As I write, I can hear birdsong through our open window. Spring is well and truly here: we have a little wren who sits on the exterior staircase just outside and sings regularly to us. I will try and take a photograph some day but for now I can only hear it. It is a lovely song, though.

Unpacking continues: the Cheshunt Room only has a few shelves left. I owe a massive shout-out to my predecessor, David Powell, who planned the unpacking process and who estimated the number of boxes that might be unpacked in the Cheshunt Room. It looks like he is going to be absolutely on the money. I am constantly grateful for the way the library was packed before its move from London: so many things could have gone wrong in the process, but by and large they haven’t. Every box has been correctly labelled and contains all the books it should. This is an incredible achievement and my life has been made so much easier for it.

	This beautiful copy of “The Gospel in many tongues” (CL 113.5.36) was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1904

This month’s amazing finds involve languages. We have several shelves of bibles in various languages, including Manx (see last month’s post), partly due to missionaries bringing the word of God to people around the world. The British and Foreign Bible Society, for example, issued an absolutely stunning collection of 403 phrases from the Gospels (mostly John 3:16) in 353 languages.

	The Preces Sancti Nersetis Clajensis (Venice, 1862) reproduced a series of  24 prayers by St Nersetis Shnorhali in 33 different languages (CL 112.1.6)

Alongside this, we have a copy of Preces Sancti Nersetis Claiensis, a collection of 24 prayers written by St Nerses Shnorhali, a 13^th century Armenian patriarch. This was published in Venice in 1862, probably by the Benedictine Mekhitharist Congregation there. The collection is published in 33 different languages: an edition released twenty years later, which unfortunately we do not have, added a further three. Like the British and |Foreign Bible Society’s Gospel phrases, the book is not just interesting for its content: it is beautifully bound in red calf, with a gold fore-edge.

Finally, here’s a copy of John Ray’s The wisdom of God manifested in the works of the Creation (London, 1727). It’s not as beautiful a book as the others we’ve talked about, but this copy belonged to Philip Doddridge and therefore warrants a mention. Doddridge wrote that he had been given the book by Benjamin Knott in 1731. He recorded this in Latin, which gives it a tangential connection to the languages theme of this blog post.

	This copy of John Lay’s The wisdom of God manifested in the works of the Creation (London, 1727) was owned by Philip Doddridge (CL 110.4.31)

If you wish to see these books or use any other 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 and Instagram. We now also have a Facebook page!

See you next month!