of prints in the UK, British scholars will now have a place to freely study these important works.

“At this stage we don’t know very much about the origins of the intriguing colour painting but it’s certainly unusual.

“French jottings on the edges translated as “it has just begun to be coloured" and "example for colouring” give us some clues- but it’s still a mystery.”

The prints will be used to illustrate Dr Zheng’s book about foreign trade called ‘China on the Sea’ published next year by Brill.

Notes for editors

Images of the prints are available, however external photography is not permitted.

Dr Zhen is available for interview

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Media Relations
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is to unveil an 11-metre high piece of public art at The University of Manchester’s world-famous John Rylands Library today (20 May).

The stained glass and metal sculpture was the judges’ top choice after wading through more than a hundred applications from across Britain, Europe and the United States last year.

Funded by the Oglesby Charitable Trust, the work -  entitled Totem - can be seen by the Library’s new entrance wing, close to the original 1890s building famed for its gothic architecture.

The winning design, installed in January, came from artist Derek Hunt based at Limelight Studios in Leicestershire.

His work can be seen in churches, public buildings, theatres and shopping centres around the UK.

Derek Hunt said: “I am thrilled to be awarded such a prestigious commission.

“I wanted to create a sense of place with a glass installation which would embody the spirit of The John Rylands Library and celebrate its collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives.

“The design refers to some of the internationally famous collections, such as the St John’s Fragment, thought to be the earliest piece of New Testament in existence.”

Jan Wilkinson, University Librarian and Director of said she is delighted with the finished piece.

"Totem embodies a harmony of contemporary and traditional practice which responds both to the architecture of The John Rylands Library and to the outstanding collections housed within it.

“We are immensely grateful to for generously funding this project, which will make a lasting contribution to our visitors' experience of the building and its collections."

Michael Oglesby, Chairman of the Oglesby Charitable Trust, said: “The Oglesby Charitable Trust is committed to supporting the best of modern art in the North West.

“It would be difficult to imagine a more inspiring setting for any artwork than the atrium of the John Rylands Library.”

Notes for editors

Photo opportunities are available from noon at the John Rylands Library.

The John Rylands Library is part of The University of Manchester. The University Library's Special Collections are housed in the historic, Grade 1-listed John Rylands Library which reopened in 2007 after a major three-year restoration and development project. It is open to the public free of charge. Opening times: Mon 12.00-5.00, Tues-Sat 10.00-5.00, Sun 12.00-5.00. Visit www.manchester.ac.uk/library

The £16.8 million project was funded by £8.2 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £3 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) plus generous contributions from The University of Manchester, trusts and foundations and businesses and individuals.

For enquiries contact:
Michelle Sharples
0161 306 1884
07974 711959
michelle.sharples@manchester.ac.uk
The John Rylands Library
The University of Manchester
150 Deansgate
91ֱ��
M3 3EH

and

Mike Addelman
Media Relations
The University of manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

A rare – and possibly unique - text describing a Jewish exorcism has been discovered by a scholar of medieval Jewish studies.

The 150 word neatly written fragment – discovered by Dr Renate Smithuis from The University of Manchester – describes a ceremony to dispel the evil spirit of Nissim Ben Bunya from his widow, Qamar Bat Rahma.

Dr Smithuis thinks the Hebrew document was most likely written in the eighteenth century and probably originated from Egypt or Palestine.

The fragment provides what is likely to be unique evidence of the prayer ritual's actual use in a synagogue.

It is one of the 11,000 manuscript fragments held at The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library – rescued from a 1000-year old storeroom – or Genizah – at the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo.

The fragment contains the second part of a prayer ritual in which the husband  - or husband-to-be  - of a widow recites an exorcism prayer, to which the other men gathered in the synagogue respond with a similar prayer.

Apparently, Qamar had been possessed by the spirit – or dybbuk – of her late husband Nissim Ben Bunya while engaged to, or just married with, Joseph Moses Ben Sarah.

In the prayer, Joseph and the rest of the congregation ask God that the ghost may be expelled from Qamar and that the new family and all their possessions may be protected from the troublesome ghost also in the years to come.

