Hotels near John Ritblat Gallery - Treasures of British Library

The John Ritblat Gallery contains a permanent display of over 200 of the British Library's greatest treasures. It includes documents which made and recorded history, sacred texts from the world's religions, masterpieces of illumination, landmarks of printing, great works of literature and music, and major advances in science and map-making. The items on display include: Magna Carta, Lindisfarne Gospels, Sherborne Missal, Barcelona Hagadah, Gutenberg Bible, and the Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci. Manuscripts by some of Britain's most well-known authors are also on display. Notable entries include Jane Austen, George Eliot and Charles Dickens, Shakespeare's 'First Folio', 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground' and Jane Austen's 'History of England'. Also exhibited are manuscript scores by many well-known and much loved composers such as Mozart, Handel, Chopin, Beethoven, and The Beatles. There's also the chance to hear a small selection of audio recordings from the National Sound Archive collections, including Florence Nightingale (1890) and James Joyce reading from 'Ulysses' (1924).