The Romance Of The Middle Ages

From 09 Mar 2012 to 12 May 2012

Until 13 May. The Bodleian Library highlights how romantic stories from mediaeval times have influenced our culture, art and literature over the last thousand years.

The colourful exhibition reveals how writers and artists across the centuries were inspired by the magic, monsters and knights-in-shining-armour from romantic mediaeval tales, including Shakespeare, Ariosto and Cervantes, through to 18th- and 19th-century artists such as Walter Scott, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris.

More contemporary adaptations are represented by documents by J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, and even Monty Python, whose draft of "The Holy Grail" is on public display for the first time.