Chapter 46: Records a touching Act of delicate Feeling not unmixed with Pleasantry, achieved and performed by Messrs. Dodson and Fogg Chapter 21: In which the old Man launches forth into his favourite Theme, and relates a Story about a queer Client Chapter 52: Involving a serious Change in the Weller Family, and the untimely Downfall of Mr. Stiggins

This book is really a series of twelve mini-biographies of people who, through the course of history, have been collectors of manuscripts and who very well may have saved (or at least preserved) many rare manuscripts from destruction. Something that comes across as relatively common is the desire to own a rare item more than owning a specific item due to its significance. What is also common among the people included here is a real joy among the collectors for manuscripts. The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club is a logical sequel to Christopher de Hamel’s Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts (2016), in which he introduced readers to some of the most famous handmade books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In this new book he turns his attention to the important question of how such manuscripts have survived the intervening centuries since they were made. The book examines the lives of 11 men and one woman whose actions have played a major part in shaping the fates of medieval books and determining both what survives and where the manuscripts are to be found today. We also meet Rabbi David Oppenheim (1664-1736), many of whose Hebrew manuscripts are now in Oxford’s Bodleian library. The wider significance of Hebrew texts is understated today – indeed, de Hamel writes that “curators are usually astonished and delighted when a gentile shows an interest” – but he is right to do deference to a manuscript tradition that was long held in parallel esteem to Latin or Greek. Henry VIII founded the Regius Professorial chair of Hebrew at Cambridge in 1540, the same year he founded the Greek chair. The chapter on Rabbi David Oppenheim (1664-1736) is particularly valuable to those of us familiar with Latin manuscripts, but not Hebrew ones, as a reminder of the challenges facing those beginning to work with unfamiliar material, which has been one major reason for the disposal of old manuscripts. In this study de Hamel is accompanied by an expert, Brian Deutsch, who not only translates the Hebrew for him, but gives the reader insights into a different set of values for manuscripts, where old does not necessarily mean valuable and instead originality and rarity of the text are key.In this stunningly beautiful book, Christopher de Hamel constructs an imaginary club of people who adore mediaeval manuscripts; bibliophiles whose obsession he shares. The 12 delightfully eccentric members span eight centuries - de Hamel imagines meeting them, sharing precious discoveries, trading gossip. The illustrations emit a light of their own, but what shines even brighter is the author's boyish enthusiasm for his subject. Times Books of the Year

De Hamel acquired his first antiquarian book at the age of 15 and promptly defaced it with his signatureYou can also still join BIPC events and webinars and access one-to-one support. See what's available at the British Library in St Pancras or online and in person via BIPCs in libraries across London. Chapter 36: The chief Features of which will be found to be an authentic Version of the Legend of Prince Bladud, and a most extraordinary Calamity that befell Mr. Winkle The story of the people who created, saved and collected Europe's most sumptuous manuscripts, it's beautifully illustrated, a rich feast of scarlet and gold. Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Books of the Year