Woven Words: Decoding the Silk Book

Woven Words: Decoding the Silk Book highlights a little-known but magnificent rare book from the Walters’ collection—a 19th-century prayer book woven entirely from silk on a Jacquard loom. Visitors will discover a surprising and fascinating connection between the creation of the Silk Book and the computers that shape our modern world. Along with the Silk Book itself, the exhibition includes a group of handwritten books that contain trade secrets of the Jacquard loom. Tablets in the gallery will display the fully digitized Silk Book and a video that demonstrates how the Jacquard loom works.

Woven Words: Decoding the Silk Book is generously supported by Walters Art Museum members and contributors to the annual fund. 

CURATOR
Lynley Anne Herbert, Robert and Nancy Hall Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, with Abigail Quandt, Head of Book and Paper Conservation and Senior Conservator of Manuscripts and Rare Books. 

ABOVE: Binder: Charles Meunier; Artist: J. Hervier, Livre de Prières. Tissé d’après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle, 1886. Gift of Ms. Jane Ridder, 1974.