The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World

This is a marvelous book to whoever loves books. It presents many important historic libraries in the world; each library is presented in informative and sober texts and with accompanying photos. These photos try to capture the overall look of the library (even if this is rather difficult) and several interesting details, sometimes including secondary rooms. The texts focus on the history of the library in question, but also give some information about contents. There is only a minor quibble, and it cannot be taken too seriously: the authors had to chose and that led them to ignore many marvelous libraries. If there is one I particularly lack, it would be the Real Biblioteca da Universidade de Coimbra (Royal Library of Coimbra University, one of the oldest European Universities). It has been stated to be 'the most beautiful library in the world', and I cannot but agree. But this is probably a question of personal taste. As it is, the book is wonderful and useful.

"The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World" is kept on the fireplace mantlepiece in our library for people to come and view. I liked the book so much I bought my father it for Valentine's Day. He has visited many libraries and gone on library tours in Europe, so the pictures brought back many memories for him and reminded him of how our ancestors treasured libraries and kept the books in good condition. Anybody who is a library connoisseur will enjoy this book. As written in the introduction, "One must spend hours upon hours, and days upon days in the cocoon of a great library in order to understand and love the cozy isolation that it can provide. Some people will never break away from its spell and remain eternal readers, having lost the desire to discover the real world. Others will know how to find lin libraries both knowledge and its instruments." Enjoy Cynthia Nakai

Speaking as a professional librarian for more than three decades -- someone who upon visiting a city for the first time usually seeks out the main library for a look around -- there are libraries and then there are libraries. Even those in major U.S. cities tend to be utilitarian first (sometimes utilitarian only). Those dating from the 1950s and `60s are generally pretty ugly, as well. For richness and beauty, you have to go overseas to find libraries constructed in an earlier time, when architecture and ornamentation was an end in itself. Except for the small collections kept by monasteries, the library is pretty much an invention of the Renaissance and the Age of Reason. The National Library of Austria, in Vienna, is gorgeously Baroque, with allegorical paintings on the ceilings and narrow staircases concealed behind hidden doors in the stacks. The ever-suspicious Vatican Library still locks its bookcases, filled with bibliographical relics of incalculable value. The Senate Library in Paris is a blend of Neoclassical and Italianate, but it's very much a working library and the old card catalogue has been replaced by computers. I was privileged many years ago to visit the breathtaking library at the Abbey of Saint Gall, home of probably the world's most important collection of surviving incunabula. The curving bookshelves of inlaid wood, the hundreds of carved portraits, arms, and both religious and secular symbols are just incredible. And there's the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the first-ever university collection. And there are more than a dozen others in this beautifully produced volume, of which only three in the United States were deemed worthy of inclusion: the Library of Congress, the New York Public, and the Boston Athenaeum. All of which are practically new buildings compared to the others, but the same principal is at work -- to house knowledge in artistically serene surroundings. Remember the overhead shot of the LC's main Reading Room in *All the President's Men*? That says it all.

This beautifully photographed book might appear, at first glance, as another "coffee-table book": that is, a book someone gives you as a gift, which thereafter sits on your coffee table unread. That hasn't been my experience. Since receiving it as a Christmas present from my wife, I find myself picking it up every few weeks, reading about how famous book collections were formed, and gazing at the stunning architecture of libraries built as temples to literature (rather than on the how-many-shelves-can-we-cram-into-this-square-footage principle). There are university libraries (e.g., Oxford, Trinity College Dublin), royal libraries (Vienna, Prague), religious libraries (The Vatican, and several monasteries), and more democratic ones (The New York Public Library). Most of the libraries are European, except for three: New York, The Library of Congress (which is featured on the cover), and the Boston Athenaeum. There could be more in the text about the contents of these libraries; the emphasis is more on the sheer physical beauty of these places. And beautiful they are, some of them decorated by leading artists. Some of these libraries are easy to visit; some are accessible only to scholars with appropriate references. Some, like the library of the French Senate (a serene retreat overlooking the Jardin du Luxembourg), are available to a select few. This delightful volume lets us in, for a while. Enjoy.