From 18th century English bestsellers to medieval cookbooks, nearly 1,000 of Europe's most fascinating works - included 76 volumes digitised by the Swiss National Library - are featured in a new multilingual online exhibition created by The European Library and supported by Europeana.eu.

The interactive display - "Reading Europe: European culture through the book" - offers a rare opportunity to view masterpieces in 32 languages, from Albanian to Yiddish. Drawn from the collection of 23 national libraries in Europe, including the Swiss National Library, many books are in manuscript or their first printed editions.

Visitors to "Reading Europe" can also learn more about the history behind classics such as the first edition of "Don Quixote" by Cervantes (in Spanish), and "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (in Russian), through the curatorial information accompanying each book.

In addition to internationally acclaimed titles, "Reading Europe" highlights works which are famous in their countries of origin, but less well known outside their borders.

Other books, such as a French translation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" by Mallarmé, are notable not only for the text, but also for the accompanying illustrations - in this case, by celebrated French painter Édouard Manet. Many manuscripts also boast vibrant images, created from a palette of colours like rich blues, deep reds and sparkling gold.

Included in the 76 volumes digitised by the Swiss National Library, are "Memoria mineralogica sulla montagna e sui contorni di S. Gottardo" by Ermenegildo Pini; "Excursion dans les Alpes, 1832" by Rodolphe Töpffer and also "Wilhelm Tell: Schauspiel" by Friedrich Schiller.

Link to the site: http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/exhibition-reading-europe/

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