Chichester Cathedral Library Collection

The Chichester Cathedral Library Collection is a collection of 82 works in 106 volumes bought from Chichester Cathedral Library in 1947. A high proportion of the volumes, 56 in all, are folios. Most of the books are from the 17th and 18th centuries, with some from the 16th century. The subject matter comprises classics, law, philosophy, numismatics and antiquities. Most of the books are in Latin, with some in English, French and Greek. The countries of publication include France, the Netherlands, England and Italy, and the publishers include Christophe Plantin and Robert Estienne. The majority of the books are bound in contemporary trade calf, sometimes rebacked. A few are bound in vellum. Most volumes contain the Chichester bookplate with the old shelfmark written on it, and many contain an inscription recording the original donor of the book. John Frankland (d. 1777), fellow of St John’s College Cambridge and prebendary of Chichester, and Matthias Mawson (1683-1770) bishop of Chichester and later of Ely, were particularly generous donors.

A printed catalogue of the complete collection as it was in Chichester Cathedral - with the books in Senate House Library marked up - is available from Special Collections staff: Bibliothecae Ecclesiae Cirestrensis Librorum Catalogus in Duas Partes Divisus (Chichester, 1871).

The Chichester Cathedral Library Collection is catalogued on the main catalogue. To gain an overview of the collection, do a mixed classmark search on [Chichester].

shl.specialcollections@london.ac.uk 020 7862 8470