From the website of the Middle Temple,, “What does a magical forest from the classical world, Arabic script from a 17th century printed book, and a diagram of the earth, sun and moon all have in common?
This exhibition was born out of an idea to showcase some of Middle Temple Library’s lesser-known printed and manuscript codicies that embody the presence of the Arabic and Islamic worlds across Europe between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It tells the story of the emergence of Arabic print culture that flourished in the printing houses of London and Oxford nearly a century after Gutenberg’s revolutionary press. It goes onto explore the interest in the Quran across major European cities during this epoch of wider fascination into Islamic scholarship. And ends by looking at the impact of Islamic astronomy on writers and thinking in England during a period of dramatic growth in scientific and religious understanding of the universe.. click here
