| John Rylands Research Institute and Library | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Alternative names | Rylands |
| General information | |
| Type | Library |
| Architectural style | VictorianNeo-Gothic |
| Location | Deansgate,Manchester, England |
| Coordinates | 53°28′49″N2°14′55″W / 53.480321°N 2.2487°W /53.480321; -2.2487 |
| Construction started | 1890 |
| Completed | 1899[1] |
| Opened | 1 January 1900 |
| Inaugurated | 6 October 1899 |
| Renovated | 1920, 1962, 2003–07 |
| Cost | £200,000[2][3] |
| Owner | University of Manchester |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Basil Champneys[1] |
| Main contractor | R. and W. Morrison, Liverpool |
| Designations | |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | John Rylands Library and attached railings, gates and lamp standards |
| Designated | 25 January 1952 |
| Reference no. | 1217800 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
TheJohn Rylands Research Institute and Library is alate-Victorianneo-Gothic building onDeansgate inManchester, England. It is part of theUniversity of Manchester.[4] The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded byEnriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband,John Rylands.[5] It became part of the university in 1972, and now houses the majority of the Special Collections ofThe University of Manchester Library, the third largest academic library in the United Kingdom[citation needed].
Special collections built up by both libraries were progressively concentrated in the Deansgate building. The special collections, believed to be among the largest in the United Kingdom,[6] includemedievalilluminated manuscripts and examples of early European printing, including aGutenberg Bible and aMainz Psalter, the second largest collection of printing byWilliam Caxton,[7] and the most extensive collection of the editions of theAldine Press of Venice.[8] TheRylands Library Papyrus P52 has a claim to be the earliest extantNew Testament text. The library holds personal papers and letters of notable figures, among them the novelistElizabeth Gaskell and the scientistJohn Dalton.
The architectural style is primarily neo-Gothic with elements of theArts and Crafts movement in the ornate and imposing gatehouse, facing Deansgate, which dominates the surrounding streetscape. The library, grantedGrade I listed status in 1994, is maintained by theUniversity of Manchester and open for library readers and visitors.
The library is one of the museum, library and archive collections of national and international importance under theDesignation Scheme for England.[9] As of 2020[update], 152 collections are officially designated.[10]
Enriqueta Rylands purchased a site on Deansgate for her memorial library in 1889 and commissioned a design from architectBasil Champneys.[5][11] Mrs Rylands commissioned the Manchester academicAlice Cooke to index the vast library of the2nd Earl Spencer which she had purchased and another collection of autographs.[12] Mrs Rylands intended the library to be principallytheological, and the building, which is a fine example of Victorian Gothic, has the appearance of achurch, although the concept was of an Oxford college library on a larger scale.[13] Champneys presented plans to Mrs Rylands within a week of gaining the commission. Thereafter frequent disagreements arose and Mrs Rylands selected decorative elements, window glass and statues against his wishes.[14]
Champneys was given the honour of speaking about the library at a general meeting of theRoyal Institute of British Architects and was awarded aRoyal Gold Medal in 1912.[15] The library was grantedlisted building status on 25 January 1952, which was upgraded to Grade I on 6 June 1994.[16]
The core of the library's collection was formed around 40,000 books, including many rarities, assembled byGeorge Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, which Mrs Rylands purchased from Lord Spencer in 1892[17] for £210,000.[18] She had begun acquiring books in 1889 and continued to do so throughout her lifetime.[13] Another notable purchase made by Mrs Rylands was that of over 6,000 manuscripts from theBibliotheca Lindesiana ofJames Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford at Haigh Hall in 1901. Quickly and without discussion, Mrs Rylands took them off his hands for £155,000, having made her decision based upon cursory description, as Lord Crawford had never produced a definitive description.[18]
After its inauguration on 6 October 1899 (the wedding anniversary of John Rylands and Enriqueta Tennant),[13] the library opened to readers and visitors on 1 January 1900.[5] At the time of Enriqueta's death in 1908, the library held more than 50,000 volumes of exceptional quality. In the following years, thanks to bequests, the library acquired 80,000 works and 3,000 manuscripts, which required the construction of an annex behind the main building.[19]
The John Rylands Library and theManchester University Library merged in July 1972 and was named the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Special collections built up by both libraries were progressively concentrated in the Deansgate building.
