Blackburn Museum is a reminder that the town was once rich, thanks to the textile industry. Today it is a shadow of its former self but the museum is still splendid. And its exhibition
The Nature of Gothic was amazing.
Spread across two large exhibition rooms, there were beautiful, old books and manuscripts as well as Pre-Raphaelite paintings. All of this was combined with ceramics and textiles, all inspired by the medieval period. The books were especially fascinating, many having been bequeathed from Robert Edward Hart’s
rare book collection. When he died in 1946 he left his extensive
collection to Blackburn Museum and Cambridge University. This included
six ‘incunables’ - books published before the year 1500.
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| Book of Hours (c1440) |
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| History of Jason (1477), Raoul Lefevre, translated by William Caxton |
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| The Peckover Psalter (c1420-1440) - the letter B is the first letter of Psalm 1, 'Beatus vir, qui non abiit in consilio impiorum' ('Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly') |
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| Al-Qurʾān (c1500), part of Juz 22 ('And whoever devoutly obeys') |
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| Album of Calligraphy (1785) from Lucknow, India - two intertwined verses in Arabic, one red, one black |
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| Elaborate bindings on books from Iran, India and England |
