The curse of the "Great Omar"

Around 1909, bookbinder Francis Sangorski decided to produce the greatest binding of all time: a jeweled edition of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám with illustrations by Elihu Vedder. The magnificent book was created and contained almost 1,200 jewels, but the book and its binder seemed doomed from the beginning. Hear the curators of The Persian Sensation: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the West tell the tragic story of what happened to the greatest binding ever created.

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Displaying the Rubáiyát in Miniature

One manifestation of the Rubáiyát's popularity was the publication of dozens of miniature editions, 29 of which have been included in the exhibition. Exhibition Services staff member Sonja Reid and Curator of British and American Literature and exhibition co-curator Molly Schwartzburg discuss their collaborative project to create an effective display for these compelling artifacts.

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