{"id":38756,"date":"2025-08-02T00:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38756\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T00:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T00:43:08","slug":"see-rare-shakespeare-folios-freud-letters-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38756\/","title":{"rendered":"See rare Shakespeare folios, Freud letters and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where might you find the world\u2019s oldest printed object, the first illustrated edition of Pride and Prejudice, and one of Sigmund Freud\u2019s personal letters \u2013 all in one room \u2013 this weekend?<\/p>\n

Right here in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s oldest printed object \u2013 a 1250-year-old print of Buddhist prayers \u2013 at the Melbourne Rare Book Fair. Credit: Joe Armao<\/p>\n

Saturday is the final day of the Melbourne Rare Book Fair, which runs for three days at the University of Melbourne\u2019s Wilson Hall. Despite this being the 55th instalment of the event \u2013 the largest rare book fair in the southern hemisphere \u2013 it remains one of Melbourne\u2019s best-kept literary secrets.<\/p>\n

There are some truly special items on display this year, including the Hyakumanto Dharani (One Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers), the world\u2019s oldest printed object, created in 8th century Japan. There\u2019s also a page of the first print run of the Gutenberg Bible, the Western world\u2019s first piece of print.<\/p>\n

In addition to Jane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice, there are several other precious relics of the British canon. For fans of the Bard, London-based rare book dealer Peter Harrington is showcasing one of Shakespeare\u2019s third folios, which have been beautifully preserved. The folios were the first of Shakespeare\u2019s anthologies, featuring 18 plays that had not been published before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the folios, we would have no Shakespeare,\u201d Harrington says. \u201cThis one is the rarest folio of the four because of the Great Fire [of London].\u201d There are only a few dozen copies of it in private hands around the world today.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A first edition of Jane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice at Melbourne Rare Book Fair. Credit: Joe Armao<\/p>\n

A number of the dealers at the fair this year haven\u2019t showcased their collections in Australia before, or haven\u2019t done so for decades.<\/p>\n

Many of them came to Australia for the annual International League of Antiquarian Booksellers\u2019 symposium. An opportunity for leading rare book academics and dealers to discuss the challenges their field is facing in the 21st century, the event has not taken place in Australia before. Its Melbourne debut, on July 30, led to the 2025 Rare Book Fair featuring a particularly impressive line-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where might you find the world\u2019s oldest printed object, the first illustrated edition of Pride and Prejudice, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-38756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}