Professor Gideon Bohak from Tel-Aviv University, who has worked with Dr Smithuis -  discovered that the prayer is ascribed to the famous eighteenth-century Kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Shar‘abi.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council awarded The John Rylands Library over £ 361,000 to digitise and catalogue the Rylands Genizah in 2006.

The project – soon to be completed – provides high resolution images of the fragments on the website of The John Rylands Library for both researchers and the public. There will be at least 22,000 images.

Dr Renate Smithuis, who is based at the Centre for Jewish Studies at The University of Manchester , said: “From the second half of the sixteenth century onwards, there were lots of dybbuk stories across the Mediterranean, primarily in North Africa and Palestine.

“But this fragment is so exciting because it’s not a story, but the record of a real event using a prayer which was actually recited in a synagogue.

“The prayer was said in the presence of a minyan – the minimum number of ten adult Jews required for a communal religious service.

“We think it likely to have come from Egypt or Palestine not only because the fragment originates from the Cairo Genizah but also because Qamar (Arabic for “Moon”) and Rahma (“Mercy”) are names of Arabic origin.

”We know little more about what happened than what is contained within these 150 or so words  – but it does throw some light on this mysterious and little known side of Jewish culture.”

Notes for editors

Dr Smithuis is available for comment.

An image of the fragment is available.

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Media Relations
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

Guests at Café at the Rylands, located within the historic and beautiful John Rylands Library, have been treated to an exclusive tasting session of Richard II’s recipes from ‘The Forme of Cury’, one of the oldest known cookery manuscripts in the English language.

The 600-year-old book, written in Middle English, doesn’t detail precise quantities or cooking instructions and created many problems for the catering team.  Manager of Café at The Rylands, Debbie Fletcher, said: “Some of the combinations were very strange and it was a real challenge to find some of the ingredients.”

But after hours of experimenting and sampling, chefs at the café managed to devise a menu suitable for modern day palates.

Specially invited guests sampled Tart in Ymber Day (a type of egg custard tart sweetened with raisins), Compast (cooked root vegetables cooked in a sweetened vinaigrette), Payn Puff (boiled fruits in coffin or pye, a type of pastry), Frumenty (bulghar wheat and chicken stock coloured and flavoured with saffron served as a porridge type dish), Gingerbrede (spiced breadcrumbs bound with honey and rolled in sugar and ginger, washed down with Piment (a sweetened spice red wine with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper).

Chefs at the cafe plan to introduce one of the dishes into their contemporary menu and the exclusive tasting was an opportunity to capture valuable customer feedback. Staff are now reviewing responses and the favourite will become a permanent fixture in their January 2010 menu and will be announced in the New Year.

John Hodgson, keeper of manuscripts and archives at John Rylands Library, was also on hand to provide guests with an insight into the historical origins of the book and a rare viewing of the precious item.

The Forme of Cury was compiled and written in 1390 by King Richard II’s master cooks and contains over 190 recipes that would have originally been served in the royal household, from the servants’ quarters through to the top royal table. It includes recipes made from porpoise, pike and blancmange and gives a great insight into the delicacies eaten in the Middle Ages. 

The Forme of Cury was bought by Mrs. Rylands for the library from Lord Crawford as part of a larger collection in 1901 and it has been housed in the library ever since. John Rylands Library houses thousands more of the UK's most exquisite collections of books, manuscripts and archives.

Further information

A video of the day can be viewed at:

The Forme of Cury was digitalised and went online this year and can be found at:

Notes for editors

Contact
Jon Keighren, Media Relations Manager, The University of Manchester
0161 275 8384

A world renowned children’s author had a life tainted by tragedy, despised Enid Blyton and dabbled in the paranormal, according to her private diaries published for the first time this month.

A world renowned children’s author had a life tainted by tragedy, despised Enid Blyton and dabbled in the paranormal, according to her private diaries published for the first time this month.

Alison Uttley –known to millions across the world as the author of Tales Of Little Grey Rabbit and Sam Pig –kept a diary for more than 40 years which is now archived at The University of Manchester’s .

After her husband James’ suicide in 1930, Uttley launched her writing career  to support her only child John, and went on to write more than 100 books.

