Search events by:

If you would like to be added to kept up to date on the Festival program enter your contact details below in the newsletter signup.

If you are interested in contributing an event to the Festival program you can do so here:

Exhibition: Mirror of the World

Daily 10am - 5pm, January - September, 2009

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

This exhibition showcases many of the rare, beautiful and historically significant books held in the Library’s collections. Located in the galleries overlooking the magnificent La Trobe Reading Room, this exhibition celebrates the unique place of books in our hearts and minds.

Included in the exhibition is a first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This work has profoundly influenced nearly every field of modern scientific and philosophical study. At age 22, Charles Darwin joined the HMS Beagle as a naturalist, sailing to the southern Pacific and to South America and Australia between 1831 and 1838. On returning to England, he developed his theory of evolution by natural selection.

When On the Origin of Species first appeared in 1859, all 1250 copies sold out almost overnight. It caused widespread controversy among the scientific and religious communities for its thesis that humans and animals had evolved from a common ancestry.

Admission: Free