The Book in the Cathedral: The Last Relic of Thomas Becket. This item is unavailable.The Book in the Cathedral: The Last Relic of Thomas Becket

Medieval manuscript historian and author of the widely acclaimed Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts discovers the most intimate surviving relic of Thomas Beckett.

The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170, is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's Becket. In a brilliant piece of historical detective work, Christopher de Hamel here identifies the Anglo-Saxon Psalter which Becket cherished throughout his time as Archbishop of Canterbury and which he may even have been holding when he was murdered. Beautifully illustrated, this is an exciting rediscovery of one of the most evocative artifacts of medieval England and the only surviving relic from Becket's shrine.

In the course of a long career at Sotheby’s and at Cambridge University, Christopher de Hamel has probably handled more medieval manuscripts than anyone alive and his delight and enthusiasm in them run through all he writes. His many books, translated into numerous languages, include A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts (winner of the Duff Cooper Prize and the Wolfson History Prize), The Book in the Cathedral: The Last Relic of Thomas Becket and The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club. He is a Life Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He lives in London.