‘Coventry’s Lost Library’, Museum exhibition at the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery

Event details

Find out about Coventry’s old school library, founded more than 450 years ago! See a magnificent medieval manuscript and discover what a Tudor schoolchild would have been reading.

Coventry’s early modern Grammar School, founded in 1545, was home to an extensive library. A PhD project undertaken by Madeleine Bracey in the Centre for Arts, Memory, and Communities at Coventry University is investigating the many, but as yet unexplored, sources that survive from the school.

For the first time, this exhibition will display early modern books from the school library, a rare medieval manuscript edition of The Book of Mandeville, and the founding charter of the School on loan from King Henry VIII school.

Dr Alice Leonard and Madeleine Bracey will be giving a talk about the lost library at the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 20th September 2025 at 1pm, as part of the National Heritage Open Days.

*Museum admission fees apply*

Image credit: The Book of Mandeville, PA325/1, Coventry Archives. 

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