William Caxton’s ‘The Myrrour of the Worlde’, printed in 1490. Photo: Christian Capurro.
Since 2015 State Library Victoria (SLV) has presented a collection of highlights garnered from the Library’s own rare books collection. Every year the display is refreshed with a different selection of printed works.
2024 marks 550 years since the birth of English printing, so it’s appropriate and timely that this year, World of the Book: the rare, the sacred and the iconic is presenting a second edition of William Caxton’s The Myrrour of the Worlde (c.1489–1490). Valued at around $250,000, it’s one of only two copies in the world.
Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
