The Treasures of the British Library

The British Library is easily one of my favorite places on the whole planet -- yes, I know, I'm a nerd. Perhaps the most magical room in the library is the Sir John Ritblat Gallery. Click here to learn more: John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library and Showcases: Landmarks in Literature, Art, History, Music, Printing....

Among the treasures in the gallery are some that even the least nerdy person might appreciate...

A manuscript of Beowulf, dating from between 978-1016

Jane Austen's "Volume the Third," one of the journals she kept from when she was about 12 through 17. This notebook is Austen's own teenage handwriting from 1792. Imagine Jane Austen as a 14 year old girl, composing stories in her diary.

Austen's original manuscript of Persuasion in her handwriting, recorded on small slips of paper that she could quickly hide away if she was interrupted while she was writing, resting on her writing desk. Austen disliked disruptions while she was writing and rarely shared her drafts with others.

Bronte's original manuscript of Jane Eyre -- imagine Jane Eyre in Bronte's own handwriting, opened to the passage that includes the immortal words, "Readers, I married him."

Lewis Carrol's diary, open to his February 10, 1863 entry where he writes of telling Alice Liddell and her sisters "the fairy tale of 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground,' which I undertook to write out for Alice, & which is now finished..."

A letter that Sylvia Plath wrote to the Arts Council of Great Britian in her very typical "girlie" handwriting, accompanied by a handwritten copy of her poem "Insomniac."


Handwritten compositions by Mozart, Handel, Purcell, Hayden, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn; Mozart's marriage contract from his 1781 marriage to Constanze Weber, and Beethoven's tuning fork.

Handwritten lyrics for many songs by The Beatles, including the lyrics to "Michele," written on the back of an envelope, and "Hard Day's Night," written on the back of a greeting card from John Lennon's son Julian's first birthday.

Charles Darwin's letter to Alfred Russel Wallace. Darwin and Wallace separately devised similar theories of evolution and survival of the fittest, and they presented their ideas jointly to the Linnean Society in July 1858.

A letter written by Isaac Newton in 1679.

Galileo Galilei's drawings of the stars from 1564-1642.

And, something that stopped me dead in my tracks -- I stood with my mouth agape in front of these documents for a very long time -- Leondardo DaVinci's notebooks, including his notebook on weights and movements from 1500, the moon's reflection of light from 1506-08, and the course of the River Arno from 1504.

The Magna Carta, only one of four surviving copies to retain a trace of its original seal, from 1215. This copy was found at Dover Castle in 1630.

A revised version of the Magna Carta, changed by Henry III, in 1225.

The Gutenberg Bible from 1454-55.

And remember, this list encompasses only a very few of the treasures that left me awestruck. Be sure to explore the links above and appreciate the vast importance of these documents, manuscripts, and artefacts.