Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Illuminated manuscript stained-glass windows

Illuminated manuscript stained-glass windows

1942

High on the northern side of the Mitchell Vestibule are three of the finest stained-glass windows in the building, inspired by the exquisite illuminated manuscripts produced during the Middle Ages. The side windows reference the 8th-century Irish manuscript, the Book of Kells. At the bottom of the windows, in Celtic lettering, are the words ‘In Principio erat verbum’ (In the beginning was the word), the opening line of the Gospel of St John.

The central window reproduces the initial letter ‘B’ from the first Psalm in the Gifford Psalter, an illuminated prayer book written at Clare Priory in Suffolk, England, in 1250. The Psalm begins ‘Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum’ (Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly). The psalter also features the arms of the noble de Clare family and Joan of Arc.

Arthur Benfield of Frank G O’Brien Glass was the artist responsible for the windows. Benefield learned his craft from the Polish-born John Radeki, the creator of the Caxton window in the Mitchell Library Reading Room and one of Australia’s most accomplished stained-glass artists. 

The Manuscript windows in the Mitchell Vestibule were donated by NSW Master Printers and Allied Trades Association, the NSW Amalgamated Printing Trades Union and the Country Press Association.

The original Gifford Psalter is written on vellum, a thick paper made from calf skin.