Heritage et AL

The ceremonies and religious customs of the various nations of the known world was the first book to compare the world’s religions in a way that encouraged tolerance and has recently been called ' The book that changed Europe'. Listen to Sue Berman and Andrew Henry discuss the book on our Real Gold podcast . The ceremonies and religious customs was illustrated by Bernard Picart and written and published in Amsterdam by Jean Frederic Bernard between 1723 and 1737. Better known as Picart’s Ceremonies it is a beautifully illustrated seven volume work with over 260 plates of engravings by Picart who was one of the most famous engravers and book-illustrators of the time. Much of the text that accompanies these images was written by Jean Frederic Bernard, a successful book publisher, although his name never appeared on any of the editions. What made this such a revolutionary work was that Bernard & Picart try to present as positive a version of other beliefs to th...

Shakespeare’s prolific contemporary Michael Drayton (1563-1631) was a poet who habitually thought on a grand scale, his taste running to epics and long, linked sequences rather than individual lyrics. He often drew his inspiration from British history and geography. He wrote at length about the battle of Agincourt, the Wars of the Roses and Edward II’s favourite Piers Gaveston. His most ambitious project, however, was Poly-Olbion , which in the mellifluous phrasing of the subtitle offers a ‘description of tracts, rivers, mountains, forests and other parts of this renowned Isle of Great Britain, with intermixture of the most remarkable stories, antiquities, wonders, rarities, pleasures and commodities of the same’. Written in rhymed couplets and stretching to more than 15,000 lines of iambic hexameter, it took many years to compose. The first part was published in 1613 and the second did not appear until 1622. Drayton intended a third instalment, dedicated to the wonders of Scotlan...

All the recent publicity for Anjalee, Auckland Zoo’s newest elephant , has inspired a series of posts about elephants. Heritage & Research team members here at Auckland Libraries have taken this opportunity to explore some elephant related items in our collections, as well as some other famous Auckland elephants. Today we are featuring elephant images from rare books held in Sir George Grey Special Collections . These first two colour plates are from the most recent publication we’ve selected, The Arabian nights: tales from the Thousand and one nights / illustrated by E.J. Detmold . Both plates illustrate the story of Sinbad the sailor. In this version of the story Sinbad is pictured riding on the back of an elephant during his seventh voyage. Ref: The Arabian nights, p. 80, E.J. Detmold, 1924, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, IL:1924 DETM.