Rare books and illuminated manuscripts | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Rare books and illuminated manuscripts

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An illustration depicting a traditional Confucian story of filial piety.

A portion of the page featuring an illustration of a traditional Confucian story of filial piety from Oryun Haengsil, Volume 1, Image 163, 
nla.obj-3925957800

Hallyu and the Oryun Haengsil

Learn more about the Library's exhibitions loan program, as Oryun Haengsil goes on display at Hallyu! The Korean Wave at the National Museum of Australia.

Blog
A colourful illustration of an open book with rainbow edged pages

Aaron Miller, Jodah's Codex, 2022

Wizardly tomes, mysterious manuscripts and cursed volumes

Explore 'Pop Bibliography', the representation of rare and historic books across popular culture with special collections curator Allie Alvis.

Event
An old, yellow handwritten document

The 1297 inspeximus issue of the Magna Carta owned by the Australian nation. Courtesy of the Australian Department of Parliamentary Services.

Conservation of the Australian copy of the Magna Carta

ArtsNational Canberra and Libby Melzer present a lecture examining the 1297 inspeximus issue of the Magna Carta in the collection of the Parliament of Australia.

Event
Collection guide
Italian Drama Collection

1,011 plays and libretti published in Italy between about 1,720 and 1,900 including a number of Italian translations of plays written by French, German and other European dramatists.

Collection guide
Title page of a landscape oriented printed book: ornate engraving featuring musical performers. Scene is framed by theatre curtains.

James Hook, Guida di Musica: Being a Complete Book of Instructions for Beginners on the Harpsichord or Piano Forte, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn8650184

Kassler Collection

Books on music and printed music published in Britain from the mid-17th century to the 20th century.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Fitzhardinge Collection

About 300 books including incunabula and early editions of classical texts, plus limited edition reprints of celebrated English writers, mostly published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Collection guide
Collection guide
De Vesci Collection

Country house library collection of 1648 books and 54 serials with strength in English and French publications of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Collection guide
Shelf and table with dozens of old, leather-bound books, some with gold designs or writing on the spines

Rare Books in the collection. 

Using the Rare Books collection

Records for much of the Rare Books Collection are in our catalogue, but if you do not find the item you are looking for, please ask for help: the item may not yet be catalogued, or an alternative version may be available

Information article
Collection guide
Petherick Collection

About 15,000 books and pamphlets. The great strength of the collection is in Pacific voyages and early Australiana with many very rare items. Also manuscripts including papers of Joseph Banks, maps and pictures.

Collection guide
First Australians
Collection guide
Pickering Collection

About 440 books published by William Pickering between 1820 and 1854 including reprints of classics and 17th-century Anglican religious works, plus contemporary writers of his time.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Valente Collection

Around 6,000 books, mostly in Portuguese, mostly relating to literature, history and religion among many other topics.

Collection guide
Katherine Parr’s handwriting and signature in a copy of A Sermon of Saint Chrysostom

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

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