This evening I took part in a special Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral at which the Cathedral formally took possession of the Bury Psalter, an illuminated manuscript of the Psalms created in the scriptorium of St Edmunds Abbey between 1399 and 1408. The Psalter survived the Reformation and, like several books from the Abbey’s library, found its way into private hands in the town until James Harvey gave it to the Bury School in 1706. Until recently the Psalter belonged to the King Edward VI Grammar School Foundation Trust and was cared for by Suffolk Archives, but an unwelcome consequence of Suffolk Archives’ move to The Hold in Ipswich (and the closure of the Bury St Edmunds Record Office) was that the Psalter, which is the sole book from the medieval monastic library that has never left Bury, would end up being taken away from the town. The Foundation therefore decided to give the Psalter to the Cathedral, whose Treasury provides a secure location for the Psalter to be conserved and displayed to the public. Although the Cathedral has a fine ancient library of early printed books (the former parish library of St James’ Church), it has never been in possession of a manuscript from the Abbey until now, so the Psalter forms a valuable link between the Cathedral and the ancient Abbey whose successor it is.