The Great Library of Nineveh with Irving Finkel

Join Irving Finkel as he raises the curtain on the ancient library of Assyria, pride and joy of Ashurbanipal, king of the world in the 7th century BC. Glossing over the complexities and intricacies of cuneiform writing, Irving will inspect some of the calligraphic masterpieces in the Museum collection that were once housed in that library. He’ll survey the range of documents that reveal court life and what people got up to, and consider the significance of the whole, in terms of the libraries of the world, at home or exiled. Part of a series of events inspired by Edmund de Waal’s ’library of exile’ at the British Museum, supported by the AKO Foundation. More details here: