34 grants for 2008.
An imperfect copy of an unidentified early 16th cent. edition of the Decretales of Gregory IX.
The autograph MS of Jude the Obscure, one of the greatest and most controversial of Hardy's novels, was presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum by the author in 1911.
A notebook containing an incomplete scheme for the natural classification of vascular plants by John Hope, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden and Professor of Materia Medica in the Universit
119 deeds and documents, 13th cent - 1698, relating chiefly to Mascy property in Warrington, with a wealth of early topographical and place-name information.
The unique copy of a work by William Smith (1769-1839), the pre-eminent English geologist of his time, long believed lost.
The Glasgow firm of Templeton/Stoddard was the most important manufacturer of high-quality carpet in the British Empire.
A rare book by the journalist Michael Fry describing his experiences in Germany up to 1934.
Grant by Queen Mary I of lands in northern Flintshire to John David ap Griffyn ap Llewelen, 9 May 1554, with an initial portrait miniature of the Queen.
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 Pa
Nine quarto volumes of diaries and commonplaces of William Fleming of Rowe Head, Pennington (1770-1829), a prosperous and literate yeoman farmer living in a small village near Ulverston, Lancashire
About 180 letters written over four decades by Iris Murdoch, the novelist and philosopher to the writer and philosopher Denis Paul, her Oxford contemporary and lifelong friend.
Over 500 letters received by John Jefferys, lawyer and Town Clerk of Bath, 1760-1800.
132 letters from Samuel Palmer to Richard Redgrave (1804-88), painter and founder of the Etching Club; his wife Rose (1811-99); their daughters Frances (1845-1932) and Evelyn (1849-1942); and his
An inscribed presentation copy of the second edition, containing Wordsworth's preface and a cancel rectifying the omission of fifteen lines of Wordsworth's 'Michael' from the bo
Piero Cavalli was the foremost Italian opera composer of the mid-17th century, and Erismena was first performed in Venice in 1655.
A map of the lands of Anthony Fowle in the parishes of Wythiham and Retherfield, in ink and colour on vellum. John Pattenden of Lamberhurst was a noted mapmaker in East Sussex and Kent.
Maristow, seat of the Lords Roborough, was bought in 1798 by Manaesseh Masseh Lopez, only son of Mordecai Rodriguez Lopez, a Sephardic Jew who made a fortune in the sugar plantations.
Designs, patterns and other papers relating to the Poole Pottery from the 1920s, complementing the main Poole Pottery Archive held by the Dorset History Centre.
(1) A portrait drawing of the Exeter builder-architect James Stowey, signed 'C[harles] Coffin Nepos delt. Exeter Sept.
Mr Edward Dawson writes: About 60% of all the visitors to Milton's Cottage come to pay their respects to the greatest poet of the 17th century
A catalogue of the antiquities and ethnological remains assembled by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, the foundation of the Jesuit Roman College's famous Museum.
Robert Pullen (d.1146) was an outstanding English churchman, one of the first recorded lecturers in the University of Oxford and the first English cardinal.
A volume of 180 vellum leaves serving as a key to John Probert's maps of Doddington and Broughton, the two seats of the Delves Broughton family, already held by Cheshire and Chester Archives.
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,
Transcripts of rentals and custumals of manors in the barony of Lewes and other documents relating to Lewes, 1440, 1535-c.1635, compiled by John Rowe, a lawyer (d.1639).
Ralph Radcliffe, a Lancashire gentleman, bought the Carmelite Priory of Hitchin shortly after its surrender in 1539, and the family subsequently amassed a considerable estate in North-West Hertfor
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 baro
Correspondence and papers of the Green Family of Knutsford, Cheshire, including 16 letters from Elizabeth Gaskell to Mary Green.
Kate Arnold-Forster writes: The collection acquired with the generous support of the Friends of the National Libraries makes an outstanding addition to the University's Samuel Beckett arch
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 ini
Publications and ephemera relating to Stefan Lorant (1901- 97), the pioneering Hungarian-American filmmaker, photojournalist, and author, collected by Michael Hallett, Lorant's biographer, bet
The political papers and correspondence of Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (1757-1844), Home Secretary and Prime Minister, and some earlier family papers.
RSM Barlow's letters give a detailed account of the Waterloo campaign and of the battle itself, 18 June 1815.
Hogarth wrote to John Kirby on 7 June 1754 advising him on handling a controversy about perspective, a subject on which Kirby, an artist, architect and topographical draughtsman, was an expert.