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Rare books and illuminated manuscripts

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A detail of an old handwritten document

Illuminated Psalter, 1330-1350 [manuscript], Detail from (1330), nla.gov.au/nla.obj-182166477

Medieval manuscripts

The Library’s medieval manuscripts comprise more than 6000 individual folios in 250 items and 12 bound volumes, dispersed across several collections.

Information article
Video
on the left is the cover of the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. On the right is a title page with 'Australia. Vol. 1' and an illustration of sheep, a dog, and a man on a horse with a country scene in the background

A version of the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia's cover, alongside a F. B. Schell and F. H. Wellington illustration from Volume 1 of the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1654251

Picturesque Atlas of Australasia

Lavishly illustrated travel books had long been popular in Europe and North America when the same American team that produced Picturesque Canada established the Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company in Wynyard Square, Sydney, on Gadigal Country, in 1885.

Information article
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Close up of page of old, rare Latin book with a stylised letter A in the top left

Clifford family, Latin Chertsey Cartulary, England, c, 1301, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-241375708

Clifford Collection

Over 10,000 volumes and 1500 pamphlets in English, Latin, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with particular strength in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Jesuit Collection

5482 titles published 1564-1965 and written in Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. They cover a wide range of subjects, mostly related to religion, philosophy and the Society of Jesus.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Onions Collection

3099 books & pamphlets, plus modern facsimile editions of medieval manuscripts with a strength in English philology, including English dialects, as well as European poetry, novels, literature, and religion.

Collection guide

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