Published for the first time ever, the results of thirty-six seasons of excavation at the iconic site of Glastonbury Abbey, one of the key sites for an understanding of early monasticism in Britain.

The director of the famed Bodleian Libraries at Oxford narrates the global history of the willful destruction—and surprising survival—of recorded knowledge over the past three millennia. Libraries and archives have been attacked since ancient times but have been especially threatened in the modern era. Today the knowledge they safeguard faces purposeful destruction and willful neglect; deprived of funding, libraries are fighting for their very existence. Burning the Books recounts the history that brought us to this point. Richard Ovenden describes the deliberate destruction of knowledge held in libraries and archives from ancient Alexandria to contemporary Sarajevo, from smashed Assyrian tablets in Iraq to the destroyed immigration documents of the UK Windrush generation. He examines both the motivations for these acts—political, religious, and cultural—and the broader themes that shape this history. He also looks at attempts to prevent and mitigate attacks on knowledge, exploring the efforts of librarians and archivists to preserve information, often risking their own lives in the process. More than simply repositories for knowledge, libraries and archives inspire and inform citizens. In preserving notions of statehood recorded in such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, libraries support the state itself. By preserving records of citizenship and records of the rights of citizens as enshrined in legal documents such as the Magna Carta and the decisions of the US Supreme Court, they support the rule of law. In Burning the Books, Ovenden takes a polemical stance on the social and political importance of the conservation and protection of knowledge, challenging governments in particular, but also society as a whole, to improve public policy and funding for these essential institutions.

Amidst great mystery, Hugh is left in the care of Glastonbury Abbey by his father who must flee England too swiftly to be burdened by a crippled son. Ashamed of his physical weakness, yet possessed of a stout heart, Hugh finds that life at the abbey is surprisingly full in this year 1171, in the turbulent days of King Henry II. Hugh, his friend Dickon and their strange friend, the mad Bleheris, uncover a treasure trove and with it a deeper mystery of the sort that could only occur in Glastonbury where Joseph of Arimithea was said to have lived out his last years. Before all is done, more is resolved than Hugh could ever have hoped. A Newbery Honor winner. Illustrated by Frederick Chapman.

The essays in this volume, some reprinted in their original form and some extensively revised, are concerned with the Arthurian traditions associated with Glastonbury Abbey. Certain of the essays are analytic and others provide editions of hitherto unknown texts. They all examine ways in which legendary materials and historical facts interconnected in the process by which Glastonbury Abbey came to present itself, nationally and internationally, as the custodian of King Arthur's relics and the burial place of Joseph of Arimathea, and the importance, political and ecclesiastical, that it derived from the connection. Professor JAMES CARLEY is the author of Glastonbury Abbey: The Holy House at the Head of the Moors Adventurous and a past editor of Arthurian Literature. Topics: Glastonbury Legends (WATKIN, GRANSDEN), Legend of St Joseph of Glastonbury (LAGORIO), Guinevere at Glastonbury (WOOD), Vera Historia de Morte Arthuri (BARBER, LAPIDGE), Was Mordred buried at Glastonbury? (BARBER), Glastonbury in Welsh Vernacular Tradition (LLOYD-MORGAN), Second Exhumation of Arthur's Remains, 1278 (PARSONS), Abbey Memorial Plate (GOODALL), Arthur's Epitaph/s (CARLEY, BROWN, WRIGHT, WITHRINGTON), Hardyng and Holy Grail (KENNEDY, RIDDY), Henry V and Joseph of Arimathea's Bones, Holy Cross of Waltham at Montacute, Excavation of Arthur's Grave (CARLEY), Perlesvaus (Wells fragment), Quedam Narracio de nobili rege Arthuro, De Origine Gigantum (CARLEY, CRICK, EVANS), Glastonbury tablets (KROCHALIS), Relics in 14th Century (CARLEY, HOWLEY).

Forges innovative connections between monastic archaeology and heritage studies, revealing new perspectives on sacred heritage, identity, medieval healing, magic and memory. This title is available as Open Access.

"Richard Beere, 1493-1524. Began Edgar Chapel; built crypt under Lady Chapel and dedicated it to St Joseph; built a chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at south end of nave; built the Loretto chapel; added vaulting under central tower and flying buttresses at east end of choir; built St Benignus' Church and rebuilt Tribunal. Richard Whiting, 1525-1539. Completed Edgar Chapel."--Wikipedia.

This analytical catalogue of sculpture from the historic counties of Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire provides a new perspective on the artistic achievement of the late Saxon kingdom. The volume includes individual pieces of the highest quality such as the Bradford-on-Avon and Winterbourne Steepleton angels or the newly discovered figures from Congresbury. Most of the monuments were carved at a time when Wessex art was at its zenith in the tenth and eleventh centuries, a formative period for English cultural identity. This volume sets the sculpture within an historical, topographical and art-historical context, highlighting the close links with contemporary styles in manuscripts and metalwork. Full photographic records of each monument present many new illustrations unique to this volume. An indispensable research tool for all those interested in the early medieval world, this volume is also an authoritative aid for local historians.