The building has been extended four times, the first time to designs by Champneys in 1920 after the project was delayed byWorld War I. TheLady Wolfson Building opened in 1962 on the west side[20] and a third extension, south of the first was built in 1969.In January 2003, an appeal to renovate the building was launched.[21] Funds were generated from grants from the University of Manchester andHeritage Lottery Fund and donations from members of the public and companies in Manchester.[22] The project,Unlocking the Rylands, demolished the third extension, refurbished parts of the old building and erected a pitched roof over its reinforced concrete roof. Champneys designed a pitched roof but Mrs Rylands was advised that an internal stone vault would reduce the fire risk and it was not built.[17] The £17 million project was completed by summer 2007 and the library reopened on 20 September 2007.[23]
A £7.6 million plan to upgrade the library was issued in February 2024 under which Manchester City Council will allow a series of "sensitive adaptations" to update the John Rylands Research Institute and Library. The project 'John Rylands Next Chapter' is a part of its Imagine2030 vision.[24]
By the nineteenth century Manchester was a prosperous industrial town and the demands ofcotton manufacturing stimulated the growth of engineering and chemical industries. The town became 'abominably filthy' and was 'often covered, especially during the winter, with dense fogs ... there is at all times a copious descent of soots and other impurities'.[25] This, and the overcrowded site, created many design problems for the architect.[26] During the century most textile manufacture moved to newer mills in the surrounding towns while Manchester remained the centre of trading in cotton goods both for the home and foreign markets but pollution from burning coal and gas remained a considerable nuisance.
The site chosen by Mrs Rylands was in a central and fashionable part of the city, but was awkward in shape and orientation and surrounded by tall warehouses, derelict cottages and narrow streets.[26] The position was criticised for its lack of surrounding space and the fact that the valuable manuscript collections were to be housed in "that dirty, uncomfortable city ... [with] not enough light to read by, and the books they already have are wretchedly kept" (written in 1901 about theCrawford MSS.)[26] Mrs Rylands negotiated Deeds of Agreement with her neighbours to fix the heights of future adjacent buildings. The permissible height of the building was fixed at just over 34 feet, but it was suggested that it could be taller at the centre if there was an open area around the edges, at the height of buildings that had been demolished to make way for the construction.[26] Champneys incorporated this suggestion into his design, setting the two towers of the façade twelve feet back from the boundary and keeping the entrance block low, to allow light into the library.[26] He designed the building in a series of tiered steps with an almost flat roof to give a 'liberal concession' to the neighbours' 'right to light'.[27]
The library was built on a rectangular plan and subsequent extensions are to the rear. It was designed to resemble a church in a decorated neo-Gothic style with Arts and Crafts details.[16] It is constructed of Cumbriansandstone, the interior a delicately shaded 'Shawk' stone (fromDalston, varying in colour between sand and a range of pinks) and the exterior, dark red Barbary stone fromPenrith.[28][29] built around an internal steel framed structure and brick arched flooring.[30] The red 'Barbary plain' sandstone, which Champneys believed 'had every chance of proving durable' for the exterior, was an unusual choice in late Victorian Manchester. It proved relatively successful, as an inspection by Champneys in 1900 revealed little softening by the 'effects of an atmosphere somewhat charged with chemicals' although, by 1909 some repairs were needed.[31]
The library has acrypt above which the building has two unequal storeys giving the impression of three. The ornate Deansgate façade has anembattledparapet with open-work arcading under which is a central three-bay entrance resembling a monastery gatehouse. Its two-centred arched portal has doorways separated by atrumeau and tall windows on either side. Above the doors are a pair of smallcantedoriel windows. Surfaces are decorated with lacy blind tracery and finely detailed carving.[16] The carving includes the "J. R." monogram, the arms of Rylands, the arms of Rylands' native town, St Helens, and those of five English, two Scottish and two Irish universities and those ofOwens College.[32]On either side of the entrance portal are square two-storey two-bay wings with plain walls with astring course containinggrotesques and large octagonallanterns. Behind the entrance portal flanked by square towers is the three-light east window of the reading hall. It has reticulated tracery and shafts in a similar style to the parapet. In front of the library are Art Nouveaubronze railings with central double gates and lamp standards.[16]
The main reading room on the first floor, 30 feet above the ground and 12 feet from all four boundaries, was noted for the pleasant contrast between the 'sullen roar' of Manchester and the 'internal cloister quietude of Rylands'.[27] It was lit by oriel windows in the reading alcoves supplemented by highclerestory windows along both sides.[27] Embellishments in the reading room include two large stained glass windows with portraits of religious and secular figures, designed byC. E. Kempe; a series of statues in the reading room byRobert Bridgeman and Sons of Lichfield;[33] and bronze work in the art nouveau style by Singer of Frome. The portraits in sculpture (20) and stained glass (40) represent a selection of personages from the intellectual and artistic history of mankind. The western window contains "Theology" from Moses to Schleiermacher; the eastern "Literature and Art" (including philosophy).[34] The portrait statues of John and Enriqueta Rylands inwhite marble, in the reading room, were sculpted byJohn Cassidy who also executed the allegorical group of 'Theology, Science and Art' in the vestibule.[5][35]
