18 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Export barred on roundel manuscript gifted to Queen Elizabeth I by Archbishop

A rare presentation manuscript that Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker gave to Queen Elizabeth I in 1573 has been sold at auction and is in danger of leaving the country unless a buyer is found to keep it there.

The UK’s Art Minister has imposed a temporary export ban on the rare artifact in the hope that a museum or institution will raise the purchase price in order to keep it in the country.

The manuscript, made of nine circular roundels, was part of a gift from Archbishop Matthew Parker to the Queen in the early 1550s. The roundels were likely folded and integrated into a now-lost gold salt cellar. The use of shell gold around the miniatures is believed to indicate that the manuscript was given with the intention of impressing Elizabeth.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) has said the manuscript has a recommended price of £9,450 (plus VAT of £390 which can be reclaimed by an eligible institution).

The intricate manuscript the Archbishop gave to Queen Elizabeth 1 Photo: DCMS/PA

The manuscript is unusually shaped with three rows of nine roundels connected by thin vellum strips. The motto of the Knights of the Garter (“Honi soit qui mal y pense”) surrounds an oval blue and gold illumination of St. George and the Dragon in the center of the roundel.  A Latin inscription around the edge of the roundel refers to Archbishop Matthew Parker’s gift of agate to Queen Elizabeth I.

A blue profile of Queen Elizabeth is depicted in miniature in the bottom row’s center roundel. The portrait is surrounded by three concentric rings of three Latin proverbs. Only inscriptions are found on the remaining roundels. In French, the top row inscriptions define agate. The rest are Latin texts about agate and its properties. Different calligraphic scripts are used to write the various languages, an elegant touch also seen in other manuscripts given to Elizabeth.

The presentation manuscript accompanied a gift, described by Matthew Parker as “a salt cellar made of gold, into the cover of which was inset a jewel, an agate, containing St George killing the dragon, along with verses in French upon the customary royal insignia; in the curved section or hollow of this was enclosed another agate, incised into which was a true likeness of the Queen on white agate. On the top of its cover, a small golden boat held a rectangular diamond.”

Experts believe the “verses in French” he mentions are the actual manuscript, and that all nine roundels were folded up to form a single 1.5-inch-diameter paper circle. That disc was then inserted into the precious salt cellar’s cover.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. Photo: Wikipedia

The manuscript is an extremely rare surviving artifact directly related to the Tudor monarchs’ practice of packing up the court and traveling across the country with a massive baggage train, crashing at the luxury pads of various nobles and clergy entirely on their dime.

The presentation manuscript fell out of view, after the queen’s passing but reappeared in John Sharp, the Archbishop of York, collection a century later. It stayed in that family for 300 years up until December 7, 2021, when it was sold at auction.

The decision on the manuscript’s export license application will be postponed until December 1, 2022. The second deferral period will begin three months after the option agreement is signed and will last three months. Where appropriate, the minister may also consider offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price via private treaty sale arrangements. Such purchases frequently provide a significant financial benefit to the public institution that wishes to acquire the item.

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson said: “Archbishop Parker is a figure of great historical and theological consequence, and this beautiful manuscript is a significant example of Elizabethan gift exchange.

“I hope a buyer comes forward for this piece so it can be used to learn more about both the Archbishop and Queen Elizabeth I.”

Cover Photo: Portrait commemorating the defeat of the Spanish Armada, depicted in the background. Elizabeth’s hand rests on the globe, symbolising her international power. One of three known versions of the “Armada Portrait”. George Gower

Related Articles

A New Study: The Great Sphinx of Giza may have been blown into shape by the wind

1 November 2023

1 November 2023

The theory, occasionally raised by others, that the Great Sphinx of Giza may have been a lion-shaped natural landform that...

Kurt Tepesi: The Silent Sentinel in the Shadows of Göbeklitepe and Karahan Tepe – Unearthing the Forgotten Sister

31 May 2025

31 May 2025

In the arid plains of southeastern Anatolia, a quiet giant slumbers. While Göbekli Tepe has dazzled archaeologists and the global...

How Knossos Palace Looked in Its Glorious Days

9 May 2021

9 May 2021

Knossos Palace is a famous architectural structure of ancient Knossos, which was the capital of the Minoan Civilization. Archaeologist Arthur...

A 2,000-Year-Old Shoe Discovered in a German Bog

22 June 2021

22 June 2021

Archaeologists discovered a leather shoe that had been lost in a bog for 2,000 years and believe it may have...

Runic Alphabet Symbols in the Tombs Found in the Excavations in Istanbul

23 May 2021

23 May 2021

In the excavations carried out by the Istanbul Archeology Museums in the area where the metro station will be built...

One of the earliest water channels in history dating back 8,200 years was discovered in western Türkiye

27 August 2023

27 August 2023

One of the earliest water channels in history dating back 8,200 years was found during the excavation work carried out...

Archaeologists discover Stargazer idol fragment in Turkey’s In the ancient city of Beçin

15 December 2021

15 December 2021

During archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Beçin in the Milas district of southern Turkey’s Muğla, the head of...

The Stolen Frescoes were Returned to the Pompeii Archaeological Park

20 May 2021

20 May 2021

Six frescoes ripped from the remains of ancient Roman villas years ago have been returned to the Pompeii archaeological site,...

The “food” thousands of years ago may be the ancestor of a Turkish dessert

25 July 2021

25 July 2021

The rock paintings and kitchen materials found in the cave, which were discovered by a shepherd and emerged as a...

World’s Oldest Murder

14 February 2021

14 February 2021

Researchers found a mass grave in a cave in Spain, now known as Sima de los Huesos, or the Pit...

Yale Archaeologist discovered an “arcade” of rock-cut ancient mancala game boards in Kenya

2 February 2024

2 February 2024

Veronica Waweru, a Yale University archaeologist conducting fieldwork in Kenya, discovered an “arcade” of ancient Mancala game boards carved into...

New study investigates the development of the Scandinavian gene pool over the latest 2000 years

5 January 2023

5 January 2023

A new study resolves the complex relations between geography, ancestry, and gene flow in Scandinavia – encompassing the Roman Age,...

Smoke archeology finds evidence Humans visited Nerja Cave for 40,000 Years

26 April 2023

26 April 2023

A new study by a team from the University of Córdoba reveals that Nerja is the European cave with the...

A Connection Between Viking Knots And Quantum Vortices Discovered

14 December 2022

14 December 2022

Scientists demonstrated how three vortices can be linked in such a way that they cannot be dismantled. Although this study...

A unique golden sun bowl was discovered during an archaeological survey in Ebreichsdorf, Austria

3 October 2021

3 October 2021

A golden sun bowl and several hundred bronze objects were discovered during archaeological excavations in a prehistoric settlement in today’s...