Angel Meadow Fest

We were delighted to host a pop-up gallery of work by local photographer Gu yesterday, as part of the Angel Meadow Fest event organised by students at Manchester School of Art. Featuring art, music, dance and performance, the festival aimed to celebrate the history of the area and bring art into the heart of the local community.

You can find out more about Gu's work here.

Looking after the Library

It costs a lot to look after our collection and keep the books in usable condition for our readers and visitors. We are grateful for our NADFAS volunteers who come in on a regular basis to clean books and pamper them with leather dressing, but sometimes more drastic help is needed and we need to call in the conservator.

There are lots of ways you can give support to the Library, including becoming a Patron, which costs a lot less than you might think. Through support in the form of an annual donation of at least £38, you will ensure that the Library continues to flourish, allowing us to fund special projects, acquire new equipment, and add to the Library's collections. Find out more on the website!

Our longest manuscript?

This amazing fifteenth-century manuscript roll measures a full six metres when fully extended, surely a contender for the longest of the Library's treasures.

Not just a beautiful object, this closely written manuscript transcribes letters and documents relating to a medieval property dispute. Read more on the website...

John Dalton

We have a small but interesting collection of material relating to the great scientist and mathematician John Dalton (1766-1844), who spent much of his adult life in Manchester and was an enthusiastic supporter of Chetham's Library, declaring 'there is in this town a large library, furnished with the best books in every art, science and language, which is open to all, gratis'.

You can read more about the John Dalton collection on the 101 Treasures Page this week.

A C15th interactive text with a difference

The Library's unique 1493 copy of Hartman Schedel's Liber Chronicarum, otherwise known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, is under the spotlight in today's 101 Treasures. The extensive annotations made by one Thomas Gudlawe of Wigan around 1590 double the length of the text. Read more on the website.

Happy International Workers' Day!

As many of you will already know, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels studied together at Chetham's Library in the summer of 1845, working together in the now-famous window alcove of the Reading Room. You can read more about their experience of Chetham's on the website.

Sarum Missal

The Library's extremely fine fourteenth-century Sarum Missal was bought from William Clayton in 1712 for £1-01-0. It is believed to date from the reign of Richard II, and there is some evidence that it was commissioned for a royal chapel.

Read more on the website...