Plus Belles Bibliotheques Du Monde


Book Description

In this photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries around the world to celebrate their architectural and historical wonder. From medieval to 19th-century institutions, private to monastic collections, this is a cultural-historical pilgrimage to the heart of our halls of learning and the stories they tell.




The Most Beautiful Libraries of the World


Book Description

From El Escorial in Spain to the Congress in Washington, from Trinity College, Cambridge to the Abbey of Saint-Gall, this volume reveals an exceptional heritage: nearly 20 shrines to culture, entirely devoted to the presentation of knowledge, stacked with writings and shrouded in silence."




Temples of Books


Book Description

In 2016, the world's oldest existing library reopened in Fes, Morocco. It opened for the first time in the 9th Century. These shrines to the written word date back even further, and continue to be built today. They're a place where some of the oldest written texts are preserved and some of the newest technology connects visitors with vast amounts of knowledge. Libraries are changing, but, as places that are fundamentally free and open to all, they're also staying the same. Libraries of the World explores the most stunning examples, but it also explores how varied the idea of a library can be. It can be a grand Baroque hall with leather-bound tomes or a mid-century masterpiece, but it can just as easily be a few shelves in a repurposed phone booth.




The Country House Library


Book Description

Beginning with new evidence that cites the presence of books in Roman villas and concluding with present day vicissitudes of collecting, this generously illustrated book presents a complete survey of British and Irish country house libraries. Replete with engaging anecdotes about owners and librarians, the book features fascinating information on acquisition bordering on obsession, the process of designing library architecture, and the care (and neglect) of collections. The author also disputes the notion that these libraries were merely for show, arguing that many of them were profoundly scholarly, assembled with meticulous care, and frequently used for intellectual pursuits. For those who love books and the libraries in which they are collected and stored, The Country House Library is an essential volume to own.




The Library


Book Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched, of that extraordinary and enduring phenomenon: the library' Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.




The Library


Book Description

This spectacular book is the first single volume to tell the story of the library as a distinct building type, all around the world. Throughout the ages, book collections have served to symbolize their owners culture and learning, and the wealthy and powerful have spent lavishly on buildings to house them. In its highest form the library became a total work of art, combining painting, sculpture, furniture and architecture into seamless, dramatic spaces. The finest libraries are repositories not just of books, but of learning, creativity and contemplation; they embody some of the highest achievements of humankind. This book recounts that history in text and images of truly outstanding quality.




Ancient Libraries


Book Description

The circulation of books was the motor of classical civilization. However, books were both expensive and rare, and so libraries - private and public, royal and civic - played key roles in articulating intellectual life. This collection, written by an international team of scholars, presents a fundamental reassessment of how ancient libraries came into being, how they were organized and how they were used. Drawing on papyrology and archaeology, and on accounts written by those who read and wrote in them, it presents new research on reading cultures, on book collecting and on the origins of monumental library buildings. Many of the traditional stories told about ancient libraries are challenged. Few were really enormous, none were designed as research centres, and occasional conflagrations do not explain the loss of most ancient texts. But the central place of libraries in Greco-Roman culture emerges more clearly than ever.




The Knowledge


Book Description

How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch? If our technological society collapsed tomorrow what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible? Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest—or even the most basic—technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, or even how to produce food for yourself? Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can’t hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn’t just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all—the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world.




Girl on Girl


Book Description

Girl on Girl looks at how women are using photography, the internet and the female gaze to explore self–image and female identity in contemporary art. A new generation of women is taking the art world – online and offline – by storm. In an image–obsessed culture saturated with social media, these 40 artists are using photography and the female gaze to redefine the fields of fashion, art, advertising and photojournalism, making a profound impact on our visual world. Forty artists are featured, all of whose principal subject matter is either themselves or other women. Each is accompanied by a short profile based on personal interviews with the author, giving a fascinating insight into this exciting shift in female creativity. "Charlotte Jansen has brought together some of the finest female photographers of our generation" – Refinery29 "A very important book" – Vogue Italia "Young female artists are using photography and social media to explore issues of female identity. This gorgeous book introduces 40 of them, in an investigation of photography and the female gaze."– Eva Wiseman, Observer Magazine Features work by Aneta Bartos Tonje Bøe Birkeland Nakeya Brown Juno Calypso Anja Carr Amanda Charchian Petra Collins Maisie Cousins Nathalie Daoust Shae DeTar Lalla Essaydi Maya Fuhr Yaeli Gabriely Petrina Hicks Ayana V. Jackson Lebohang Kganye Lilia Li–Mi–Yan Pixy Liao Alexandra Marzella Rania Matar Izumi Miyazaki Monika Mogi Zanele Muholi Mihaela Noroc Birthe Piontek Elizabeth Renstrom Marianna Rothen Phebe Schmidt Leah Schrager Molly Soda Johanna Stickland Iiu Susiraja Deanna Templeton Yvonne Todd Mayan Toledano Jaimie Warren Isabelle Wenzel Aviya Wyse Jessica Yatrofsky Pinar Yolaçan




Libraries


Book Description

"This volume contains Höfer's famously ascetic images of the British Library in London, the Escorial in Spain, the Whitney Museum and the Pierpoint Library in New York, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the Villa Medici in Rome and the Hamburg University Library, among others".--BOOKJACKET.