Wednesday, July 23, 2008

NOTICES OF EXHIBITIONS FROM IBookcollector newsletter # 122

Dante and Romanticism:

The Library is currently hosting an exhibition of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century views and versions of Dante's Commedia (The Divine Comedy) in the RBL foyer. The exhibition will close on 25 July so there are only a few days left to visit. The exhibits have been loaned by the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, and include copies of the earliest complete published translations of the Commedia into English. Engravings of illustrations for the poem by John Flaxman from the Library's Special Collection are also on display alongside engravings by William Blake. With its striking visions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, the Commedia embodies medieval notions of religion, and combines them with Dante's knowledge of philosophy, history and science, as well as his experience of Florentine politics. The Library has an extensive collection of Dante's texts in Italian and English translation, as well as secondary literature covering his life and works, including several publications by York's Nick Havely, the organizer of the conference. This collection is located on the second floor.
Princeton University: Cotsen Library
Leo Politi’s Los Angeles: A Celebration of the Centenary of His Birth”Leo Politi (1908-1996) is best known as the author/illustrator of Pedro: The Angel of Olvera Street, which showed how Los Angeles’ Mexican population celebrated posada in anticipation of Christmas.

During his career Politi also produced a number of other picture books about children who were members of other ethnic minorities in the Los Angeles. These books, which are so often contain inscriptions personalized with Politi’s flamboyant watercolors, comprise a portrait of a dynamic region that has long been home to a highly diverse population.
Exhibition runs - August 21, 2008 to Januray 23, 2009.

For more about the wonderful Cotsen Children's Library link here.

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