Sam Pig, Brock the Badger, Tim Rabbit, Little Grey Rabbit, Squirrel and Hare have mesmerised children ever since.

In the diaries Uttley wrote of her admiration for poet Walter de la Mare and other male figures, including her former Professor at The University of Manchester – known at the time as the Victoria University of Manchester.

The author-  who in 1906 as a physics student became the second woman ever to graduate at the University - bequeathed a third of her literary income to support students at the University’s Ashburne Hall.

But she hated many women and was bitterly resentful of comparisons with Beatrix Potter

She and scornfully dismissive of her near neighbour Enid Blyton, who she called a ‘vulgar, curled woman’ and whose success provoked her envy and dislike. She also detested her main illustrator, Margaret Tempest.

The former suffragette and close friend of first Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald wrote about her dreams and her psychic abilities as well as expressing a deep love for her son John.

John also tragically took his own life by driving his car off a cliff two years after his mother's death in 1978.

She also described in loving detail her fondly remembered childhood in rural Derbyshire. She lived out her old age in suburban Buckinghamshire and died in 1976, aged 91.

The book – The Private Diaries of Alison Uttley 1932 to 1971 – is edited by Professor Denis Judd, author of Uttley's biography. Professor Judd who along with the members of the Ashburne Association is a trustee of her literary estate.

, which turned 107 this year, is the organisation of past and present students living at the University of Manchester’s Ashburne Hall.

He said: “These diaries chart Alison Uttley’s rise as a best-selling author and are a fascinating read.

“They describe some surprising attitudes to the people she knew as well as highlighting the tragedy of her husband’s death which blighted her life.

“She recorded her frustration with publishers, wrote beautiful descriptions of the countryside and described her early financial struggles.

“Her competitive and passionate nature often clouded her judgement and drastically affected her private and professional life.

“Though she ended her life as a grande dame of literature, she was acclaimed but never entirely content.”

Alison Uttley on:

• Enid Blyton:  ‘False teeth, red lips... boastful. ... we only met once, and when I asked her which books she wrote, she replied “Look in Smith’s window” and turned away, and never spoke again.’.
• Margaret Tempest: ‘She is a humourless bore, seldom does a smile come, her eyes cold and hard... she is absolutely awful...’
• Walter de la Mare: ‘He was smiling and very charming, so that I quite loved him.’
• Her characters: ‘Why do children love them? Because I believe in them. Mine aren’t made up. They are real...I don’t sit down to write a story, they come.’

Notes for editors

Images are available:

• Alison at a picnic at about the time she became engaged to James
• Drawings of her animal characters drawn by Margaret Tempest, her illustrator.

The Private Diaries of Alison Uttley 1932 to 1971 is edited by Professor Denis Judd and published by Pen and Sword books.

Journalists are welcome to photograph a blue plaque commemorating Alison Uttley on the steps of the grade 2 listed Behrens House, Ashburne Hall Campus at The University of Manchester.

Professor Judd is available for comment.

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881 567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

A collection of letters written by two Victorian families – including one of the era’s best loved writers - have been acquired by The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library.

The correspondence between Elizabeth Gaskell, her friend Mary Green and Mary’s daughter Isabella - as well as hundreds of letters between other members of the Green family - is an important addition to the world’s most important Gaskell collection – already housed at the library.

In one of the letters written a month after Gaskell’s death in November 1865, Isabella Green recounts how the writer had eerily predicted early in the year that she did not expect to live beyond December.

The Gaskell letters in the archive are full of news about her writing, reflections on other authors, her hectic domestic life and the constant stream of visitors to her household.

Some of the letters between the Green family provide a fascinating insight into life in the Cheshire town where Gaskell had grown up in the first half of the nineteenth century  - immortalised in her novel Cranford.

Others touch on subjects including travel, politics, art and literature, social events, and the minutiae of daily life, from current fashions to medical treatments.

Gaskell also discusses difficulties with her most controversial novel ‘Ruth’ published in 1853. The novel dealt with unmarried motherhood and Gaskell was worried about reactions to the book.

She expressed relief at the Greens’ positive response to it, but wrote: “I feared and still think it probable that many may refuse to read any book of that kind”.

