All Conquering Death

The Dance of Death. Woodcut by Michael Wolgemut, from Hartmann Schedel's Liber Chronicarum, 1493.

This exhibition marks the 800th anniversary of one of the Library's most unusual treasures: the mortuary roll of Amphelisa, Prioress of Lillechurch. The mortuary roll will be on display in the Library exhibition area weekdays 9am - 5pm until Easter. It forms the centrepiece of an exhibition exploring the commemoration of death in medieval and early modern times. Come and find out more about mortuary rolls and how the Library acquired such a rare manuscript. See how death was depicted in other medieval manuscripts in the collection and what our early printed books can reveal about attitudes to death in the centuries before and immediately after the Reformation.