Palaces of self-discovery: A series on libraries

June 8, 2017 8:27 AM

Photographer Thibaud Poirier (on Instagram here, on Tumblr here), documents the interiors of European libraries in Palaces of self-discovery: A series on libraries.
posted by mandolin conspiracy (9 comments total)

You should really have marked this as NSFW - I can't stop moaning at these pornographic pictures...
posted by twsf at 8:45 AM on June 8, 2017

All beautiful, but many seem designed to place the book-seeker in great physical peril by way of ladders adjacent to railings.

The German ones are gorgeously severe in their rectilinear symmetry. The photographer's "Berlin Interiors" serious bear out that impression.
posted by Caxton1476 at 9:42 AM on June 8, 2017

This is amazing, what I wouldn't do to visit a few of these and play on the various and sundry landings, ladders, and stairs. And read books, that too.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:59 PM on June 8, 2017

These are gorgeous. The lack of labels on the galleries is driving me insane. Here are the libraries I've been able to identify from the photographer's instagram and the thisiscollosal article:

01 Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne
02 Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, 1850
03 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Salle Labrouste, Paris, 1868
04 Trinity College Library
05 Stuttgart Library
06 Biblioteca Joanina, Coimbra, 1728
08 Bibliothèque de l’Hotel de Ville de Paris, Paris, 1890
10 Grimm Zentrum Library, Berlin, 2009
17 Galerie Diane
posted by erikred at 2:31 PM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

(꒪ཀ꒪)

*drools*

Had I but world enough and time...
posted by Wretch729 at 2:40 PM on June 8, 2017

Oh.

My.

Oh, this is WONDERFUL.

Thank you thank you thank you.
posted by kristi at 7:13 PM on June 8, 2017

The lack of labels on the galleries is driving me insane. Here are the libraries I've been able to identify from the photographer's instagram and the thisiscollosal article

This was bothering me too, and I should have done that work before posting. Thanks for the identification!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:14 PM on June 8, 2017

I spent entirely too much time on Poirier's Tumblr before realizing that wasn't the best way to see the library photos. But I did discover that there's a hell of a lot going on in architecture that I was not previously aware of. And, like the libraries, it's magnificently photographed.
posted by bryon at 11:40 PM on June 8, 2017

Well that's my desktop background forever sorted, then.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:12 AM on June 9, 2017