Library

Welcome to Canterbury Cathedral Library. Books can be said to have played an important role in the life of the Cathedral since the time of St. Augustine. Since the Reformation, a series of donations have formed the core of the holdings now in the Cathedral Library. The Library contains about 30,000 books and pamphlets printed before 1900, and an expanding collection of some 20,000 books and serials published in the 20th and 21st centuries. It is particularly rich in books on church history, older theology, national and local history, travel, natural science, medicine and the anti-slavery movement.

The Library welcomes all researchers with interests in our collections. Our holdings are catalogued on the web as part of the University of Kent's online catalogue at http://opac.kent.ac.uk.

Planning your visit

The Cathedral Library is open to the public by appointment. Please visit the Planning your visit section for more information.

 

Please contact us by email with any enquiries during the closure period: the address is archives@canterbury-cathedral.org If you need to speak to a member of staff, please redial the main cathedral reception on 01227-762862.

 

Collections

Howley-Harrison Collection

The largest individual collection in the Library, comprising some 16,000 books and pamphlets. It includes part of the working library of the Victorian Archbishop William Howley and the personal library of Benjamin Harrison, Howley’s personal curate and later archdeacon of Maidstone, as well as books and pamphlets belonging to Harrison’s father and his friend the abolitionist Sir Robert Harry Inglis, MP. The whole collection was given to the Dean & Chapter on Harrison’s death in 1887. Apart from fascinating texts on natural history, archaeology, travel and of course theology, there are tracts on the English Civil War and on slavery, fine examples of early English printing, and several fifteenth and sixteenth-century illuminated Books of Hours.

Elham Parish Library

A family library collected over 200 years and bequeathed in 1807 by Lee Warly, a Canterbury attorney, to the parish of his ancestors. It reflects the professional, intellectual and leisure interests of two prominent Kent families: the Warlys and the Oxindens of Barham, Kent. The collection ranges widely in subject matter from Civil War tracts to religious works; from travel books to literature.

 

Preston Parish Library

The library of Preston-next-Wingham, Kent, still survives in its white-painted oak carrying case. It was given in 1710 ‘for the use of the vicars’ of Preston by the Trustees for Erecting Parcochial Libraries. Some 41 of the original 67 volumes are still in existence with their own distinctive bookplate. An attached shelf-list records the original titles in the library.

Mendham Collection

A collection of Catholic and anti-Catholic literature including manuscripts and printed books ranging from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Among its contents are some fine bindings and rare examples of Continental printing. The collection is on deposit from the Law Society.

Canterbury Catch Club

Founded in 1779, the Catch Club was one of the foremost social clubs in Canterbury. It continued until 1865, by which time its popularity was overtaken by that of the music hall. The members met in a local pub to sing catches (a type of round), glees, duets and solo songs. Vocal and orchestral music is deposited in the Cathedral Library as well as catalogues and a programme book from the 1820s. There are a few minute books from 1802 in the Cathedral Archives.

 

 Other significant holdings include the books and manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon scholar William Somner (c. 1606-1669), books donated by Stephen Hunt, a local physician, in 1714, and the Coombe collection of early printed Bibles, given by Canon Thomas Coombe (d. 1822).

Periodicals

The Library holds substantial runs of the Gentleman’s Magazine, Annual Register and Edinburgh Magazine. A complete set of the Archaeologia Cantiana is available for consultation. The Library continues to subscribe to a number of current journal titles. 

Publications

• Printed Catalogues
  Canterbury Cathedral Library. Catalogue of the pre-1801 printed books, by D. Shaw and S. Hingley. Microfiche. Marlborough: Adam Matthew Publications, 1998. (Copies available from Adam Matthew Publications, www.ampltd.co.uk)

• Catalogue of the Law Society’s Mendham Collection, edited by S. Hingley and D. Shaw. London: Law Society, 1994. (Copies available from the Cathedral Library)
• Canterbury Sources
  Canterbury Sources is a publication series intended to give access to a wide range of printed and manuscript sources in the Library and Archives at Canterbury Cathedral or to present historical material relating to Canterbury. Each volume has a foreword and introduction discussing the local significance of the individual collections and placing them in a wider context
  
  Titles in Print:
  
  • The Oxford Movement: nineteenth-century books and pamphlets in Canterbury Cathedral Library
  • In foreign parts: books and pamphlets on the world beyond Western Europe printed before 1900 in Canterbury Cathedral Library
  • The slave trade: books and pamphlets on slavery and its abolition printed before 1900 in Canterbury Cathedral Library

For copies of these titles in the series, please contact Heritage Marketing and Publications Ltd or the Cathedral Librarian.

