The Staatsbibliothek in Berlin is mounting an exhibition entitled "Exotische Typen: Buchdruck im Orient - Orient im Buchdruck" (Exotic types: book printing in the [Middle] East - the [Middle] East in printed books). It will open on 7 April and continue until 10 June 2006.
The exhibits are drawn from the valuable early and rare printed books from the period 1480-1915 held by the Staatsbibliothek. Among the notable items are
* Hebrew Bible of 1494, with annotations by Martin Luther
* Magnificent Armenian lectionary of 1686
* Ottoman world atlas of 1803
* Fine Middle Eastern bindings
* Breydenbach's Peregrinatio of 1486, the first printed book to contain Arabic & other Middle Eastern scripts
* Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499, the first printed book to contain Arabic words
* Three Qur'an translations from the 16th & 17th centuries
* Ruthger Spey's edition of the Arabic version of the Epistle to the Galatians, printed from woodblocks, Heidelberg 1583
* Thurneysser's "Magna Alchymia", Berlin 1583
* Pagano's grand panorama of the city of Cairo, Venice 1549
The curator is Meliné Pehlivanian, who contributed to the Gutenberg-Museum exhibition in Mainz in 2002.
Further information can be found at
http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/deutsch/ausstellungen/exotische_typen/
Geoffrey Roper
London
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