Mediæval Monastic Library Re-Created Online.

Text and Illustration: MEDIEVALISTS.NET

Durham Cathedral possesses the finest collection 

of Mediæval Manuscripts of any English Cathedral.

Durham University, in partnership with Durham Cathedral, is engaged in an ambitious project to digitise Durham Priory Library — the books owned and used by the Benedictine Monastery of Durham and its dependant Cells.

Durham Priory Library re-created.

Available on YouTube

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Durham University and Durham Cathedral have teamed up to digitally recreate a Mediæval Monastic Library. 

The Durham Priory Library Recreated project, which was officially launched, recently, will make available over 350 volumes of texts that once belonged to the Priory in Northern England.

The Manuscripts and early-printed texts, which date back to the 6th-Century A.D., originally belonged to the Benedictine Monks of Durham Priory until The Dissolution of The Monasteries by King Henry VIII from 1536-1541. 

Fortunately, much of this collection remained at Durham Cathedral, and, over the next five years, they will be digitised and made freely available online.

“This project opens up the Priory Library for researchers around the World to explore,” said Judy Burg, Head of Special Collections at Durham University. 

“By the end of the project, around 350 volumes will have been digitised and we hope to extend the work to include about 200 more volumes that were originally part of the Priory Library, but were scattered across the United Kingdom since The Dissolution of The Monasteries, 1536-1541.”