University of Manchester Library Mr Simpson had previously been Acting Deputy Librarian of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester until 1985 and subsequently university librarian of the Universities of London and Surrey. Mr Simpson remained until his retirement in December 2007. During the period 2004-07 a major refurbishment of the historic John Rylands Library in the centre of Manchester, together with the construction of new visitor centre, was completed, whilst the Library as a whole merged with the libraries of UMIST and the Manchester Business School to create The John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester. Following Mr Simpson's retirement in 2007, Jan
John Rylands Library known of the early history of this copy of the Gutenberg Bible before it was acquired by the 2nd Earl Spencer. The library houses papyrus fragments known as the Rylands Papyri and documents from North Africa. The most notable are the "St John Fragment", believed to be the oldest extant New Testament text, Rylands Library Papyrus P52, the earliest fragment of the text of the canonical Gospel of John; the earliest fragment of the Septuagint, Papyrus Rylands 458; and Papyrus Rylands 463, a manuscript fragment of the apocryphal Gospel of Mary. Minuscule 702, ε2010 (von Soden), is a Greek minuscule