In times of austerity, museums look to their own permanent collections to supply material for exhibitions. This poses no problem for the British Library, as this exhibition testifies; an astounding 148 of the 154 manuscripts on display are drawn from the Library’s own collection.

The title refers to the royal ownership of these manuscripts as well as their status in the Royal Collection at the British Library, donated to the nation by George II in 1757. This is the tie that binds this haphazard collection of religious works, historical chronicles, and every kind of handwritten text in between. The show is organised first by owner - Frederick IV, whose manuscripts formed the foundation of the Royal Collection - then chronologically, from Anglo-Saxon rule to the Tudors, and finally thematically, describing the function of these manuscripts to legitimise, bolster, and inform royal authority.

Although the show is peppered with other media, such as tapestries, and, bizarrely, a medieval lion skull, the stars are the manuscripts, laid out in a mind-bogglingly rich array. Thankfully, the curators did not shy away from showing fragile treasures, such as the Cotton Genesis, largely destroyed in a fire, nor those challenging to display, such as Matthew Paris’s map of a pilgrimage route, exhibited in free-standing clear pillars so that all seven folios can be appreciated and admired from both front and back.

Eschewing the usual focus on styles and artists, the exhibition emphasises the reasons for royal patronage of each manuscript, whether as a sign of reciprocal support between monarchs and religious establishments, or, in Henry VIII’s collection, as evidence to help secure a divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

This is a virtuoso exhibition of unprecedented magnitude, and it is unlikely that we will see a show of this quality and scope again anytime soon.

Until Mar 13

RACHEL HAPOIENU