Friends of the John Rylands is a UK registered charity (No. 1109720) intended to support - financially and in other practical ways - one of the world's greatest libraries. Anyone interested in the activities, history and development of The University of Manchester's John Rylands Library is welcome to join.
John Rylands and The Special Collections
The John Rylands Library is one of the world's great libraries. Its extensive and outstanding Special Collections span five millennia of human endeavour and are housed, in the heart of Manchester, in a building regarded by many as Europe's finest example of neo-Gothic craftsmanship. It was built between 1890 and 1899 for Enriqueta Rylands as a memorial to her husband, John, the greatest of the Victorian cotton magnates.
Five diverse architectural elements combine to complement each other: the subtle shades of the Cumbrian sandstone culminating in the imposing vaulting, pillars and statuary of the Reading Room; a wealth of intricately carved wood panelling and furnishing, including the entrance hall's high oak screen; the stained glass of the two imposing Reading Room windows; the white moulded plasterwork of the ceilings; and the extravagant art nouveau bronze light fittings and other metalwork.
Here, visitors from around the world can enjoy an environment combining sensitively preserved Victorian grandeur with modern technology and services. Exhibitions and tours promote wider knowledge of the Library's treasures, while our internationally respected Bulletin has served academic scholarship for a full century.
Part of the University of Manchester Library since 1972, the Library is proud of its long tradition of welcoming the general public as well as accredited and aspiring scholars.
The Collections
The Collections include over a million manuscript and archival items. Rivalling those of any British library, the Rylands manuscripts encompass almost every medium ever used to convey the written word.
Sumerian tablets and ancient hieroglyphics are followed chronologically by hundreds of papyri written in Egyptian and Greek, including the St John Fragment, the oldest known surviving New Testament text. Beautifully illuminated Gospel books, psalters and books of hours contribute to the study of Christian art as well as medieval literature.
As well as fine examples from Western Europe there are substantial Arabic, Persian and Turkish holdings from the Islamic world, featuring fine calligraphy and miniature painting. These are of international importance, while the theology and literature of Judaism figures both in lavishly illustrated volumes and in thousands of fragments of medieval literature. Collections from further east range from India through Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to China and Japan.
The purchase of Earl Spencer's library in 1892 laid the foundations for the Library's status as a world-class centre of scholarship. There are now over 4,000 pre-1500 books. These include the Gutenberg Bible and the largest Caxton collection outside the British Library, as well as the oldest surviving dated example of European printing, the St Christopher Woodcut (1423).
Almost every book from the Aldine Press of Aldus Manutius and his successors is here; around 45,000 volumes from 1641-1700 (with particular strength in English Civil War pamphlets) and 160,000 from the eighteenth century, while Methodist, Congregational, Baptist and Unitarian collections make the Rylands a leading centre for religious studies.
There are outstanding holdings in early science and medicine; most of the finest books of flora and birds (for example, the Audubon) ever published; maps; atlases and historic travel books; children's books from the past two centuries; and French Revolutionary newspapers, periodicals and proclamations.
The art of the book was at the heart of the private press movement, represented here by every title from William Morris's Kelmscott Press and works from a dozen other presses whose output features the best of twentieth century engraving. A magnificent range of book bindings from the fifteenth century to the present includes the world's largest collection of the eighteenth-century craftsmanship of Roger Payne and the magnificent collection of Anthony Dowd.
Contact Details
Anne Young
Friends of the John Rylands
The John Rylands Library
150 Deansgate
Manchester
M3 3EH
United Kingdom
Phone: 0161 275 8743
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