The Last Relic of Thomas Becket

The Book in the Cathedral

From the bestselling author of Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, a captivating account of the last surviving relic of Thomas Becket 
 
The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's Becket. 
 
In a brilliant piece of historical detective work, Christopher de Hamel here identifies the only surviving relic from Becket's shrine: the Anglo-Saxon Psalter which he cherished throughout his time as Archbishop of Canterbury, and which he may even have been holding when he was murdered. 
 
Beautifully illustrated and published to coincide with the 850th anniversary of the death of Thomas Becket, this is an exciting rediscovery of one of the most evocative artefacts of medieval England.

Readers will delight in de Hamel's passion for his subject, his book's sumptuous illustrations, and above all his virtuoso display of learning

De Hamel - author of the wonderful Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts - shows us all the tools of the bibliographer's trade: dating handwriting, identifying pigments, noting the rust marks left by nails from a now-lost ornate binding ... The identification - or rehabilitation - of his psalter, the book he carried with him into exile, possibly held at his death, is a timely and enjoyable tribute.

Christopher de Hamel quotes Sherlock Holmes, as he might, in his latest bit of medieval detective work, showing that a book of the Psalms in a Cambridge college was once a treasured possession of St Thomas Becket ... grippingly told in The Book in the Cathedral.

In the course of a long career at Sotheby's Christopher de Hamel probably handled and catalogued more illuminated manuscripts and over a wider range than anyone else alive. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was Librarian of the Parker Library from 2000 to 2016, which holds many of the earliest manuscripts in English language and history, including the Psalter of Becket. 
 
 Christopher de Hamel is the author of A History of Illuminated Manuscripts and Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, which won the Wolfson History Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize in 2016. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society.

The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's Becket. 
 
 In a brilliant piece of historical detective work, Christopher de Hamel here identifies the Anglo-Saxon Psalter which Becket cherished throughout his time as Archbishop of Canterbury and which he may even have been holding when he was murdered. 
 
 Beautifully illustrated and published to coincide with the 850th anniversary of the death of Thomas Becket, this is an exciting rediscovery of one of the most evocative artefacts of medieval England, and the only surviving relic from Becket's shrine.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE AND THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 
 
'Endlessly fascinating and enjoyable' Neil MacGregor 
'A marvellous book' David Attenborough 
'Full of delights' Tom Stoppard 
 
An extraordinary exploration of the medieval world - the most beguiling history book of the year 
 
This is a book about why medieval manuscripts matter. Coming face to face with an important illuminated manuscript in the original is like meeting a very famous person. We may all pretend that a well-known celebrity is no different from anyone else, and yet there is an undeniable thrill in actually meeting and talking to a person of world stature. 
 
The idea for the book, which is entirely new, is to invite the reader into intimate conversations with twelve of the most famous manuscripts in existence and to explore with the author what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history - and sometimes about the modern world too. Christopher de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, collectors and the international community of manuscript scholars, showing us how he and his fellows piece together evidence to reach unexpected conclusions. He traces the elaborate journeys which these exceptionally precious artefacts have made through time and space, shows us how they have been copied, who has owned them or lusted after them (and how we can tell), how they have been embroiled in politics and scholarly disputes, how they have been regarded as objects of supreme beauty and luxury and as symbols of national identity. The book touches on religion, art, literature, music, science and the history of taste. 
 
Part travel book, part detective story, part conversation with the reader, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts conveys the fascination and excitement of encountering some of the greatest works of art in our culture which, in the originals, are to most people completely inaccessible. At the end, we have a slightly different perspective on history and how we come by knowledge. It is a most unusual book.

An extraordinary book, a work of scholarship and history salted with the author's excitement as he conducts us among the great libraries of Western civilization. It is full of delights

The intellectual expedition of a lifetime ... This is an endlessly fascinating and enjoyable book.

Entrancing ... De Hamel's learned adventures amid some of the West's greatest manuscript treasures effortlessly outclass Eco's The Name of the Rose in elegance and excitement. They are also much funnier.

Reading is my life, but only about once a decade do I find a book that seems to tilt the world, so afterwards it appears different.

De Hamel's book, scholarly but unfailingly readable, is the beginning of wisdom in all things scribal and scriptural - Ian Thomson, The Observer

In the course of a long career at Sotheby's Christopher de Hamel has probably handled and catalogued more illuminated manuscripts and over a wider range than any person alive. Since 2000, he has been Fellow and Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The Parker Library, in his care, includes many of the earliest manuscripts in English language and history. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society.

Christopher de Hamel

Reading the Posthumous Papers is like taking a walk in excellent company ... an exceptional book, and itself an object worth cherishing.

