The texts exhibited in Sacred Stories explore the common cultural legacy of religious stories, illustrating Scriptural traditions in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.  The breadth of the collections in the Free Library of Philadelphia Rare Book Department are on display, with examples of spectacular illuminated manuscripts, rare printed books, and treasured objects of devotion.  The exhibition includes religious objects from the 9th century to the modern era, and from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.  These sacred texts share the broadly human experiences of belief, faith, and worship, mediated through the written word.

The books, scrolls, leaves, and fragments displayed here narrate a journey through a thousand years of our history.  They tell stories about the creation of teh world and of its workings, building a community of narrative around the sacred world.  The holy works exhibited are amongst teh most consistently read and revered in human history.  Copies have been presented to monarchs, emperors, and popes; studied and interpreted by scholars and religious teachers; and passed down through generations as cherished family relics.

As treasured objects and as documents of study, they tell stories about the ways in which we have written, printed, decorated, and illuminated our most holy texts since the 9th century.