Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Letter to Guiliano de Medici, 1516

Letter to Guiliano de Medici, 1516

Manuscript on vellum

Long-term loan from the Bruce and Joy Reid Foundation 


The earliest depiction of the Southern Cross is found on the first page of a manuscript documenting a Portuguese voyage in 1515 down the African coast, around the Cape of Good Hope, then into the Southern and Indian oceans.

After rounding the Cape, Andrea Corsali observed the curious behaviour of an unrecorded group of stars (the Southern Cross). Corsali described these stars as a ‘marveylous crosse in the myddest of fyve notable stars … This crosse is so fayre and bewtiful, that none other hevenly sign may be compared to it.’

This contemporary copy was prepared for Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice, in 1523.

Long-term loan from the Bruce and Joy Reid Foundation

The Southern Cross sculpture was inspired by the Lettera di Andrea Corsali and installed in the Mitchell Vestibule in 2003. 

The Southern Cross Sculpture was designed by Sydney-based artist Jon Hawley and is made from cobalt blue glass, stainless steel, clear perspex and fibre optic lights. The sculpture weights 100 kilograms.