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.

O O O for O’Brien


The Sydney glass merchant Frank G O’Brien commenced operation in 1924 and Arthur G Benfield became the director of the Stained Glass Department. The State Library’s stained-glass windows were one of O’Brien’s most important commissions. These include the Manuscript windows in the vestibule, the Chaucer window and the Sydney Gazette window in the Mitchell Reading Room, and the Seven Ages of Man series in the Shakespeare Room depicting scenes from Shakespeare's play As You Like It. O’Brien Glass still operates today, with the well-known television jingle ‘O O O for O’Brien’ etched into the memory of many Australians.