The British Library

In front of the British Library

British Library Entrance

This post could also be titled, "Lots of Really Old and Really Cool Manuscripts."

This afternoon after class was our first official field trip as a group: the British Library down by King's Cross Station. And it was only "official" because it was on our official schedule and we all met up before going in, but other than that we were free to go about as we wished. We went into the Sir John Ritblat Gallery that houses the Treasures of the British Library (see below).

There was no photography allowed (for obvious reasons) but let me tell you, the Treasure Gallery lived up to its name. Among the things we saw today (as listed on the handout our professors gave us):

• Codex Sinaiticus: Mid 4th century. Christian Bible in Greek. Oldest complete copy of the New Testament
• Magna Carta: 1215. (um, kind of important, don't you think??)
• Gutenberg Bible: 1454. First book printed with moveable type.
• Leonardo da Vinci manuscripts--pages from his notebooks
• Shakespeare's First Folio: 1623. First collection of plays published after his death
• Handwritten music by Handel (The Messiah!), Mozart, Mendellsohn, Haydn, Beetoven...all the greats. Just amazing.
• Handwritten works by Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. (Both had rather neat hands, if you care to know. Wordsworth? Not so much. But his words are worth reading anyway. Hahaha.)
• Jane Austen's lap desk. In Jane Austen's time women who wrote were frowned upon, so she had a little desk that opened up so she could slide the papers she was writing on inside when someone came into the room.
• A handwritten copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
• The Commonplace Book of John Milton! Woo hoo! Back in the 17th century when people read poetry or heard songs or found quotes they liked, they copied them into commonplace books. And I saw Milton's!

I didn't spend a terribly long time in the gallery because the dim lighting wreaks havoc with my eyes, but it was so cool. This is why I'm an English major--because the ideas that define us as people and as cultures are preserved in these writings, and I want to study them.

Check out the links here for more detailed descriptions of what I saw today.