The Chester Beatty Library

The Sir Alfred Chester Beatty Library houses an unrivalled collection of Islamic manuscripts and Chinese, Japanese, Indian and other Oriental art. Early papyri including some of the first texts of the Bible and other early Christian manuscripts, western prints and printed books, complete what is one of the richest collections of its kind in the world.

Born in 1895 in New York of Irish, Scottish and English ancestry Chester Beatty was one of the world’s greatest collectors of manuscripts and works of art. Having started with a collection of Chinese snuff bottles (1,600 by the start of the First World...