Aside from the main library and reading room with gallery above, the design incorporated Bible and map rooms on the first floor, and conference (lecture) and committee rooms on the ground floor, part of which was intended to be a lending library but never operated as such. A caretaker's house was incorporated in the building until it was demolished for the extension of 1969.[1]
Electric lighting was chosen as the cleanest and safest alternative to gas but, as the use of electricity was in its early stages, the supply (110 volts DC) was generated on-site. This took some years to achieve due to the inexperience of contractors,[15] but the library became one of the first public buildings in Manchester to be lit by electricity[5][36] and continued to generate its own supply until 1950.[37]
Champneys suggested that, in order to protect the books and manuscripts, 'it will be very desirable to keep the air in the interior of the building as clear and free from smoke and chemical matter (both of which are held in the air of Manchester) as may be possible'.[37] The ground floor was built with numerous air inlets and, although his client felt it would prove impossible to exclude foul air, Champneys installed jute or hessian screens to trap the soot, with water sprays to catch the sulphur and other chemicals,[37] which was a very advanced system for the period.[5] Internal screen doors were employed in the entrance hall to prevent the air being 'fouled by the opening of the outer doors' with internal swing doors between the circulation areas and the main library to 'preserve the valuable books from injury'.[37] By 1900 the ventilation system had evolved to include electric fans to draw in air at pavement level throughcoke screens sprayed with water.[37]
On opening in 1900, the library had 70,000 books and fewer than 100 manuscripts[38] and by 2012, more than 250,000 printed volumes and over one million manuscripts and archival items.[39] The main foundation of the library's collections acquired in 1892 was theAlthorp Library ofLord Spencer regarded as one of the finest library collections in private ownership with 43,000 items - 3,000 of which originate from before 1501.[40][41] Mrs Rylands paid £210,000 for Spencer's collection which included theAldine Collection[42] and anincunabula collection of 3,000 items.[43] The incunabula included a few block books and the St Christopher block print (southern Germany, 1423) the latter being the earliest dated block print whose date in undisputed.[44] During subsequent years, more than 1,000 more incunabula were added to the collection (from various sources).
Owens College Library receivedRichard Copley Christie's library of over 8,000 volumes including many rare books from theRenaissance period in 1901.[45] It was part of the Victoria University of Manchester library from 1904 and was transferred to the John Rylands Library building after the merger in 1972. In 1901, Mrs Rylands paid £155,000 for more than 6,000 manuscripts owned byJames Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford ofHaigh Hall. TheBibliotheca Lindesiana was one of the most impressive private collections in Britain at the time, both for its size and rarity of some of its contents.[46][47]Walter Llewellyn Bullock bequeathed 5,000 items (notably early Italian imprints) during the 1930s.[48]
Mrs Rylands died in 1908 having bequeathed her private collections and an endowment of £200,000 to enable the library to expand. The funds were used to acquire 180,000 books, 3,000 manuscripts and extend the building.[49] The Librarian,Henry Guppy, invited individuals to deposit their archives for safe keeping in 1921 when there were nocounty record offices in Lancashire or Cheshire and the library became one of the first to collect historical family records.[50]
The library's collections include exquisite medieval illuminated manuscripts, examples of early European printing including a fine paper copy of theGutenberg Bible and books printed byWilliam Caxton, and personal papers of distinguished historical figures including Elizabeth Gaskell, John Dalton andJohn Wesley.[17] There is no history of this copy of the Gutenberg Bible before it was acquired by the 2nd Earl Spencer.[51][52]
The library housespapyrus fragments known as theRylands Papyri and documents fromNorth Africa. The most notable are theSt John Fragment, believed to be the oldest extantNew Testament text,Rylands Library Papyrus P52, the earliest fragment of the text of the canonical Gospel of John;[53] the earliest fragment of theSeptuagint,Papyrus Rylands 458; andPapyrus Rylands 463, a manuscript fragment of the apocryphal Gospel of Mary.Minuscule 702, ε2010 (von Soden),[54] is aGreekminusculemanuscript of theNew Testament, on parchment. Among thepapyri from Oxyrhynchus are a homily about women (Inv R. 55247), part of theBook of Tobit (Apocrypha) (448), andPapyrus Oxyrhynchus 73, relating to the transfer of a slave. The Arabic papyri were catalogued byDavid Samuel Margoliouth; his catalogue was published in 1933.[55]
In addition to the collections of Spencer, Crawford, Christie andBullock,[56][57] holdings have been enriched by gifts, permanent loans or purchases of several libraries belonging to institutions and individuals. These include the French Revolution Broadsides donated by the 27th Earl of Crawford in 1924[58][59] and the archives of theMethodist Church of Great Britain in 1977.[60] In 1924 the library purchased the greater part of the French revolutionary collection of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana; and then on the occasion of the library's semi-jubilee the27th Earl of Crawford donated the French Revolutionary Broadsides from the Bibliotheca Lindesiana.[61] Between 1946 and 1988 a number of sections of the Earl of Crawford's library were deposited here,[62] however all but one of these were withdrawn in 1988.
