Manuscripts from the Middle Ages on show at Victoria's State Library
Discover the luminous beauty of medieval and Renaissance manuscript “books” from Byzantium, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain at the State Library of Victoria.
The largest exhibition of Medieval art ever staged in Australia, The Medieval Imagination is a free exhibition featuring illuminated treasures from the collections of Cambridge University and Australian and New Zealand libraries and museums.
The first of its kind in Australia, the collection comprises 90 manuscripts including religious texts as well as works on music, law, history, science and literature and provides a fascinating insight into the life and culture of the 8th to the 16th centuries.
The exhibition celebrates the art of hand-written books or manuscripts with script that is enhanced with intricate embellishments and illustrated with beautiful miniatures. Although the manuscripts are centuries old, their colours remain remarkably fresh and brilliant and many are adorned with gold leaf and precious gems.
Among the rare works on display is an 8th-century Northumbrian Gospel Book on loan from Corpus Christi College Cambridge. The book was considered for many years to be a holy relic brought to England by St Augustine in the first Christian mission to England from Rome. Pages were cut from it and given to persons of significance in the church, such as Cardinal Worsley during the reign of Henry VIII. It was later discovered not to be St Augustine's book but one produced in Ireland in Christian settlements established well before St Augustine's mission.
A treatise on music by Boethius, illuminated in the 12th century and once belonging to the medieval library of Christ Church, Canterbury, is being lent by the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. Loans from the Auckland City Libraries include a richly illuminated Breviary from Renaissance Perugia.
This landmark exhibition is curated by Professor Emeritus Margaret Manion AO, Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, who has specialised for many years in teaching and research relating to the illuminated manuscript
A lavishly illustrated catalogue, with contributions by scholars from England, Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand, will be available for purchase, and the exhibition will be complemented by a program of talks, tours and activities at the State Library of Victoria.
Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Australians to see these exquisite works wich will be quite unlike any exhibition staged in our country before.
For further information visit www.slv.vic.gov.au
Media contact: Matthew van Hasselt, Marketing and Public Affairs, State Library of Victoria, on 038664 7263 or email mvanhasselt@slv.vic.gov.au