Europe

A large very ornate illuminated letter 'O'. The letter is drawn in gold (the original is guilded and shiny, the digital copy is matt). Surrounding the letter are columns of blue and pink. Leaves and fronds decorate the top and bottom. Within the middle of the "O" is a figure in a blue and red robe riding a white horse. He has a halo on his head. He is leaning off of his horse to drape his red cloak over a naked man walking alongside his horse. The men are looking at each other.

Early Flemish, German, Italian, Spanish, French woodcuts. /Item PIC/14340/41, ([14--?]), nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2902124787

Illuminating the dark

Topic

As time progressed, the number of people who could read did begin to increase, as some countries began to increase the emphasis on educating their people to basic levels.

Digital Classroom

Hone Collection

Books illustrating the history of printing in Europe and Australia, plus a medieval manuscript, and personal papers of Brian Hone.

Collection guide

Excerpt from John Bartholomew and Son, Gazetteer of the British Isles, 9th ed., 1970, showing alphabetical listing of place names with details of each.

John Bartholomew and Son, Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1970, nla.gov.au/catalog/1374709

Historical gazetteers

Gazetteers are listings of places and can provide useful details, such as territorial division, location, alternate names, population size, and more.

Research guide

Helm Collection

About 7600 music scores and albums, mainly piano and vocal works published in France, Britain, Germany, Austria and Italy in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Collection guide

Hall Collection

Personal papers and about 600 books and pamphlets from 1900-1960 on international relations, political biography, migration and more with a focus on the Commonwealth and United States.

Collection guide

Katherine Parr’s handwriting and signature in a copy of A Sermon of Saint Chrysostom (1542). Image by permission of Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe.

Gorgeous books and royal annotations

We stepped into the private libraries of one of history’s most infamous royal couples and discovered how ink, margins, and manuscript flourishes reveal more than meets the eye.

Event

Video

German colonies in the Pacific

Papers and microfilm of original records relating to the German colonies in the Pacific from 1884-1914, and a selection of other books on this topic.

Collection guide

French plays (1700–1840)

2457 plays published in France between 1701 and 1840. They include tragedies, comedies, historical dramas, vaudevilles, comic operas and operas.

Collection guide

Fainsod Collection

Around 400 Slavic monographs, 700 pamphlets on the economics and politics of Europe from the 1930s-1970s, and miscellaneous Harvard University departmental reports and academic papers.

Collection guide