 

News and events

 

NEW PUBLICATION: THE EARLIEST BOOKS OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.

All Canterbury’s surviving pre-13th century book fragments are catalogued and discussed in this new work by the distinguished medievalist Richard Gameson, Professor of the History of the Book at Durham University. Broad-ranging analyses explain the significance of these works in general and of the Canterbury copies in particular. A substantial introduction traces the history of book production in Kent and Canterbury up to c.1200, the development and use of the Cathedral’s collections in the later Middle Ages, and the fate of its books at the Reformation.

The fourth volume in the Canterbury Sources series, The Earliest Books of Canterbury Cathedral is a co-publication with the British Library and the Bibliographical Society. Copies are available from mailorder@cathedral-enterprises.co.uk or from the Cathedral Librarian at librarian@canterbury-cathedral.org

 

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITION: TREASURES FROM CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL LIBRARY, 13 October to 24 October 2008

To mark the Canterbury Festival, this exhibition will celebrate the wonderful collections of books, both printed and manuscript, that the Library has accumulated over the centuries. A wide range of subjects will feature, reflecting varied interests.

 

 

 

 

Venue: The Howley-Harrison library.

Times:
2 – 4 PM Monday 13 October – Friday 17 October
11 AM – 3 PM Saturday 18 October
2 – 4 PM Monday 20 October – Friday 24 October.

Admission to the exhibition is free, but please note that normal admission charges to the Cathedral Precincts will apply.

 

Online access is available to the CERL database containing 25,718 records of books printed on the Continent and held in libraries of the Anglican Cathedrals of England and Wales. Visit www.clci.co.uk and request a username and password.

 

St. Augustine’s Library

The St Augustine’s Library, opened in 2003, is a joint enterprise between the Dean & Chapter of Canterbury and Canterbury Christ Church University. Based in the cathedral Precincts at Burgate House, it is a lending and reference library specialising in theological subjects. The original collections of St Augustine’s Missionary College (1848-1947) have been supplemented by the theology holdings of the University’s library to form a major new resource for the support of teaching and research.

As well as functioning as the departmental library in theology for the University’s undergraduates, postgraduate students and academic staff, St Augustine’s serves the needs of researchers from other universities, students attending short and residential courses at the International Study Centre, diocesan users, members of Chapter and other visiting scholars. The Burgate site contains reader workstations for Internet and remote CD-ROM access, printing and photocopying facilities, and study carrels.

Further details on access are available from the St Augustine’s Librarian:

• Ms Karen Erskine
  E-mail: kje3@cant.ac.uk
  Tel: 01227 865354

Antiquarian books

Now catalogued and available

The 1,000 volumes in the special reference section of the St. Augustine’s Missionary College library have now been catalogued. These are almost entirely antiquarian, with many titles in Greek and Latin. They represent the work of many English and Continental printers. The collection is particularly strong on Patristics, including, for example, editions of the writings of Saints Aquinas, Justinian, Cyril and Isidore of Pelusium.

The new records for these books are on the University of Kent’s online catalogue with other holdings under the jurisdiction of Canterbury Cathedral Library. From the search screen at http://opac.kent.ac.uk researchers should select ‘Cathedral Library’ from the scrolldown menu under ‘simple limits’ on the left. Search terms can then be entered: items may be searched by keyword, title, author, printer or provenance. Inputting ‘one weeks notice required’ as a keyword search term will produce all 467 records for browsing.

The books in this sequence are for reference-only and responsibility for retrieving them from Theodore is held by the Cathedral Library’s staff. Orders, with contact details, may be placed with the Cathedral Librarian at library@canterbury-cathedral.org (preferred) or telephone 01227 865287. Enquiries about these books should also be addressed to the Cathedral Librarian.

To allow for staffing contingencies, it is requested that one week’s notice is given for orders. Books are to be consulted in the Cathedral Archives and Library Search Room.