February 2, 2025

The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World at The Morgan Library & Museum, from January 24 through May 25, 2025  

“The Morgan Library & Museum presents The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World from January 24 through May 25, 2025. At the exhibition’s center is the Book of the Marvels of the World, an illustrated guide to the globe filled with oddities, curiosities, and wonders—tales of fantasy and reality intended for the medieval armchair traveler. Bringing together two of the four surviving copies of this rare text—one from the Morgan’s collection, the other from the J. Paul Getty Museum—the exhibition examines medieval conceptions and misconceptions of a global world. 

The related works on display bring to life the world of the Book of Marvels. Together, these objects demonstrate how foreign cultures were imagined in the Middle Ages, and what the assumptions of medieval Europeans can tell us about their own implicit beliefs and biases. The exhibition also features Persian and Ottoman manuscripts that engage the theme from a non-European perspective.” — The Morgan Library & Museum

Master of the Geneva Boccaccio, Thrace and Traponee (Sri Lanka), in the Book of the Marvels of the World, France, Angers, ca. 1460-65, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 124, fols. 31v-32r.
Master of the Geneva Boccaccio, Arabia, in the Book of Marvels of the World, France, Angers, ca. 1460. Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.461, fols. 9v 10r. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1911. Photography by Janny Chiu
Master of the Geneva Boccaccio, Arabia, in the Book of Marvels of the World, France, Angers, ca. 1460. Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.461, fol. 10r (detail). Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1911. Photography by Janny Chiu
Worksop Bestiary. England, Lincoln (?), ca. 1185. Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.81, fols. 51v-52r. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1902. Photography by Janny Chiu
Peter of Eboli (fl. 1196-1220), Baths of Pozzuoli. Southern Italy, ca. 1400. Morgan Library & Museum, MS G.74, fols. 20v-21r. Gift of the Trustees of the William S. Glazier Collection, 1984. Photography by Carmen González Fraile
The People of Chaldea, in John Mandeville, Travels. Germany, 1459. New York Public Library, Spencer MS 37, fols. 86v-87r
Pregnancy Ritual, in Natural History of the Indies. Caribbean or France (?) , ca. 1586. Morgan Library & Museum, MA 3900, fols. 106v 107r. Bequest of Clara S. Peck, 1983

“This exhibition is an opportunity to exhibit and study the Morgan’s copy of the Book of the Marvels of the World—the most complete extant copy—while also examining its perspective on the global medieval world,” said Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “Enriched by other exemplary medieval manuscripts from the Morgan’s collection, the exhibition continues our tradition of sharing the latest medieval scholarship with the public.” 

“From legendary peoples and unusual customs to mythical creatures and other spectacular phenomena, the depictions in this exhibition show how people thought about difference in the Middle Ages. Ultimately, guides like the Book of Marvels tell us much more about the people doing the marveling than about the wondrous things themselves,” said Joshua O’Driscoll, curator of the exhibition. 

The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World is curated by Joshua O’Driscoll, Associate Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.

Title image: Master of the Geneva Boccaccio, Traponee (Sri Lanka), in the Book of the Marvels of the World. France, Angers, ca. 1460-65, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS 124, fol. 32r (detail).

Images courtesy The Morgan Library & Museum.