We must begin with an apology: June 2026 slipped away so fast we had no time to post an update. July’s update, therefore, will have to make up for it. We have been very busy indeed, still emptying boxes and planning how to continue unpacking into the Carrie Room (… up a narrow spiral staircase, no room to store or unpack boxes: it’s going to be tricky!).

Not much room here for boxes…	… which somehow have to get up these stairs first!

Hefting boxes around has slowed down massively in the heat, and our environmental monitors are definitely telling us the top floor of the Tower is not going to be housing rare books any time soon, but we are making excellent progress.

We have also unpacked some lovely books these past few weeks. We’ve discovered another clutch of 16^th and 17^th century books at the end of our Cheshunt Room run, some of which we give below.

George Thicknesse’s “boord” from Thomas Hooker, The soules vocation (1638) (CL 129.3.13)	The title page of Sallust’s Works (1519) (CL 131.1.5), and a page from the same book, designed to look like a medieval manuscript	Another page designed to look like a medieval manuscript — the illuminated letter is hand-painted: from Gulielmus Mandagotus Tractatus, vtilis et perque necessarius de electione (1509) (CL 130.2.24)

Jacqueline is in the process of trying to research the oldest book on our shelves (Ludovicus Boligninus’s “Decretalium domini pape Gregorii noni libellus accurata diligentia emendatus”, from 1505) and will blog about her findings in due course. In the meantime, here’s its gorgeous frontispiece, showing the author presenting a copy of his book to Pope Gregory IX. Check out the reading stand in the background.

We do have a book from 1503, a whisker older, but it is still in storage and will remain so for the foreseeable future. We also have some incunabula (books printed prior to 1500), but these will always be kept safely off the shelves. Ludovicus Boligninus, therefore, will remain our oldest book physically on the premises for some time.

Our biggest news is that, at the end of June, Jacqueline (the Congregational Librarian) attended the London Rare Books School at the University of London Senate House. She spent five very happy and fruitful days being taught about the early modern book in England by Dr Giles Mandelbrote and Dr Arnold Hunt.

Over the course of the week Jacqueline had outings to Stationers’ Hall and Lambeth Palace (where she got to hold a book annotated by Henry VIII!) and learned a great deal about books like many of those in the Congregational Library. We have about 22,000 books published prior to 1800 – that’s about a third of the whole collection – so we have a lot of relevant texts. Jacqueline learned that the early modern book was more than just a physical object: it was an item of value. Books could also be used for recording information, and as they were made of recycled paper and manuscript fragments, “lost” materials can be found in the bindings.

Here’s an example of one such book in our collection, with manuscripts being used in the binding:

If you wish to use any part of our collections, let us know so we can book you into our reading room and order your items for you. Our catalogue is available online. If you need more information about us or about the activities of the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust more generally, please visit our website – and of course follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

See you next month!