Lambeth Palace Library

The Cathedral Library holds a number of books which were given in the 1680s by Archbishop William Sancroft as duplicates from Lambeth Palace Library. The Benefactors' Book (f. 108v) has the following record of these and other gifts which Sancroft made to the Library.

Gulielmus Sancroft sacræ Theologiæ Professor, Eccl[es]iæ D. Pauli apud Londin: 
    Decanus dedit.
    Estij Com[m]entaria in Sentent: 2 vol fol.
    Item Scoti Opera 13 vol.
    [in a different hand:] who after when Archbishop of Canterbury gave the 
    Duplicates out of Lambeth Library a considerable number having the Archiepiscopall 
    Arms on the covers for wch He bought other Books for the Lambeth Library according 
    to the vallue at wch these were estimated.
    He gave also two Large Com[m]on Prayer Books in folio rul’d & wch are plac’t 
    before the Dean & Vicedean’s Seat.

The books with the armorial binding stamps are from the libraries of Archbishops John Whitgift, Richard Bancroft and George Abbot. Lists of these books can be found at the following links:

• Books with Archbishop Whitgift’s bindings
• Books with Archbishop Bancroft's bindings
• Books with Archbishop Abbot's bindings

A small number of books have been identified which must also have come from Lambeth Palace Library at the same time but which do not have these armorial binding stamps. Most of these books have shelfmarks made when the Lambeth library was transferred to Cambridge University Library during the Commonwealth period and/or shelfmarks applied when the books returned to Lambeth Palace in the 1660s.