Commentaries of Heaven is Thomas Traherne's most ambitious work, which if completed would have comprised several folio volumes. The full title indicates Traherne's purpose, to open ‘the Mysteries of Felicitie’ by revealing ‘All Things’ to be ‘Objects of Happiness’ and to exhibit ‘the Transcendent Verities of the Holy Scriptures, and the Highest Objects of the Christian Faith’, his organizing principle, ‘Alphabeticaly Represented’ and his intended audience, Atheists, for their satisfaction, Christians, for their consolation and Divines, for their encouragement. The comprehensive scope of the work is indicated by the numerous cross-references throughout the manuscript, extending from the beginning with ‘Abhorrence’ to the end of the alphabet with ‘Zeal’.

This remarkable work, like other Traherne manuscripts, had a dramatic discovery in the mid-twentieth century. Found smouldering on a rubbish tip just outside Liverpool about 1967, it was rescued by Mr Laurence Wookey. Although parts of the front and back boards were damaged by fire, the contents were unharmed. Thinking it might be valuable, Mr Wookey brushed it off and kept it. Unsuccessful in learning its identity in England, he took it with him when he migrated to Canada, where it was identified as the work of Thomas Traherne by Elliot Rose with the help of Allan Pritchard at the University of Toronto in 1981/82. Mr Wookey put the manuscript up for auction through Christie's in New York, where the British Library bought it in 1984 for £78,014 (approximately $110,000).

Physical description of the manuscript

The manuscript is a folio measuring approximately 320 mm long x 206 mm wide x 67 mm deep (approximately 12½ x 8¼ x 2¾ inches). Both the front and back boards are seventeenth-century calf, burned and scarred with worming on the front board; the spine is nineteenthcentury calf, tucked under the contemporary calf covering of the boards up to approximately 21 mm. Both the front and back boards are tooled with two pairs of lines, with approximately two millimeters between the two lines. Separated by approximately 25 mm, they run vertically along the spine. Damage from burning has obscured most of the tooling on the boards. The spine is tooled with three horizontal lines on each side of the five raised cords and with three lines at the top and two sets of three lines at the bottom.