This impressively large object told pilgrims the history of Glastonbury Abbey and its saints, akin to the texts accompanying modern day exhibits and historical sites.

Bodleian Library MS. Lat. hist. a. 2 (the ‘Magna Tabula Glastoniensis’) was a one-off addition to Digital Bodleian in late 2023. It takes the physical form of a “large wooden block” known as a tablet¹ (hence ‘Magna Tabula’) recounting the history of Glastonbury Abbey from AD 63, the legendary date of the founding of the ‘Old Church’², to 1382, accompanied by stories of the saints who were said to be buried there³. The Abbey was (and in fact continues to serve as⁴) a major pilgrimage site for those seeking to pray before statues of the Virgin Mary and St Joseph in the crypt “for healing and other miracles,” with the water of St Joseph’s well also believed to possess healing properties⁵.

Created under the orders of the Abbot John Chinnock (1375–1420), the purpose of the Magna Tabula was to lay out the story of St Joseph for those pilgrims who would travel to visit “an increasingly magnificent set of abbey buildings, worked by a substantial monastic community with an increasingly powerful and wealthy abbot at its head.⁶” Claiden-Yardley describes the Tabula as a form of “heritage interpretation board” similar to what might be seen at a historical site in modern day⁷ and woud surely enrich the experience of any visit to the abbey. A scene is described of monks “[turning] the wooden pages” and drawing attention to key points to visitors⁸.

The Tabula comprises “six leaves pasted onto the inside of a folding wooden frame”, sandwiched between two newer wooden boards. This is an impressively large object, measuring a metre in height and about 40cm in width. It was acquired by the Bodleian at a Sotheby’s auction in 1947.⁹

The main challenge came in how to label the images for the digital item, which had an unconventional ‘binding’ and lacked any form of foliation. There was also an unusual full, front-facing shot of the object, seen below, which was unlike anything we typically describe for Digital Bodleian. See below:

The solution taken was the give a fictitious sequence (signified by square brackets) for the item’s main sequence, and labelling the front-facing shot with a succinct Whole volume open. The enclosing wooden blocks were described as we would typically describe any bound volume enclosed within boards, with Upper board and Lower board.

It’s always fun to work on one-offs like this outside of the routine project work that challenges me in different ways to the usual!

Notes and References

1. Gilchrist, R., Bell, J., Green, C., et al. (2020). Pilgrimage. Glastonbury Abbey Archaeology. Retrieved 18 December 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230528232054/https://research.reading.ac.uk/glastonburyabbeyarchaeology/digital/the-lady-chapel-c-1185-1539/pilgrimage/ ↩︎
2. Glastonbury Abbey. (2023). History. Glastonbury Abbey. Retrieved 18 December 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230531063717/https://www.glastonburyabbey.com/history.php ↩︎
3. Claiden-Yardley, K. (2021). ‘Tabulae’ or tables – the medieval precursors to heritage interpretation. Retrieved 18 December 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230329075735/https://kclaidenyardley.com/2021/06/29/medieval-heritage-interpretation/ ↩︎
4. Glastonbury Abbey (2011). Services & Pilgrimage. Glastonbury Abbey. Retrieved 18 December 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20110817072012/http://glastonburyabbey.com/services.php?&rpn=info ↩︎
5. Gilchrist, et al. Ibid. ↩︎
6. Krochalis, J. (1997). ‘Magna Tabula: The Glastonbury Tablets (Part 1)’, in J. P. Carley and F. Riddy (eds.) Arthurian Literature XV (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer), 93–183. In Lyons, W. J. (2014). Joseph of Arimathea: A Study in Reception History. University of Oxford Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695911.001.0001, pp. 93–4. ↩︎
7. Claiden-Yardley, K. Ibid. ↩︎
8. Gilchrist, et al. Ibid. ↩︎
9. University of Oxford. (2021). MS. Lat. hist. a. 2. Medieval Manuscripts in Bodleian Libraries. Retrieved 18 December 2023, from https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_6421 ↩︎