Professor Stephen Hawking and Sir David Attenborough have joined forces to open an exhibition about geniuses.

The celebrated physicist and award-winning broadcaster unveiled the Marks Of Genius exhibition at Oxford University's Bodleian Libraries.

Prof Hawking, who studied at Oxford as an undergraduate, said: " The works featured in the Bodleian Libraries' Marks of Genius exhibition truly are the product of genius, be it Einstein, Newton or Shakespeare.

"I hope that thousands of people, young and old, will visit the exhibition and be inspired to develop ideas of their own, to experiment, try out new ways of thinking, and share their ideas with others.

"Who knows, perhaps the Bodleian's exhibition will stimulate the next Euclid, Newton, or Dorothy Hodgkin to put down their ideas on paper or pixels and make new Marks Of Genius."

The exhibition is being held at the newly renovated Weston Library.

"Works of genius" such as Magna Carta, Shakespeare's First Folio and scientific works by Isaac Newton will be on display.

During the visit, Prof Hawking and Sir David were presented with the Bodley Medal by Librarian Richard Ovenden and University of Oxford Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton.

The medal is awarded for outstanding contributions to the worlds of culture, learning, science and communication.

Playwright Alan Bennett, film director Lord Richard Attenborough and the novelist Dame Hilary Mantel are among its former recipients.

Sir David said: "I am deeply honoured to receive the Bodley Medal and to be opening the Bodleian's Marks Of Genius exhibition.

"The exhibition shows the importance of libraries as places where knowledge is preserved and shared from one generation to the next."