Students and I had a chance to go to the Parker Manuscript Library at Corpus Christi College today, thanks to the other professors, Asa Mittman and Albrecht Classen. Professor Classen showed several manuscripts of English and Irish pilgrimage narratives, including The Travels of Sir John Mandeville and The Voyage of Saint Brendan. We also had a chance to tour the exhibit and the main meeting room. Photography is prohibited there.

In the afternoon, Dr. Mittman took his class over to examine some medieval maps and bestiaries. He knew the librarian well, and explained that this is the best collection of medieval manuscripts in English in the world, in his opinion. I don't doubt it. The Parker Library has also digitized almost its entire manuscript collection, which can be seen at this link: http://parkerweb.stanford.edu/parker/actions/page.do?forward=home. Here's a picture of the Matthew Paris manuscript we saw above from that website. One can't go on using "a once-in-a-lifetime chance" when talking about this experience, but it can be unique for professors as well as students. Certainly it was a unique experience for me to hear an art historian talk about the beauty of these medieval manuscripts and the meanings and symbolism of the maps contained in them.