An exhibit of facsimiles from the Hillyer Art Library collection on view in the Hillyer Art Library, Fall 2013.

Hillyer Art Library’s collection includes over 200 facsimiles of manuscripts produced in Europe, Asia, and the Americas from the early Middle Ages through the twentieth century. Many are painstakingly crafted replicas of one-of-a-kind originals housed in national libraries and museums around the world.

These facsimiles are superior specimens of printing and binding technology and are generally issued in editions of 1,000 or fewer copies. Facsimiles are an integral part of the teaching of art history and other disciplines at Smith.

The examples currently on display in the Hillyer Art Library exhibit case have been used in courses such as “Image, Text, and Narrative in Islamic Art,” “Dante: Divina Commedia,” “Making Sense of the Pre-Columbian,” and “Studies in Medieval Art: Monsters and Marvels.”

Among the works in “Illuminating the World” are: Melchior Lorichs’ Panorama of Istanbul, Marco Polo’s Das Buch der Wunder, Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus, and La Divina commedia di Alfonso d’Aragona re di Napoli, along with several others.

When not on display, facsimiles reside in the art library’s locked stacks, and can be paged by staff for viewing within the library.

Contact

hillinfo@smith.edu
(413) 585-2940