There's a 4,000-year-old clay tablet on show in Melbourne, and it's one of 400-odd rare treasures you can see for free.
World of the Book returns to State Library Victoria on 4 July with more than 400 rare treasures on display.
Australia’s biggest and longest running rare book exhibition, World of the Book has been a fixture at the library since 2005, pulling in more than 4.5 million visitors to its home on level four of the Dome Galleries.
World of the Book
- World of the Book reopens 4 July at State Library Victoria, 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne
- Located on level four of the Dome Galleries, overlooking the La Trobe Reading Room
- Free entry
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Officially titled World of the Book: The Rare, the Sacred and the Iconic, the show traces the history of book design, production and illustration from ancient times through to the present day.
The 2026 selection runs from a cuneiform tablet close to 4,000 years old through to medieval manuscripts, tiny books, pop-up books, artists books and pulp fiction, plus a set of talismans and amulets and a batch of new acquisitions.
This year’s headline additions are Jane Austen first editions, going on public show for the first time, alongside a tribute to Agatha Christie marking 50 years since her death. The library dubs Christie the highest selling author of all time.
That cuneiform tablet, dated to around 2050 BCE, is the one item to have stayed on view for the exhibition’s entire run, since it isn’t harmed by gallery lighting the way paper and books are.
Almost 5,000 rare books have featured across the run, drawn from the library’s Rare Books and State Collections, and the display is refreshed each year so return visitors keep finding fresh material.
Entry costs nothing, and with more than 400 objects spanning four millennia of the written word, it makes a fair case for a cold afternoon under the dome.
For more information, head here.
