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A review by psalmcat
The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World by Jacques Bosser
4.0
Really amazingly beautiful pictures in this book, taken by Guillaume de Laubier. Most of the libraries are in Europe, none in Asia, Africa or the Americas outside of three in the U.S. (NYPL, the Library of Congress, and the Boston Athenaeum).
The problem with these libraries is that most of them are not really useable libraries anymore, especially not for the general public. Most of them are museums, lovely rooms filled with musty ancient books. I don't know; give me an ugly building with people using the materials inside of it and I think that's quite a lot more beautiful.
But anyway. Lots of money went into creating these frozen rooms. The monastery library in Ulm at Wiblingen Abbey is incredibly lovely, as is the Trinity College Library in Dublin (one of three University libraries included: they are all in use of course, but I suspect the 'good bits' are limited to graduate students or professors).
Anyway. If you want to see books were arranged in the pre-electricity era, this will give you a good selection of ideas. If you want to see amazing architectural detail and painting and other artwork, this book is for you. If you want to see people actually reading...well, maybe not so much.
The problem with these libraries is that most of them are not really useable libraries anymore, especially not for the general public. Most of them are museums, lovely rooms filled with musty ancient books. I don't know; give me an ugly building with people using the materials inside of it and I think that's quite a lot more beautiful.
But anyway. Lots of money went into creating these frozen rooms. The monastery library in Ulm at Wiblingen Abbey is incredibly lovely, as is the Trinity College Library in Dublin (one of three University libraries included: they are all in use of course, but I suspect the 'good bits' are limited to graduate students or professors).
Anyway. If you want to see books were arranged in the pre-electricity era, this will give you a good selection of ideas. If you want to see amazing architectural detail and painting and other artwork, this book is for you. If you want to see people actually reading...well, maybe not so much.