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A letter from Florence Nightingale to George Grey before he took up a second term as Governor of New Zealand is among an exhibition of "Treasures" from the special collections at Auckland City Library.
"God bless you," she tells Grey while he was Governor of Cape Colony in South Africa. "You will do a noble work in New Zealand."
The letter is one of three 'The Lady With the Lamp' wrote to Sir George Grey, whose many gifts to Auckland City take pride of place in the special collections. Among them are two of the most prized and valuable antiquities in New Zealand - the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, commonly known as the First Folio; and an illuminated medieval missal manuscript, printed in France circa 1471.
Missals are books containing the text used in the service of the Mass throughout the year.
The First Folio was originally sold for one pound. It is worth more than $5 million today. Of the 1000 believed to be printed, 228 are recorded as still being in existence. It was purchased by Governor Grey from a London bookseller in 1894 for £85.
The Missal has a similar value and was among the first batch of books Governor Grey donated to the library in 1887.
Special collections librarian Georgia Prince said the exhibition, Real Gold: Treasures of Auckland City Libraries, was an opportunity to shares some of the library's treasures with the public.
Prime Minister Helen Clark will tomorrow open the exhibition, together with a book by the same name. The text has been written by poet and short-story writer Iain Sharp, who works as a manuscripts librarian in the special collections department.
As well as items of international significance, the exhibition includes many important New Zealand items, such as the original score and lyrics of God Defend New Zealand and an 1840 copy of the Treaty of Waitangi in Maori. Posters and photographs of Limbs Dance Company and the Mercury Theatre are more recent exhibits.
Auckland Library holds one of the major collections of historic books, manuscripts and other written material in New Zealand. The other major collections are held by the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington and Dunedin's Hocken Library.
Georgia Prince said a lot of people were surprised to learn what was held in the public library.
"You don't have to be some registered scholar to come and look at something. You just have to be an interested and careful person," she said. The exhibition runs from Monday until February 29.
