The Chapter Library, established 16th century
/Rochester Cathedral Library is a comparatively small one of some 6,000 volumes, of which about 300 are pre-1701 and the titles of the volumes mirror the tastes and interests of the Dean and Chapter through 350 years. The beginning of the Library dates from 1082, when the Priory of St. Andrew was established under Bishop Gundolf, with 22 monks of the Order of St. Benedict, for whom reading formed part of their daily rule. The first catalogue of the Library was compiled about 1130 and is contained in the famous 12th century manuscript, Textus Roffensis. It is the oldest catalogue known to exist of a considerable list of books in an English Library, There were in it the celebrated Gundulf Bible and the first part of the Textus itself, together with many commentaries on the Scriptures, theological treatises by the Fathers, historical works, lives of the saints and books relating to the monastic life. Rochester was one of the very few monastic houses to have possessed Lanfranc's Constitutions, which he had drawn up for the reform of the monasteries. During the 19th century a second ancient catalogue, compiled in 1202, was discovered in the British Museum on two vellum leaves at the beginning of St. Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana, which had belonged to the Library at Rochester. There were now about 280 volumes. There were considerably more commentaries on the Scriptures, more volumes of sermons and more books on common law. There were copies of the popular encyclopedia Etymologies by Isadore of Seville; among recent medieval writings were Peter Lombard's theological handbook, The Sentences, and an increase in the number of histories. There was also a collection of medical works and books on grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, philosophy, arithmetic and music. Probably the most notable addition consisted of the Latin classics.
At the dissolution of the Priory in 1540 the Library was badly plundered and a large number of valuable manuscripts were stolen or sold. Many subsequently found their way to the Royal Library of Henry VIll and, of these, 99 manuscripts are now in the Royal Collection in the British Museum.
Others are in the Cotton and Harley Collections at the British Museum, in colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and in libraries elsewhere. The most serious loss was the Gundulf Bible which reappeared in Amsterdam in the 18th century and is now in the Huntingdon Library at San Marino, California. The Gundulf Bible, a manuscript of the 11th century, had been given by Bishop Gundulf to the Priory during his episcopate. It is in two volumes, beautifully written in double columns. Ironically, on the first leaf of each volume any person who removes the book from the Priory is threatened with excommunication.
When the Dean and Chapter was established after the dissolution, presumably the only contents of the library were the ancient manuscripts which are still its greatest treasures. The most important of these are the 12th century Textus Roffensis and the 14th century Custumale offense, which tor greater security are housed at the Kent Archives Department at Maidstone.
The Textus is written partly in Latin and partly in Anglo-Saxon and existed originally in two or three parts which were brought together under one cover sometime before 1400. We have seen that it contains the oldest catalogue of an English library, but it is much more important for our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon laws and institutions and for the register of documents concerning Rochester trom 604 to the beginning of the 12th century - charters and other grants to the Priory,
together with wins and other documents dealing with the rights and possessions of the see and of the Priory. The Custumale Roffense, written in Latin and dated about 1300, provides much information about manors and lands and the Priory's income from them. It also gives details about the duties of the chief officers at the Priory and of the Priory servants, such as the bakers, brewers, cooks, etc., together with their number and wages. It also throws light on the arrangements for services in the Cathedral.
The Library now contains over 50 volumes printed before 1540, including works by Bishop John Fisher, but these appear to have been subsequently acquired. Probably the same is true of its six volume Complutensian Polyglot Bible (1522), a Sarum Missal (1534), and a Coverdale Bible (1535). Coverdale's Bible was the first printed edition of the whole Bible in English and only some thirty copies are known to exist in Great Britain. It was on this Bible that Bishop Say and Bishop Turnbull took the Oath at their Enthronement. In the early days the Chapter appeared to do little to increase the size of its Library so that by the latter part of the 17th century there were little more than 100 volumes in the catalogue.
During the 18th century, however, the Library grew and a regulation was made under Dean Pratt, who also made a large grant to the Library, that new Deans and Canons should give a certain sum of money or books to that value to the Library in place of the entertainments that were formerly given on their admission to oftice. From time to time donations of money and books were made and many have been bought out of Chapter Funds. In 1925 a small endowment for the purchase of books on the Old Testament was provided by his friends in memory of the Revd. Doctor C. F. Burney. When the Revd. Doctor D. C. Simpson resigned in 1950 and the Oriel Professorship of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture was afterwards severed from a canonry at Rochester, a library belonging to the successive holders of that office, and originally given by the Revd. Doctor Edward Hawkins, Provost of Oriel and Canon, which had been housed for many years in the Chapter Room, became part of the Cathedral Library. There are a number of books in the Library written by members of the Chapter, the most widely known of them being The Analogy of Religion by Joseph Butler (Canon 1736-40) and Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon (Scott was Dean from 1870-87). In the last 50 years a considerable number of new books have been added. Up until the middle 1960's the Library also contained a vast quantity of Pre-Reformation and Post-Reformation manuscripts dealing with the legal, financial and administrative work, first of the Priory and then of the Dean and Chapter. These are now in the County Archives at Maidstone, where they have been conserved, catalogued and maintained in ideal conditions.
The Library is housed in the Cathedral Chapter Room to the east of the south Quire Transept. Prior to the dissolution this was the vestry and it is approached through a magnificently carved 14th century doorway. In 1953 Canon W. H. Mackean published Rochester Cathedral Library: Its Fortunes and Adventures through Nine Centuries.
Canon Paul A. Welsby
The Friends of Rochester Cathedral were founded to help finance the maintenance of the fabric and grounds. The Friends’ annual reports have become a trove of articles on the fabric and history of the cathedral.
Explore more exceptional items in the Chapter Library collection from medieval manuscripts to 19th-century photographs.