The author of ‘Cranford’ - which famously depicts life in Knutsford, Cheshire where she grew up - had died suddenly of a heart attack on 12 November, leaving her last novel ‘Wives and Daughters’ a chapter short of completion.

The manuscript of the novel – also kept at – poignantly breaks off at the top of a page. She authored five others, along with two novellas, numerous articles and short stories, and the famous biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.

John Rylands Library archivist Fran Baker said: “This archive sheds interesting new light on Gaskell and her daughters.

“The reference to Gaskell foreseeing her own death is intriguing. By early November 1865, she claimed to be feeling more energetic and in better health than she had done for years.

“She was busy preparing a house at Alton, Hampshire, which she had secretly bought in the hope of persuading her husband William to retire there.

“She believed his life in 91ֱ�� was ‘bad for his health’, not least because of the strain he put on himself with overwork.

“On 12 November she was at the new house chatting over tea with three of her daughters, when she collapsed into the arms of her daughter Meta and died instantly. Her husband had no idea she was there.

“Referring to the prediction, Isabella wrote in a letter to her brother that Gaskell had said she ‘did not expect to live thro’ the year’.

“People often have presentiments like this, which are forgotten when they don’t come true”.

The former owner of the archive, Miss Jean Jamison, is a descendant of Isabella Green, the youngest of the Green daughters, who married Dr Arthur Jamison in 1875. Miss Jamison sold the archive to the Rylands on behalf of the Jamison family.

Ms Baker added: “The library would like to thank Joan Leach of the Gaskell Society who brought the archive to its attention, and Jean Jamison for choosing the Rylands as a home for her family papers.”

Notes for editors

The purchase was made possible by funding from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Friends of the National Libraries, and the Friends of the John Rylands.

Fran Baker is available for comment

Miss Jamison and Joan Leach are available for comment

Images are available. Please caption as Copyright John Rylands University Library. 

• The first and second pages of the letter from Isabella Green to her brother Philip which refers to Gaskell’s prediction of her own death – from the new archive.
• Reproduction of a photograph of Gaskell taken during the 1860s -  towards the end of her life.
• Gaskell’s inkstand, paperknife, quills, letters.
• Miniature portrait of Gaskell by William John Thomson.

Documents from the archive will be on display at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate, 91ֱ�� until Sunday 1 February.

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881 567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

The recently refurbished has been given a prestigious award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

success adds to the magnificent neo-gothic building's tally of awards since it reopened last September after a £17m transformation over three years.

The University of Manchester owned library was voted 'Best Iconic Building' in the 2007 91ֱ�� Awards and 'Building of the Year 2007'.

It also won two gold medals in and a gold award from.

The Library was built in the 1890s by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her husband John who was 91ֱ��'s most successful cotton tycoon.

It is a major visitor attraction, an internationally-renowned place for research and one of the most important rare book and manuscript libraries in the world.

By the late 1990s, the building had deteriorated structurally and began to cause concern for the condition of the collections held inside. The University also wanted to increase public access to the collections.

The Unlocking the Rylands project was launched to conserve the Grade I listed building and its collections and to improve physical access and facilities for visitors with the addition of a new entrance wing.

The upper floors of the new building house a purpose-built new Reading Room, a Conservation Studio and state of the art storage areas for the collections.

New exhibition areas display some of the Library's famous collections, including the St John Fragment, the oldest known surviving piece of the New Testament, dating from around 125AD.

Deputy librarian and Head of Special Collections Dr Stella Butler said: "We're absolutely delighted to receive this award from such a prestigious body.

"It's an acknowledgement of the investment we received from and the European Union's as well as the work of the architects /.

"The renovation has enabled The University of Manchester to make our treasures accessible to all and to house collections in the building created for them over a century ago."

RIBA annual awards are given for buildings that have high architectural standards and make a substantial contribution to the local environment in 14 regions across the country.

A regional jury visits shortlisted projects, talking to clients and users and assessing designs.

John Rylands Library is one of 11 award winners across the north west.

Notes for editors

For media enquires contact:

Jon Keighren
Media Relations Manager
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 8384
Mob: 07917 211537