Author(s): National Library of Australia

Art and Design

In an era when the practice, indeed the art, of writing by hand is fast giving way to the keyboard, it is timely to pause and to consider the volume of words penned on paper over time. Handwritten: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Treasures traces the lives and thoughts, problems and solutions, inspirations and creative endeavours of some of the worlds greatest thinkers, innovators and artists. From a late ninth-century fragment of Virgils epic poem the Aeneid to a beautifully decorated manuscript of Dante Alighieris The Divine Comedy, from Galileos letter to a colleague and former pupil to Florence Nightingales practical advice for an English politician, this publication captures memorable moments spanning the medieval era to today.