The British Library

We rescued our not-so-good start to the day with an afternoon at the British Library. This amazing collection of printed treasurers isn't accessible to the general public. You have to have a reader's card, which is only granted to bona fide academic researchers in order to use the collection, and you can only use it in the building. But some of the greatest treasures are on display for the public. The British Library owns a complete Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed with moveable type in 1450 and shown above, but it owns many other treasures as well. We saw the Lindisfarne Gospels, which are around 1200 to 1300 years old. We learned that printed existed in China and Korea about 600 years before it came to the West, and we also learned that an early run of printed books printed over three months was the equivalent of what three copyists could produce in a lifetime. We saw Sir Thomas More's last letter to Henry VIII. We saw original scores by Handel, Purcell, Beethoven and Mozart, and we saw Mozart's wedding contract and learned that he cried at his wedding. Finally, we viewed two of the four existing copies of the Magna Carta and learned about the significance of this foundation document in establishing the idea that no one, not even the king, is above the law. Proving that all this is not entirely lost on the kids, Olivia wanted to spend the rest of the evening making up a list of all the technological advancements that have changed the world.