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Where might you find the world’s oldest printed object, the first illustrated edition of Pride and Prejudice, and one of Sigmund Freud’s personal letters – all in one room – this weekend?
Right here in Melbourne.
The world’s oldest printed object – a 1250-year-old print of Buddhist prayers – at the Melbourne Rare Book Fair. Credit: Joe Armao
Saturday is the final day of the Melbourne Rare Book Fair, which runs for three days at the University of Melbourne’s Wilson Hall. Despite this being the 55th instalment of the event – the largest rare book fair in the southern hemisphere – it remains one of Melbourne’s best-kept literary secrets.
There are some truly special items on display this year, including the Hyakumanto Dharani (One Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers), the world’s oldest printed object, created in 8th century Japan. There’s also a page of the first print run of the Gutenberg Bible, the Western world’s first piece of print.
In addition to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, there are several other precious relics of the British canon. For fans of the Bard, London-based rare book dealer Peter Harrington is showcasing one of Shakespeare’s third folios, which have been beautifully preserved. The folios were the first of Shakespeare’s anthologies, featuring 18 plays that had not been published before.
“Without the folios, we would have no Shakespeare,” Harrington says. “This one is the rarest folio of the four because of the Great Fire [of London].” There are only a few dozen copies of it in private hands around the world today.
A first edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice at Melbourne Rare Book Fair. Credit: Joe Armao
A number of the dealers at the fair this year haven’t showcased their collections in Australia before, or haven’t done so for decades.
Many of them came to Australia for the annual International League of Antiquarian Booksellers’ symposium. An opportunity for leading rare book academics and dealers to discuss the challenges their field is facing in the 21st century, the event has not taken place in Australia before. Its Melbourne debut, on July 30, led to the 2025 Rare Book Fair featuring a particularly impressive line-up.
German autograph dealer Thomas Kotte has brought his collection to Australia for the first time this year. It features some unique items that, despite the fair’s name, aren’t books at all. There’s a cabinet of personal correspondence from Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and artists Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt and Paul Cezanne, as well as psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, among others.
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Like these letters, some of the fair’s true gems aren’t the oldest, most famous or most expensive items – they’re the one-of-a-kind items that feel personal, like momentary glimpses into the authors’ and artists’ lives.
Letters on display include this correspondence from Mahatma Gandhi.Credit: Joe Armao
These include a set of director Alfred Hitchcock’s hand-drawn scene boards, of which there are more than 200 for a single film. There’s also Sylvia Plath’s first independently published poem, which she had made as a greeting card for her family and friends. And an Andy Warhol book with a personal Campbell’s soup can.
For Nick Patrick, owner of Orchard Books and one of the dealers at the fair, it’s those personal touches that make such events so special.
Andy Warhol’s inscription - replete with a Campbell soup can sketch.Credit: Joe Armao
“You can’t help but get drawn into the stories behind the books ... there are two pages of text there, so why is there a four-figure price tag on there? It’s always the story behind the book.”
Melbourne Rare Book Fair is at Wilson Hall, the University of Melbourne, until August 2.
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