Italy's Three Crowns

[tree_and_leaf]

I encourage anyone who happens to be in Oxford to go and visit the free exhibition on Dante, Petrach and Boccaccio which is on at the Bod until October 31st. It's a typical Bodleian exhibition, in that it amounts to 'Some interesting stuff in Oxford on X'; but there are some very interesting manuscripts, early printed books and paintings (mostly DG Rossetti, most notably 'Dante drawing an angel' as Lizzie Sidal Gemma looks on). Among the books, I was particularly interested in the very early illustrated Dante (1350), open at the page showing Dante and Vergil entering Purgatory, and Dante being tattooed with the sharp end of a sword, and the first terrace - rather lovely, and high quality drawing, the early editions of Dante, showing the increasing respect with which the poem was treated; Petrarch's Suetonius and Ambrose, with his marginalia; some striking illustrated manuscripts of the Decameron; the 'after Vasari' of the six Florentine poets on loan from Oriel SCR, and the lock of Percy and Mary Shelley's hair (groping rather desperately for exhibits, there...)

Comments

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Oooh! ::writes down:: I'll have to take a look when I get back.

[tree_and_leaf]

It's definitely worth it. If nothing else, it's a good place to take a Bod break in....

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I was in Oxford last week for the first time in years, and I missed this... I did manage to spend many hours in the Pitt Rivers but it poured with rain when I tried to walk to Norham Gardens...

[tree_and_leaf]

Shame. Thse exhibitions are never very well publicised - I keep forgetting them, and I'm in and out of the Bod quite a lot.

You can have hours of innocent amusement at the Natural History Museum/ Pitt rivers, though.