Category: Library & Archives

Guest piece by Elizabeth Smith Was Exeter Cathedral severely vandalised during the English Civil War in the 1640s? Many books and commentaries claim that it…

By Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian Shakespeare’s play, The Life and Death of King Richard the Second, details the final years of King Richard II who…

By Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), an English botanist and astrologer, published The English Physitian in 1652. A pharmacist by trade, he offered…

By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist This pen and ink drawing with watercolour pigments is known at the Cathedral as the ‘Leakey Watercolour’. It shows the…

By Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian Fire damage must have been a relatively common occurrence years ago. If you wanted to read after sundown, you probably…

By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist If you were to write a chronicle of your life, or perhaps your country, home town, or place of work,…

By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist We are now past the Winter Solstice, and the days are slowly getting longer – even if some days it…

By Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian Christmas, according to one famous singer, is a time for mistletoe and wine. Some of you may even have hung…

By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist With thousands of documents to choose from, sometimes it can be difficult to decide which one to focus on for…

By Emma Laws, Cathedral Librarian This is a Cat’s Paw binding – so-called because it looks like a cat has stepped in black paint and…