The Bodleian Libraries celebrate 10 years of the Weston Library with unveiling of newly discovered royal manuscript

On 21 March 2025 the Bodleian Libraries will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Weston Library, the home of its outstanding special collections, by unveiling the acquisition of a newly discovered manuscript designated a “national treasure”, which has now been saved for the nation.

The 13th-century manuscript, a translation of the New Testament into Old French, was owned by a future King of France, before passing through the hands of three members of the English Royal Family. Over the weekend of 22 and 23 March visitors will be able to see the manuscript on public display for the first time, alongside a programme of talks, tours and workshops celebrating a decade of discovery and knowledge sharing.

Held in private ownership for 300 years and previously entirely unknown to scholars, the manuscript will go on display in Blackwell Hall and will be available to read on Digital Bodleian following an academic symposium revealing new information about the manuscript’s provenance. It was purchased with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Art Fund, with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation, Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, Friends of the Bodleian and other private benefactors, following a temporary export bar by the UK Government. 

An Old French translation of the New Testament, it has finely decorated initials attributed to the artist known as the Cholet Master. As well as containing the visible autograph of Jean le Bon, who went on to rule as King of France from 1350–1364, ultraviolet light has revealed a series of erased inscriptions showing the manuscript was subsequently owned by three members of the English royal family in the 1400s: Thomas of Lancaster, Edmund Beaufort, and Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester. Duke Humfrey gave the University of Oxford a priceless collection of books, though this New Testament does not appear to have been part of this gift. The university built a specially designed room, now known as Duke Humfrey’s Library, in the middle of the 15th century, to house the books given by the duke, together with the books already in the University Library.

It is not yet known how the manuscript came into the hands of its Lancastrian owners, but King Jean II of France was captured at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, and taken into captivity in England. All three subsequent owners were grandsons of John of Gaunt and descendants of King Philippe IV of France, and were thus King Jean II’s distant cousins. In the context of the Hundred Years’ War, the ownership and gift-exchange of this French royal book suggests a political agenda, perhaps being used to boost the English claim to the throne of France.

Later in the year, the manuscript will go back on display in the exhibition Treasured (5 June – 26 October), which will allow visitors to get up close to some of the Libraries’ most magnificent and culturally significant items. Other highlights include the recently acquired autograph manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata ‘Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein’, one of only four manuscripts in the UK in the hand of the great composer.

The Weston Library, which as well as being the home of the Bodleian Libraries’ special collections is a working library and research centre, underwent a landmark redevelopment which was completed in 2015 by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. Over the last 10 years, it has presented 234 public events and hosted many notable exhibitions, including Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth (2018), Daniel Meadows: Then and Now (2019) and Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archive (2022).

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and the Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries, says: 

Ten years ago, the Weston Library opened as a place where our unique collections could be preserved, studied, and shared in new and compelling ways. Today, as we unveil this extraordinary manuscript, documenting the role of books in diplomacy, and the intertwined histories of France and Britain, we also celebrate the profound contribution that the Weston Library has made to the preservation of knowledge, to the enrichment of learning, the education of students, and the pleasure of engaging the broadest possible public with culture and science. The Weston Library has transformed Oxford’s engagement with the city, the region, and the university, inviting us to connect with the past, to inform the present, and inspire the future.

Dr Simon Thurley CBE, Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: 

Owned by French and then English aristocrats at a time of conflict between the nations, the Duke Humfrey New Testament is of outstanding heritage significance and a rare survival of the library of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, the greatest English bibliophile of the Middle Ages. The National Heritage Memorial Fund exists to save the UK's most outstanding heritage and make it publicly accessible, in memory of those who have given their lives for the UK. We are delighted to count the Duke Humfrey New Testament as part of the growing and timeless collection of UK heritage that belongs to all of us.

For further information please contact Flint Culture via bodleian.libraries@flint-culture.com.