Throughout the V&A’s ten new Medieval & Renaissance Galleries there are a series of interactive touch screens which allow the visitor to explore objects in more detail. Pages from Leonardo’s famous Codex Forster have been digitised for the first time allowing visitors to zoom in and turn the pages of his intricate notebooks and one of the magnificent Devonshire Hunting Tapestries has also been digitized examining medieval courtly life. Short films explain the context in which objects were created such as Donatello’s celebrated Ascension relief and audio points play specially commissioned music.

The interactive displays are all available in the galleries and on the V&A’s website: www.vam.ac.uk/medren and can be accessed from computer terminals in the specially created Bonita Trust Study Area made possible with funding from the Bonita Trust.

Bonita Trust Study Area

Access to all digital and audio material in the new galleries is available via the V&A’s website on eight computer terminals in the Bonita Trust Study Area, located within the central orientation hub of the new galleries. Visitors can use the Study Area to access the V&A’s recently launched Search the Collections database. This search facility provides detailed information, new research and photographs on each of the 1,800 objects on display. The Study Area also has an orientation timeline and an area with seating for rest and relaxation.