Lincoln Cathedral Library

Michael Honywood was made Dean of Lincoln at the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, with the huge task of repairing the fabric of the cathedral, ravaged by the Parliamentarian soldiers during the Civil War.General repairs took him until 1674, when he was finally able to begin his cherished project of providing a new library building with £780 of his own money on the site of the ruined north cloister.The external Tuscan Doric colonnade of the exterior is serenely classical yet the inside is full of Baroque features: advancing and receding planes and cornice, which give interest to a long, narrow room; and the trompe-l'œil marbling.Honywood bequeathed his 5,000 books (including one of only 250 manuscript versions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) to the Dean and Chapter - these are still in the building built for them.Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Lincoln Cathedral Chapter Library Rodney M. Thomson; Boydell & Brewer (1989)
Wren Library building
The Mediaeval Library, Lincoln Cathedral, c. 1923
Honywood's memorial in the cathedral nave
Lincoln CathedralLincolnshireChristopher WrenincunabulaArchdeacon of HuntingdonLincoln Thornton ManuscriptThomas MaloryMorte d'ArthurMamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum GodPuritanJohn EliotGeneva BibleMassachusett languageEcclesiastical History of the English PeopleBook of Hourschained libraryCloisterChapter HouseMichael HonywoodDean of LincolnRestoration of the MonarchySir Christopher WrenTuscan Doriccolonnadetrompe-l'œilChaucerCanterbury TalesWren LibraryTrinity College, CambridgeWayback MachineBoydell & Brewer