The library that sources this humbling (and rotating) exhibition of original texts—from cuneiform tablets, papyrus scrolls, and parchment to a first edition of Ulysses—maps the development of history by tracking human thought. Dramatic displays of bas-reliefs and dimly lighted Egyptian books of the dead give way to handwritten Gospels according to Matthew and John; a perfectly preserved Gutenberg Bible; Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses; Dante's Divine Comedy; Shakespeare's complete works (published 1623); first editions of Paradise Lost, Don Quixote, Oliver Twist, and the Communist Manifesto; a handwritten score by Mozart; Homer's Iliad; Copernicus's Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs; and Alice in Wonderland. A comprehensive printed guide is available in English; the hilltop views are superb.
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