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The Book in the Cathedral
  • Published: 21 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9780141994246
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 64
  • RRP: $30.00

The Book in the Cathedral

The Last Relic of Thomas Becket

Formats & editions
Paperback
21 July 2026
EBook
6 Aug 2020
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The best-selling historian of medieval manuscripts discovers the most intimate surviving relic of Thomas Becket.

The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 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 only surviving relic from Becket's shrine: the Anglo-Saxon Psalter which he cherished throughout his time as Archbishop of Canterbury, and which he may even have been holding when he was murdered.

This is an exciting rediscovery of one of the most evocative artefacts of medieval England.
  • Published: 21 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9780141994246
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 64
  • RRP: $30.00
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About the author

Christopher de Hamel

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.
portrait photo of Christopher de Hamel

Also by Christopher de Hamel

The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
The Migrants
See all