This book can be enjoyed on so many levels. The illustrations are exquisite and the writing ... is intelligent, illuminating, voluptuous and mischievous. The members of the club are brought to life with sensitivity; we can't help but find their nerdiness endearing. ... The most delightful feature of this book is, however, the author. I've never encountered one so willing to bare his soul, without ever explicitly setting out to do so. He throws open the doors to his world, exposing its beguiling nature. Sit at my table, he says, feast on what I adore. "The Club is still open for membership . . . All applicants are warmly admitted."'

In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eight centuries - de Hamel imagines meeting them, sharing precious discoveries, trading gossip. The illustrations emit a light of their own, but what shines even brighter is the author's boyish enthusiasm for his subject.

a beautifully produced and magnificently surprising journey through the history of how and why people have wanted to collect manuscripts. An impossibly recondite subject, you might think; but it turns out to have a lot to do with all sorts of things about how we make sense of our histories and cultures - and it introduces us to a gallery of unforgettable characters.

Christopher de Hamel ... has the rare capacity to turn a scholarly specialism into a humane and humorous adventure. ... De Hamel retains an almost lyrical sense of wonder as he unclasps each groaning tome, opens its parched pages and lightly steps into the alternative world painted by its illuminators. ... he speaks of "meeting a beautiful manuscript" rather than reading it and his own book makes you feel you've spent time - a very long but absorbing time - in his convivial company.

Christopher de Hamel's great gift is to tell life stories without taking anything away from the manuscripts, which remain the star of the show. Thanks to the beautiful illustrations in this wonderful book, we can see for ourselves how spellbinding an encounter with them must have been. Five years ago de Hamel entranced the world with his Meeting with Remarkable Manuscripts. This time the meetings are with remarkable manuscript owners, and the result is equally precious

gloriously engaging and readable ... De Hamel wears his erudition lightly, and the reader is taken deeply into the worlds of individuals who lived across almost a thousand years of history

The story of the people who created, saved and collected Europe's most sumptuous manuscripts, it's beautifully illustrated, a rich feast of scarlet and gold.

an eccentric but charming and instructive book which is oddly difficult to put down

The twelve accumulators de Hamel profiles in this delightful book have, taken together, been responsible for making and preserving some of the most beautiful and important objects to have survived the Middle Ages &hellip; a joy, both deeply scholarly and wittily humane, the writing infused throughout with de Hamel&rsquo;s vast and genial expertise &hellip; a fascinating book

The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. But we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. 
 
This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years. A monk in Normandy, a prince of France, a Florentine bookseller, an English antiquary, a rabbi from central Europe, a French priest, a Keeper at the British Museum, a Greek forger, a German polymath, a British connoisseur and the woman who created the most spectacular library in America - all of them were participants in what Christopher de Hamel calls the Manuscripts Club. 
 
This exhilarating fraternity, and the fellow enthusiasts who come with it, throw new light on how manuscripts have survived and been used by very different kinds of people in many different circumstances. Christopher de Hamel's unexpected connections and discoveries reveal a passion which crosses the boundaries of time. We understand the manuscripts themselves better by knowing who their keepers and companions have been. 
 
In 1850 (or thereabouts) John Ruskin bought his first manuscript 'at a bookseller's in a back alley'. This was his reaction: 'The new worlds which every leaf of this book opened to me, and the joy I had in counting their letters and unravelling their arabesques as if they had all been of beaten gold - as many of them were - cannot be told.' The members of de Hamel's club share many such wonders, which he brings to us with scholarship, style, and a lifetime's experience.

Christopher de Hamel

Praise for The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club

Reading the Posthumous Papers is like taking a walk in excellent company ... an exceptional book, and itself an object worth cherishing.

This book can be enjoyed on so many levels. The illustrations are exquisite and the writing ... is intelligent, illuminating, voluptuous and mischievous. The members of the club are brought to life with sensitivity; ...

In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eigh ...

Reading the Posthumous Papers is like taking a walk in excellent company ... an exceptional book, and itself an object worth cherishing.

This book can be enjoyed on so many levels. The illustrations are exquisite and the writing ... is intelligent, illuminating, voluptuous and mischievous. The members of the club are brought to life with sensitivity; ...

In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eigh ...

Reading the Posthumous Papers is like taking a walk in excellent company ... an exceptional book, and itself an object worth cherishing.

This book can be enjoyed on so many levels. The illustrations are exquisite and the writing ... is intelligent, illuminating, voluptuous and mischievous. The members of the club are brought to life with sensitivity; ...

In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eigh ...

Books by Christopher de Hamel

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