Curators' Choice
Interviews with British Library curators, and other experts, who talk in depth about highlight items from the Sacred exhibition
• Susan Whitfield on the Diamond Sutra
The Diamond Sutra of 868, discovered in a cave in Dunhuang, China, is a priceless illustrated record of early Buddhist teaching. It is the oldest dated printed book in the world: for early Buddhists, every copy produced of a sacred text meant more good karma. Susan Whitfield of the Dunhuang Project talks about this fantastic artefact
Audio and transcript
• Scot McKendrick on Codex Sinaiticus
The world's 'oldest complete Bible' is more than 'merely' a priceless third-century text. It is also, as the British Library's Head of Western Manuscripts Scot McKendrick explains, a record of how the Biblical text evolved over centuries, as well as a book of unique emotional and spiritual significance to many people
Audio and transcript
• Alison Ohta on Sultan Baybars' Qur'an
An awe-inspiring Qur'an written entirely in gold, illustrated by a eunuch, and commissioned by a Sultan who ruled for just a year before being executed... Royal Asiatic Society curator Alison Ohta tells the extraordinary history behind an extraordinary sacred text
Audio and transcript
• William Dalrymple on Bahadur Shah Zafar
The wedding certificate of Bahadur Shah II is one of our most intriguing sacred texts. The last of the Mughal kings, deemed a fine poet but a political failure, he died in obscurity and despair. But as his recent biographer William Dalrymple explains, his reputation is due for reappraisal
Audio and transcript
• Vrej Nersessian on the Awag Vank' Gospels
Some texts are even more than the relationship between the mortal and the divine. This one chronicles a nation too – Armenia, the world's first Christian country – in a unique script virtually unchanged since its invention 1600 years ago. British Library curator Dr Vrej Nersessian explains
Audio and transcript
• Moira Goff on the Tyndale New Testament
Moira Goff, head of British Collections 1501-1800, has a great affection for the pocket-sized printed book that caused decades of controversy and intrigue, and she reveals its links with Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Shakespeare and Handel
Audio and transcript
• Juan Garcés on Codex Sinaiticus
Dr Juan Garcés, Curator for the Codex Sinaiticus Project
at the British Library, talks about the curious past and exciting future of this remarkable manuscript: one of the oldest two complete Bibles in existence, possibly commissioned by Constantine in the fifth century as a 'master copy' for all Bibles
Audio and transcript
