An imperfect copy of an unidentified early 16th cent. edition of the Decretales of Gregory IX. Sixteen formerly blank leaves at the beginning of the volume contain Welsh poetry added by 'Lewis Johnes', including an early cywydd attributed to Siôn Tudur (c.1522-1602)
Search FNL grants since 1931
Item date: Early 16th century
Date acquired: 2008
Grant Value: £2,400
Item cost: £4,800
Institution: National Library of Wales
Town/City: Aberystwyth
County: Ceredigion
Item date: 20th century
Date acquired: 2008
Grant Value: £20,000 (Philip Larkin Fund)
Item cost: £500,000
Institution: British Library
Town/City: London
A previously unknown archive of the late Poet Laureate, comprising over 200 files and boxes of manuscripts, letters and diaries, including material relating to Birthday Letters, published in 1998, Hughes's collection of poems about his relationship with his first wife, Sylvia Plath.
Item date: c.1500
Date acquired: 2008
Grant Value: £20,000
Item cost: £600,000
Institution: British Library
Town/City: London
A hitherto unknown late medieval manuscript on vellum containing fourteen different types of decorative alphabets, ranging from simple letters in Gothic script to large coloured anthropomorphic initials, and two sets of different types of borders.
Item date: c. 1270-80
Date acquired: 2008
Grant Value: £10,000, and a donation of £5,000 from a private benefactor made to the Library through the Friends of the National Libraries
Item cost: £226,187
Institution: British Library
Town/City: London
The oldest surviving English Roll of Arms, containing 324 coats of arms arranged in 54 rows, painted on a green background, six shields to a line, representing about one-quarter of the English baronage at the time of its composition. The knight's name is written above most of the shields.
Item date: 1815
Date acquired: 2007
Grant Value: £3,000
Item cost: £9,000
Institution: Wordsworth Trust, Dove Cottage
Town/City: Grasmere
County: Cumbria
Originally composed in 1807-8, The White Doe tells the story of the Rising of the North against Elizabeth I in 1569. The present copy is the first edition, quarto,1815, in its original boards, with annotations in the hand of Mary Wordsworth for its publication in Miscellaneous Poems, 1820.
Item date: 1690-1974
Date acquired: 2007
Grant Value: £500
Item cost: £1,637
Institution: West Yorkshire Archive Service
Town/City: Leeds
County: West Yorkshire
Family and business records of John Shaw and Sons, woollen manufacturers, of Brookroyd Mills, Stainland.
Item date: 12th-20th century
Date acquired: 2007
Grant Value: £10,000
Item cost: £72,000
Institution: Warwickshire County Record Office
Town/City: Warwick
County: Warwickshire
The records of a Warwickshire landed family extending over 800 years, comprising a large number of medieval deeds, including significant numbers for the estates of Bordesley Abbey; estate and household account books from 1662 to the 20th century; and over 2,000 items of correspondence, including
Item date: 12th-20th century
Date acquired: 2007
Grant Value: £15,000
Item cost: £150,000
Institution: Warwickshire County Record Office
Town/City: Warwick
County: Warwickshire
The bulk of this large family archive consists of deeds of the family estates, centered on Warwick and Lillington, dating from the 12-19th centuries.
Item date: 1539-40
Date acquired: 2008
Grant Value: £4,000
Item cost: £63,000
Institution: Bodleian Library
Town/City: Oxford
County: Oxfordshire
A 'particular book' of James Nedeham, Clerk and Surveyor of the King's Works, 1539-40, recording detailed accounts for works at Greenwich, Westminster Hall, Windsor Castle, Woking Palace and elsewhere.
Item date: c.1670
Date acquired: 2008
Grant Value: £4,000
Item cost: £85,000
Institution: Bodleian Library
Town/City: Oxford
County: Oxfordshire
Piero Cavalli was the foremost Italian opera composer of the mid-17th century, and Erismena was first performed in Venice in 1655. The present MS, dating from c.1670 and in its original goatskin binding, contains the text in English translation.