The Sarum Master Bible: a talk by Christopher de Hamel

We are pleased to welcome Dr Christopher de Hamel, medieval manuscript expert, to share his thoughts on the recent return of the 13th-Century Sarum Master Bible to Salisbury. Following a successful fundraising campaign, Friends of the Nations’ Libraries purchased the Bible from a private owner, via Sotheby’s, and donated it to Salisbury Cathedral. But why should it be kept in the Cathedral’s library?

The Sarum Master Bible is a manuscript (handwritten) Bible in Latin, written and illustrated probably in Salisbury in the 1240s or 1250s. It is one of a small number of manuscripts that were illustrated by one of the greatest English artists of the time, who today is known to scholars as the Sarum Master, or Sarum Illuminator. No details are known about the artist’s life, but there is considerable evidence that he or she was working in or around Salisbury.

NOTE: The Sarum Master Bible will be on display for Cathedral visitors to view from 6 October until 2 November 2025.

Christopher de Hamel is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was responsible for all sales of medieval manuscripts at Sotheby’s, 1975-2000, and librarian of the Parker Library in Cambridge, 2000-2016. His very many books include Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts (2016), which won the Wolfson Prize for History.

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