The Ancient Library

Ancient Library at St Edmundsbury Cathedral

The Ancient Library was founded by Dr Miles Mosse in 1595 as a resource for clergy training. There are over 550 books, mainly printed in the 16th and 17th centuries. The library, in a room over the north-west porch designed by Stephen Dykes Bower in 1960, has bookcases made by Leonard Goff in 2004.

More information on our collection:

A list of the books in the historic collection in the Library can be found here
A list of the reference books in the Library can be found here
A list of donors and signatures found in the books can be found here
A list of subscribers in Robert Catchpole’s A choice collection of church music can be found here
A list of Ronald Blythe’s collection of theological books can be found here.

Current Treasury Exhibition: The Bury Psalter: Imagery and Symbolism

The Cathedral’s Ancient Library was founded in 1595 by Dr Miles Mosse. This exhibition brings together some of our ancient library books along with the Bury Psalter to explore their use of imagery and symbolism.

The Treasury is open:

Monday – Saturday

10.00 am – 4.00 pm

Sunday

12.30 pm – 3.00 pm

The copy of the Bury Cross can also be found in the Treasury. The original is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

**Current Online Exhibition: The Illustrations in St Jerome’s Opera – Antwerp, 1578-9**

This investigation looks at the illustrations in the 1578 Antwerp edition of Jerome’s Opera.

Other Online Exhibitions

An Investigation: Jean Gerson’s Opera – Paris, 1521

Nicholas of Lyra

Illustrations in Echard’s History of England

Book Conservation

Is your family named in the Ancient Library?

The Martyrdom of Saint Edmund

Made in England Exhibition

Women and the Ancient Library Exhibition

Conservation of Peter Baro’s In prophetam praelectiones (London,1579):

We were fortunate to receive a grant towards conserving this volume from the Cathedral Archives, Library and Collections Association. A report is in the Summer Newsletter 2022 on pages 13 & 14.

Ancient Library Articles

More information about the editions held can be found by:

searching for ‘Bury St Edmunds CL’ in the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
selecting ‘search by’ ‘library name’ and entering ‘Bury St Edmunds Cathedral’ in the English Short Title Catalogue
searching in Library Hub Discover for individual works using the ‘Cathedral Libraries (Heritage Catalogue)’ CLC number found in our Library List. For example enter CLC E25 in the search box