Anne James visits a display of world-changing artistic works

This exhibition, drawn from the truly fabulous collections the Bodleian holds, has been perfectly orchestrated to celebrate the opening of the Weston Library in Broad Street.

Formerly the New Bodleian, an iconic Giles Gilbert Scott Grade II listed building, it has been dramatically and sympathetically enhanced.

It provides state-of-the-art research facilities for scholars and a space for a many books and artefacts. The building has been opened up by removing an 11-storey central stack to create the imposing Blackwell Hall, off which there are two dedicated exhibition spaces: ST Lee and The Treasury.

The exhibition has been beautifully, subtly and expertly curated by Stephen Hebron. He is pictured here with a copy of Hans Holbein’s 1523 portrait of Desiderius Erasmus, in which one can see part of Erasmus’s own library in the background.

Erasmus was famed for his use of the printing press to make books and the knowledge within them available to the widest of audiences. It is a suitable metaphor for what Hebron has done in this exhibition: making extraordinary and illuminating pieces, 130 in all, available to all.

A smaller version of this exhibition was shown last year, in New York, eliciting a description in the New York Times as “the history of the awesome in one room.”

So where does one start when attempting to describe and summarise the awesome? Hebron admits he struggled with how to categorise and present such a wide range of material coherently?

His elegant solution was to create 10 sections, each exploring an aspect of genius, and, in doing so, showing the creative impact the work has had in terms of what they have made and the effects on others.

One section of the exhibition asks “What is genius?” This section includes a copy of Magna Carta. This extraordinary document, signed by King John, is classified as genius because it sets down the principles and rules for the administration of English justice and continues to shape our laws today. It has also shaped the way nations across the world have developed their own governance.

The section “Written in their own Hands” – a quotation from Erasmus – celebrates the way the personality and mark of the maker translates to the page. As in the school notebook in which Franz Kafka wrote his Das Urteil (The Judgement), and in an unpublished piece by a teenage Jane Austen, along with an autographed piece by Philip Larkin, his signature adding a sense of purpose and a touch of magic to the paper.

The Flora Graeca (The Flora of Greece) lies open at the page on which the flower, leaves and component parts of Arum Discoridis are reproduced in exquisite detail and matched by an illustration of another Arum – Dracunculus – in a neighbouring tome.

Both date from the late 18th century and were commissioned by the Sheridan Professor of Botany, to be records of his field trips.

Marks of musical genius are represented, too. An original Mozart score, in his own neat hand, and the clearer and firmer hand of Handel on his original score for The Messiah. Rather more romantic in execution is Mendelssohn’s 1845 score for his Schilflied (Reed Song), where the score is combined with his own painting of a tranquil lake and magnificent trees, illuminated by a full moon.

Oxford Mail:

By the early 18th century, the Bodleian had more than 15,000 Arabic manuscripts.

Illustrated here is a page from Ibn al Muqaffa’s Kalilah and Dimnah, itself a translation of an Indian legend based on the adventures and peregrinations of two jackals. It is probably Syrian and 14th century.

It was, we are told, intended to provide improving reading: so as to “delight the hearts of princes, increase their pleasure and also the degree of care they bestow to their work.” The book lies open at the page where a delightful illustration shows an elephant firmly positioned in a pool of water, seemingly preparing to take on a combative coney which is sited on considerably higher ground.

The exhibition and the space it inhabits were conceived in the spirit of Erasmus’s desire to make knowledge, learning and genius widely shared.

In this it succeeds beautifully, providing the wider public with the opportunity to explore, enjoy and marvel at this skilful tapestry of collective genius, gain insight into the wisdom of those who built up the collections and the skills and inspiration of many makers’ hands.

Marks of Genius: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Bodleian Library
Runs until September 20, open daily
Weston Library, Broad Street
Visit bodleian.ox.ac.uk