The Courtier’s Library

12 February 2018

Discovered in a trunk in Westminster Abbey in 2016, scholars have recently produced a new transcription of John Donne’s Catalogus librorum satyricus also known as The Courtier’s Library.

The manuscript (WA2) is the earliest known version of the work and has enabled scholars to pinpoint the date of composition more accurately than hitherto had been possible based on other sources. You can find out more about the discovery of the manuscript on Westminster Abbey’s website, and a copy of the new article about the work can be found online here.

John Donne studied at Hart Hall, the historic predecessor to Hertford College, in the 1580s, along with his brother Henry. You can read more about Donne on our Historic Hertfordians page, and you can also learn about this year’s annual John Donne lecture on our events page.