Illuminated Manuscripts

Overview

Chester Beatty found fame as a book collector through his Western illuminated manuscripts. The collection began modestly in the years preceding his move to London in 1911, but with the help of expert advice, by the end of the 1920s it had grown to become one of the most important collections in England.

Beatty's preference for illuminated manuscripts can be deduced from archival sources, as mention is made of French Books of Hours, five of which were in his possession by 1910.

After moving to London, Beatty began buying much earlier manuscripts from the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, including manuscripts which were not illuminated but which were highly important on palaeographical grounds.

By the end of the 1920s, he had assembled a collection of well over 200 Western manuscripts which, together with his other collections, made him the most important book collector in England in the mid-twentieth century.

The Western manuscripts are augmented by illuminated manuscripts from the Christian Near East as well as some Hebrew and Samaritan biblical texts. Beatty formed collections of Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopian, Hebrew, Slavonic and Syriac manuscripts.

These collections vary in depth depending on Beatty's commitment to other areas of his Library at the time they were acquired.