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Believed to date from 1031, the Liber Vitae (the 'Book of Life') of New Minster and Hyde Abbey is a fascinating medieval register documenting the daily life of the monastery and (after 1110) of Hyde Abbey.
It also records the names of the monks who joined the monastery and of visitors and pilgrims visiting the New Minster and Hyde Abbey on their pilgrimage to pay homage to St Swithun in Winchester Cathedral.
The Liber Vitae incorporates a contemporary picture of King Cnut and his second wife, Queen Emma of Normandy, presenting a golden cross to the altar of the New Minster.
Also included in the Liber Vitae is a series of post-visitation injunctions made by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, to the Abbot of Hyde 'For the Better Government of Hyde Abbey', (1386/7). Events described in Abbot Aston's Tales are based on the content of these injunctions.
A replica of the Liber Vitae has been on display at recent Hyde900 events. The original was loaned by the British Library for a 'Treasures of Hyde Abbey' exhibition marking the 900th year since the foundation of the Abbey.
This exhibition reunited some of the treasures of Hyde Abbey for the first time since its dissolution in 1538 - the Liber Monsterii de Hyda (record of Hyde Abbey’s links with the Anglo-Saxon royal family and charters recording their gifts of land), the Liber Vitae, a 13th century Abbot of Hyde's crozier from the Victoria and Albert Museum and a breviary and psalter from the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford were displayed together with finds from excavations in the local area.
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