Our Collections
The collections at Durham Cathedral Library attract researchers and visitors from all over the world.
On this page you will find a short summary of the rare books, music, archives, and 'antiquarian' collections we have here (read on to find out what an 'antiquarian' is)
Displays in the Collections Gallery in the cathedral's museum put on throughout the year regularly display items from the collections below.
Researchers can find out about making an appointment to view items from these collections.
Rare Books
A book can be rare because of its age, or if few copies survive. Rare books might also be important because of who made them, who owned them (and maybe wrote notes in the margins), or how they were made.
At Durham Cathedral, we look after around 11,000 volumes, or 23,000 individual titles, of rare early printed books. These date from 1473, just over 20 years since printing took off in Europe, to the mid-1800s.
We have rare books on all kinds of subjects:
- Early printed Bibles, from the first Bible in English printed in 1535 to the 1763 Baskerville Bible;
- Prayer Books, such as the Cranmer Prayer Book of 1549 and The Lord's Prayer in Above One Hundred Languages from 1700;
- Theology, including many by major thinkers in Christianity and Anglicanism, from the 1500s to the 1800s. This includes the first complete printed works of Bede from 1563;
- Many early science books, from astronomy to the natural world. Includes a 1653 copy of Galileo to the rare 1713 second edition of Newton's Principia Mathematica;
- Books on the natural world, Including Willughby's Ornithology (1678) and Bewick's History of British Birds (1797 - 1804)
- Pioneering maps by Ortelius (1584), Mercator (1610), and a multi-volume atlas of the British Isles (featuring County Durham) by a Dutch printer (1646-50)
- And many more subjects besides!
Music Collections
Music has long had an important role at the cathedral. The manuscript (handwritten) and printed music collections we have contain many unique items found nowhere else.
The manuscript music collection contains organ music and book for each singing part in the choir (called 'part books') from the 1600s. They are important sources for knowing what music was played at the time in English cathedrals.
A number of manuscript music pieces have also been left to the Cathedral by organists or clergy since the 1700s. These include sonatas and concertos for instruments like the violoncello by composers like Handel, as well as handwritten scores of operas by the 18th century composer Galliard.
Much of the printed music comes from Philip Falle (1676 - 1742), an Anglican priest who gave his collection to the Cathedral in 1722. It is an important collection for understanding what music was available in print before 1800.
Falle collected music printed in cities in France and the Netherlands. Around 25% of the pieces in the 311 volumes (403 individual pieces) are unique, found in no other library in Britain.
The cathedral also looks after the Bamburgh Castle collection. It was given on long-term loan in 1958. Containing 114 volumes (384 pieces), it is the music library of three generations of the Sharp family. Many volumes had pages torn out in the 1800s by housekeepers looking for fire-lighting paper.
The Cathedral Archive
The archive of Durham Cathedral is among the largest and most complete archives of any English Cathedral. It covers 1,000 years of history, from when the Cathedral was a monastic Priory to the present.
The archive is split into two periods – the medieval archive from 1083 to 31st December 1539, when the Benedictine Priory was dissolved, and the archive of the Cathedral from January 1540 to the present day. It contains records of almost every aspect of Cathedral life, from letters to account books, deeds to cartularies.
A vital source for the history of Durham and the north east, the archive also contains copies of documents of national significance – Magna Carta and the Forest Charter.
All researcher viewings of items from the Cathedral archive take place with our colleagues at Durham University Library, Archives, and Special Collections. More information, including making appointments, is on their website.
Antiquarian Collections
An antiquarian is someone with a passion for the past. Between the 1600s and 1800s, antiquarians were often men working as priests, doctors or lawyers. They were pioneers in using archives in their pursuit of history.
We have several antiquarian collections at the Cathedral Library, and each one has now become a vital source for many modern historians and researchers across many different subjects.
Click on the name of each collection to be taken to a full description via Durham University Library online catalogue.
Hunter Collection: These are the papers of Christopher Hunter (1675 - 1757), an important early historian of County Durham.
Raine Collection: James Raine (1791 - 1858) was Librarian at Durham Cathedral from 1816 to his death, and involved in the excavation of Saint Cuthbert in 1827.
Surtees Collection: Robert Surtees (1779 - 1834) was the author of the History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham (1816 - 23).
We also hold papers and collections gathered by George Allan, William Hutchinson, William Longstaffe, and Thomas Randall.
