In Pursuit of Knowledge: Six Hundred Years of Leipzig University, 1409-2009

Sep 10, 2009 10:00 AM - Nov 21, 2009 5:00 PM | New York, NY

Portrait of Homer
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(© Leipzig University Library)

The Grolier Club welcomes the exhibition "In Pursuit of Knowledge", organized by Leipzig University Library to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Leipzig University. The exhibition is also promoted by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.


Few exhibitions in the Club’s history have featured books of such interest and splendor as those from the collections of the Leipzig University Library. Chief among the treasures on display are two leaves from the oldest complete Bible manuscript in existence, the Codex Sinaiticus (ca. 350), the Mongolian Koran (1306), and the Machsor Lipsiae (1320), one of the most beautiful examples of medieval bookmaking.

These incomparable icons of three great “peoples of the book” represent only a sampling of the riches of Leipzig University Library.

Other significant objects on display are:

  • A section of the /Ebers Papyrus/, the largest surviving medicalm manuscript from antiquity, written in the 16th century BC.
  • A papyrus fragment from a 2nd-century scroll listing Egyptian kings and containing the oldest known calendar of world events
  • The earliest-known medieval portrait of Homer (pictured).
  • The description of the prefecture of Hangzhou in East China. Printed in 1579 in Leipzig, it is the only complete copy in existence outside of The People's Republic of China, and Taiwan. 
  • A southern Italian landscape fantasy, with a sphinx on the path leading to a seaside villa, from a sketchbook used by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) on his journey to Naples and Sicily in 1787. The pencil drawing came to the University Library as part of the Goethe collection of the Leipzig publisher Salomon Hirzel (1804–1877).

The exhibition is a record of scholarly accomplishment supported by a great library, a library which has grown over the centuries not least through the care of professors and generous donors. Scholars have used the Leipzig University Library ever since its foundation in 1543, as well as contributed to enrich its holdings. Today these collections document a venerable culture of reading, writing, commentary and explanation, epitomized by the objects in this exhibition.

An illustrated catalog in English of the exhibition will be available onsite. The exhibition website contains images and videos, as well as a calendar of events.

Exhibition Website

Location and times:

"In Pursuit of Knowledge" will be on view at the Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, NY 10022 from Sept. 10 – Nov. 21, 2009, except for Oct. 17, when the Club will be closed. 
Hours: Monday - Saturday 10 AM – 5 PM.
Open to the public free of charge.

Free public events:

Lunch Hour Exhibition Tours:
Curator Dr. Ulrich Johannes Schneider will conduct free public tours of the exhibition on each of the following days, noon to 1 PM:
Thursday, September 10
Saturday, September 12
Monday, September 14
Wednesday, September 16
Tuesday, September 29
Thursday, October 1

September 15. Grolier Club Meeting, 6 PM.
Curator Dr. Ulrich Johannes Schneider will speak about the exhibition. Please contact the Grolier Club to make a reservation (Tel. (212) 838-6690).

September 16. Lecture, 6 PM 
Pamela H. Smith (Columbia University) on “Why Write a Book? From Lived Experience to the Written Word in Early Modern Europe.” Offered in connection with the exhibition. Jointly organized by the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC, the Grolier Club, New York, and the Leipzig Univ

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