"The Book in the Cathedral" by Christopher de Hamel

It’s a small book about a significant topic. 

Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170 by underlings of King Henry II. The archbishop, once a close confidante of the king, had shown himself stubbornly a man of the church once Henry had named him archbishop. He was struck down in a side chapel of Canterbury Cathedral on Dec. 29.

 

Becket became an instant martyr, and three later he was made a saint. For hundreds of years, Christians made their way to the martyr’s shrine, like the fictional pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. For many years, a number of relics were associated with the saint. Some were real, and some were undoubtedly invented for the pilgrims (and their coins). 

 

Also associated was Becket’s library, a list of whose contents could be found in the 14^th century library catalogue of Canterbury Cathedral Priory. A few of the books had eventually made their way into the hands of British university libraries and private collectors. The disposition of Becket’s most treasured book, a psalter, was unknown. It was likely in his hands when he was struck down with a sword.

 

With an impressive bit of detective work, Christopher de Hamel tracked it down. The psalter still existed, and it was almost hiding in plain sight. He tells the story and its context in The Book in the Cathedral: The Last Relic of Thomas Becket. 

 

Christopher de Hamel

De Hamel does more than explain the find. He succinctly (the book is all of 58 pages, including index) describes how an object came to be considered a relic, the story of Becket’s martyrdom, the known contents of the man’s library, and how, over the course of a lunch with a Biblical historian in Cambridge, realized that a particular book was Becket’s long-lost psalter. It’s a fascinating story, well and concisely told. 

 

A fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, de Hamel (born 1950) is a librarian and expert on medieval manuscripts. He received the Duff Cooper Prize and the Wolfson History Prize for his book Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts. Before his university career, he worked for Sotheby’s Western Manuscripts Department. He’s published numerous books and studies on manuscripts, and he’s formed a manuscript collection under his own name at Cambridge. 

 

The Book in the Cathedral is a fascinating tale of detective scholarship around one of the major saints of the medieval church in England. 

 

Related:

 

The Relics of Thomas Becket by John Butler.

 

Augustine of Canterbury by Robin Macintosh. 

 

Some Tuesday Readings

 

November Poem a Day 2023, Week 3 – Kelly Belmonte at All Nine.

 

Aedmund of England – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

How to Win the Fight for America – Katherine Boyle at The Free Press.