Inspirations: Treasures from the past: a holiday treat

Sydney
9 December 2001

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Inspirations: Treasures from the past: a holiday treat

Inspirations: Treasures from the past: a holiday treat

A Dead Sea Scroll fragment with the Deuteronomy text of the Ten Commandments 250BCE–65CE

Many people are staying in Australia for the Christmas holidays this year. If you are one of them but plan to travel within Australia, the National Library in Canberra might be worth a visit. It is has a number of religious treasures from the world’s libraries on show at the moment, including a Gutenberg Bible and a Dead Sea Scroll. Kathleen Carmody reports

For those who think of libraries as just places to store books, prepare to be surprised. From now until February, visitors to the National Library’s Treasures From the World’s Great Libraries exhibition can expect to see anything from walking sticks to clay tablets to 3000-year-old bones.

The Treasures exhibition is a celebration of both the centenary of Federation and the library’s 100th birthday and features more than 150 items from 39 great libraries around the world.

Many items of religious significance feature in the collection, including a Gutenberg Bible, a Dead Sea scroll, an i llumination of the Annunciation from a 14th century Florentine choir book and gilded copies of Islam’s holy book, the Koran.

“This exhibition is our gift to the nation,” says the curator of Treasures from the World’s Great Libraries, Margaret Dent. “It is wonderful to be able to allow people to see all these priceless objects.”

The Gutenberg Bible is described as one of the most beautiful and influential of all books. About 180 copies were printed in Mainz in 1454-55 on Johannes Guten berg’s newly invented printing press – widely regarded as one of the most significant human technologies. The type was printed mechanically and the illustrations added later by hand.

The Bible in the exhibition, one of only 20 complete copies, is the first to visit Australia. It is in almost perfect condition. The pages on display are the first chapters of two Old Testament books, Judges and Nahum.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest surviving books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, dating from between 250BCE and 65CE. The scroll on display includes the partial text of the Deuteronomy version of the Ten Commandments.

Other exhibits of interest include a rare 3000-year-old oracle bone from China – oracle bones were used as divination tools by the kings of the Shang dynasty (1766–1066 BCE); cuneiform-inscribed clay tablets from the time of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar; Alexander Graham Bell’s early drawings of the the first telephone; JRR Tolkien’s original watercolour illustration for the cover of The Hobbit; pages from the manu script of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, in which he outlines his theory of evolution; Einstein’s famous E=MC² manuscript; and original manuscripts of such works as Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby (as well as his walking stick and folding cutlery set), and Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

“There are so many different reasons for something being a treasure. Some of the things are so amazing that an exhibition could be built around each one of them,” Ms Dent said.

Treasures from the World’s Great Libraries at the National Library, Canberra, from December 7 to February 24. Admission is free. Open every day except Christmas. For further information call the National Library on (02) 6262 1111 or visit the website at www.nla.gov.au/worldtreasures