The British Pop Archive, a national collection dedicated to the preservation and research of popular culture, opened with an exhibition at the library in May 2022.[63][64][65][66][67][68]
Librarians at John Rylands before its merger includeEdward Gordon Duff in 1899 and 1900 and Henry Guppy between 1899 and 1948 (joint Librarian with Duff until 1900). Duff was responsible for the original library catalogue, compiled between 1893 and 1899:Catalogue of the Printed Books and Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Manchester; ed. E. G. Duff. Manchester: J. E. Cornish, 1899. 3 vols.[13] The cataloguing of the books was done byAlice Margaret Cooke, a graduate of the Victoria University.[69] Dr Guppy began publication of theBulletin of the John Rylands Library in 1903; it later became a journal publishing academic articles and from autumn 1972 the title was changed to theBulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester (further slight changes have occurred since).[70]
During the First World War 11 members of staff joined the armed forces; of these only Capt. O. J. Sutton, MC, lost his life while serving.[71] Other noteworthy members of staff wereJames Rendel Harris,Alphonse Mingana, the Semitic scholar ProfessorEdward Robertson (d. 1964) who was the third librarian,[72][73] andMoses Tyson, keeper of western manuscripts, afterwards librarian of Manchester University Library. Stella Butler, a medical historian, was Head of Special Collections from 2000 until 2009, and she moved to theUniversity of Leeds in 2011 as University Librarian.[74][75] From 2009 to 2019, Rachel Beckett was Head of Special Collections and Associate Director of The John Rylands Library. Christopher Pressler was appointed John Rylands University Librarian and Director of The University of Manchester Library in February 2019.[76]
The John Rylands Research Institute was originally founded by Acting Librarian David Miller in 1987,[77][78] to promote, fund and stimulate research on the primary material held at Deansgate. It was relaunched in 2013, with Professor Peter Pormann as director, as a collaboration between The University of Manchester's Faculty of Humanities and The John Rylands Library.[79] The mission of the Institute is to open up the Library's Special Collections to innovative and multidisciplinary research, in partnership with researchers in Manchester and across the globe. Since its inception, the Institute has gained both national and international recognition and has been involved in attracting grants to support research on the collections from funders including the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy and Marie Curie Foundation. In addition, generous philanthropic donations from Amin Amiri, David Shreeve, The Soudavar Memorial Foundation and Mark Younger, amongst others, have helped to support a range of important projects.[80]
In September 2016, Hannah Barker, Professor of British History, took up the role as Director of the John Rylands Research Institute,[81] and in March 2021, the John Rylands Research Institute and The John Rylands Library forged a new partnership as theJohn Rylands Research Institute and Library.[82]
Mrs Rylands established a board of trustees to hold the library's assets and a council of governors to maintain the building and control expenditure. The council consisted of some representative and some co-optative governors while honorary governors were not members of the council.[83][84] Both these bodies were dissolved at the merger in 1972. Members of the council of governors includedArthur Peake andF. F. Bruce both biblical critics andRylands Professors of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis.
Many notable people including heads of state have visited the library.King Charles III andQueen Camilla (as The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall) have also visited.[85]
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