October 23 – November 22, 2024

In 1455 the Genoese cartographer Bartolomeo Pareto completed his magnificent Planisphere, a large nautical chart depicting the coasts of Europe, North Africa and the Near East, centred around the Mediterranean which had always been the heart of trade, exchange and interaction among different populations.

Shortly after, everything would change: the fall of Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire (1453) was followed by the loss of control of the Mediterranean by Catholic forces, the exodus of Byzantine intellectuals to Venice, the consequent recovery of Greek classical authors and scientific notions which had disappeared from most of Europe, and geographic explorations beyond the known borders to open new trade routes to the Indies.

The plate Tuto el dischoperto in carta marina, part of a spectacular manuscript atlas by Antonio Millo datable to 1580-90, exemplifies in images the epochal change of perspective: an oikoumene with immensely expanded borders, rewritten by the exploits of explorers and sailors in the pay of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, forced the Latin world and the ruling classes which had dominated the cultural landscape for centuries to confront themselves with the other and the different, to understand and speak their languages.

Almost simultaneously, the birth and development of the Ars artificialiter scribendi revolutionized the techniques of production and dissemination of knowledge and information, and the printed book, the first real “mass medium” in history, was quickly adapted to the new historical reality and social relationships, testifying immediately of their evolution by the development of a range of non-Latin types for the production of material for global circulation.

CERL’s International Conference 2024, taking place this year in Italy at the National Central Library of Rome, focuses precisely on European printing in non-Latin scripts, in order to investigate the reasons, methods and purposes that were behind this revolution.

To accompany it, the National Library is pleased to provide a small exhibition presenting some rare and valuable works particularly representative of that extraordinary moment of encounter between different cultures and traditions that led, literally, to re-write the world and its languages.

On display nautical charts and manuscripts atlases, illuminated XVth century editions of Ptolomaeus’s works, Greek and Hebrew incunabula, and rare illustrated texts from the rare Chinese prinrted books collection.

Opening Hours:
Monday to Thursday: 10.00-18.00
Friday: 10.00-13.00