Manchester Engels while living and working in Manchester. Manchester was the meeting place of Engels and Karl Marx. The two began writing "The Communist Manifesto" in Chetham's Library. The library was founded in 1653 and lays claim to being the oldest public library in the English-speaking world. Elsewhere in the city, the John Rylands Library holds an extensive collection of early printing. The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, believed to be the earliest extant New Testament text, is on permanent display in the library. Charles Dickens is reputed to have set his novel "Hard Times" in the city, and while it is
Rylands Papyri the Rylands Papyrus iii.458) respectively; Papyrus 31, a fragment of a papyrus manuscript of the "Epistle to the Romans"; and Papyrus 32, a fragment of the "Epistle to Titus." Also held in the collection is Papyrus Rylands 463, a copy of the apocryphal "Gospel of Mary" in Greek, and John Rylands Papyrus 470, a prayer in Koine Greek to the Theotokos, written about 250 CE in brown ink, the earliest known copy of such a prayer. It was acquired by the Library in 1917. Rylands Papyri The Rylands Papyri are a collection of thousands of papyrus fragments and documents from