John Foxe's The Acts and Monuments Online

John Foxe (1516/17 – 18 April 1587) was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of Actes and Monuments (popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs), an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the reign of Mary I. Widely owned and read by English Puritans, the book helped mould British popular opinion about the Catholic Church for several centuries.

John Foxe sought to create a new kind of history, different from the 'multitude of Chronicles and storywriters, both in England and out of England' that had gone before. It made very bold truth-claims. These were supported by a panoramic depiction of Christian history as a manifestation of God's providence. They were equally sustained by an unrelenting belief that documentary evidence could not be gainsaid. Read John Foxe's remarkable protestant martyrology online via The Acts and Monuments Online

For the wordes of my story are plaine, where as the cōdemnation of the Lady Eleanor, and of the mother of Lady Yong, beyng referred to the yeare of our Lord. 1441. I do also in the same story (through the occasion of that Lady) inferre mention of the mother of þe Lady Yong,declaryng in expresse woordes, that she folowed certein yeares after, and in the end of that Chapter, do name also the yeare of her burnyng to be. 1490. which was. 50. yeares after the death of Onley, & Margarete Iourdeman: by the computation of which yeares it is plaine, that no other woman could be noted in that place, but onely the Lady Younges mother.

(condemnation of Lady Eleanor Cobham, wife of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester)

Modern Fight Over Ancient Library

It was filthy, cramped and in major disarray, but when art historian Eva Lindqvist Sandgren entered the library in Altomuenster Abbey, off-limits to all but the German monastery’s nuns for more than five centuries, she immediately knew she was looking at a major treasure. 

The dusty shelves held at least 500 books, by her estimate, including precious illuminated manuscripts from the 16th century, chants used by the uniquely women-led Bridgettine Order and processionals bursting with colorful religious and ornamental decoration in their margins. 

Unlike most Bridgettine libraries, the tomes had survived the Protestant Reformation, the 30 Years War and Germany’s “secularization,” when the state took most church property. It represents the most complete collection of the order known today.

“I had entered a time capsule,” said Lindqvist Sandgren, a senior lecturer at Sweden’s Uppsala University. 

Surprised by the spontaneous decision by Altomuenster’s last remaining nun, Sister Apollonia Buchinger, to open the library, 20 scholars including Sandgren made plans to return and meticulously catalog the remarkable collection. 

But before they could, the Vatican ordered the abbey in the Bavarian town of 7,500 closed and locked up the library, which also contains some 2,300 statues, paintings and other works of art.

If plans go ahead to close it down, all of the abbey’s property – the books, the artworks, the city-block-sized abbey, and the acres of forests and fields that make up the monastery grounds – would be turned over to the dioceses of Munich and Freising. 

Read More Here @ The Journal Gazette

The Ancient Book of Deer

The Ancient Book of Deer, Oldest Known Gaelic Text in Existence | Ancient Origins

Currently housed at the University of Cambridge Library, the historic Book of Deer is said to have been discovered by the University's librarian, Henry Bradshaw, around 1860. It is said to be the only pre-Norman manuscript revealing tenth century northeastern Scottish culture's society and religious traditions, and is the earliest known Gaelic document in existence.

Although fascinating to historians for multiple reasons, the greatest intrigue for those drawn to this ancient text lies within the handwritten notations made in its margins and other blank areas, and not necessarily within the text itself. The notations, also referred to as 'notitiae', are written in the type of Gaelic typically spoken by the upper classes in the early twelfth century region of Buchan at a time later than the original text, indicated land grants or 'charters' and represented the legal rights to land believed to have belonged to the original Deer monastery of Aberdeenshire in Scotland, thus presenting a clear connection to the Deer region.

Read more of article at Ancient Origins

Who Really Wrote the Book of Job?

Who Really Wrote the Book of Job? - Jewish World - Haaretz - Israel News Haaretz.com

The Book of Job is quite possibly the strangest book in the Hebrew Bible, and is notoriously difficult to date.

In essence, Job is an essay on the problem of evil. The book starts with God and Satan discussing Job, a “perfect and upright” man who “feared God and eschewed evil” (1:1). Satan tells God that Job is only virtuous because he is well off; were he to suffer, he would surely “curse thee to thy face” (1:11). God accepts the challenge and gives Satan permission to destroy Job’s life.

Since the story lacks any historical context and no historic individuals are mentioned, it is very hard to date.

There's a snag, though. The language in Job is unlike any other found in the Bible, or outside it. True, the book is written in Hebrew, but it is very strange Hebrew indeed. It has more unique words than any other book of the Hebrew Bible. The language is archaic, which would indicate that it was very ancient: but it is also heavily influenced by Aramaic, which would make it relatively late.

Read more: Haaretz News

Books of Jasov Monastery

Books of Jasov - spectator.sme.sk

Courtesy: Slovakia Travel

Books were also important in the Premonstratensian monastery at Jasov, south of Košice. Its library comprises about 45,000 titles, and the whole monastery possesses an impressive 100,000 books. A visitor to the library can admire books stored along all its walls, arrayed along the shelves of tall cabinets. The oldest of these date from the 16th century.

Read rest of short article here at The Slovak Spectator