MELBOURNE.- A major international exhibition of rare Persian illuminated manuscripts which will open at the State Library of Victoria on March 9, 2012. Premier Ted Baillieu said the Love and Devotion: from Persia and Beyond exhibition will bring exclusively to Melbourne more than 60 illustrated Persian manuscripts – some eight centuries old – from the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries. ‘Love and Devotion will be a free exhibition and the largest collection of Persian manuscripts ever seen in Australia,’ Mr Baillieu said. ‘It will allow visitors to get up close to intricate priceless works from the Persian, Ottoman and Mughal empires that date back to the 13th to 18th centuries – a very rich and important period in the history of the book. ‘Focused around classic Persian tales of love, these beautiful examples of manuscripts and miniature painting, illumination and calligraphy rarely