Bodleian items added to UNESCO's UK Memory of the World Register

Two world-class items from the Bodleian Library collections have been accepted to the UK Memory of the World Register, an online catalogue created to help promote the UK's documentary heritage across the UK and the world. The 9th-century Cura Pastoralis of Gregory the Great represents the first surviving book written entirely in English. The Gough Map, dated to the 14th century, is the earliest surviving route map of Britain, depicting over six hundred towns and villages. The two items join another eighteen historically important items such as the death warrant of Charles I, the 1689 Bill of Rights and King William's charter to the City of London. King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care (Cura Pastoralis) dates from approximately 890. This earliest English manuscript book is the only surviving book that can be linked to the King; it is his translation from the Latin into Anglo-Saxon of Pope Gregory's work and bears a unique preface about the decline of learning among his people in the form of a letter from the King to Waerferth, Bishop of Worcester