Transatlantic Partnership Puts Major British Library Online, Spotlighting Books Rescued From The Medieval World

"In the beginning was the Word,” the opening page of St. John’s Gospel from an early 8th-century Northumbrian Gospel Book. It’s one of hundreds of manuscripts from the Parker Library at Corpus Christi (Cambridge). The entire library will go online, thanks to a collaboration between Corpus Christi, the University of Cambridge, and Stanford. Courtesy Corpus Christi College (Cambridge)

The eagle that is the symbol of St. John is the frontispiece from the same Gospel Book. One of the biggest cultural earthquakes of the 16th century was the dissolution of the English monasteries under King Henry VIII. His motive was simple: He wanted the land and assets. The effects were long lasting and complicated: The Protestant Reformation was irreversibly launched in England, and so was a period of bitter religious strife.