The Duke Humfrey New Testament

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The 13th-century Duke Humfrey New Testament has been acquired by The Bodleian Libraries after 300 years of private ownership.

The finely decorated manuscript is an Old French translation of the New Testament and was once owned by Jean le Bon, who was King of France from 1350–1364.

Royal ownership revealed

Ultraviolet light has revealed a series of erased inscriptions showing the manuscript later passed into the hands three members of the English royal family: Thomas of Lancaster, Edmund Beaufort, and Duke Humfrey.

Duke Humfrey went on to give the University of Oxford a priceless collection of books, but this New Testament was not included. Thanks to the Memorial Fund-supported acquisition the manuscript can finally join the university’s collections and go on public display for the first time.

Dr Simon Thurley CBE, Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: “Owned by French and then English aristocrats at a time of conflict between the nations, the Duke Humfrey New Testament is of outstanding heritage significance and a rare survival of the library of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, the greatest English bibliophile of the Middle Ages.”