Beautiful libraries
August 1, 2018 1:23 AM   Subscribe

 
Wow, talk about eye candy for us bibliophiles. These are gorgeous!

I’d also like to see an article on all of the cool libraries in fiction. Some of my favorites to explore would include:

1. The monastic library in The Name of the Rose.

2. The library at Hogwarts.

3. The library at the Jedi Temple.

4. The library in Rivendell.

5. The library of Kamar-Taj, from Doctor Strange.

6. The secret library rooms from The Librarian films.

7. That one ancient lich’s library my wizard briefly got to explore in a friend’s Pathfinder campaign.
posted by darkstar at 3:00 AM on August 1, 2018 [11 favorites]


8. The Library in the Unseen University in Discworld.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 3:04 AM on August 1, 2018 [10 favorites]


Thank you for this. I learned about the Tripitaka Koreana, which is a pretty amazing piece of work (from the Asian libraries link).
posted by kokaku at 3:43 AM on August 1, 2018


from the above the fold link:
In a new Taschen book, the Italian photographer Massimo Listri travels around the world to some of the oldest libraries, revealing a treasure trove of unique and imaginative architecture
10 of the 11 libraries profiled are in Europe

over half have the same Renaissance aesthetic with frescoed ceilings and baroquely ornamented stacks.

I'm glad for the diversity showed in the rest of the lists, but I feel like a Grauniad editor needs to actually do their job.

My current office is directly across from the Boston Public Library and it's kind of an open secret that anyone who needs to escape the chatter-y hellscape of our open office plans should just go to the BPL when they need to focus on their work. I have mixed feelings about how often I've recently been going to Bates Hall to go heads down on a doc or project plan. On one hand, it's yet another example of tech companies quietly relying on public facilities to buffer the externalities of problematic choices. On the other hand, it actually is a beautiful place to get some work done.
posted by bl1nk at 4:20 AM on August 1, 2018 [13 favorites]


9. Lucien's library in the Dreaming, from Sandman.
10. The Invisible Library, from the book of the same name.

Someone used to produce a Renaissance Library Calendar: twelve months of these gorgeous photos to brighten up my cubicle wall. They ceased publication years ago, and I really wish someone would produce new ones.

BTW, bl1nk, have you been to the Boston Athenaeum, across from the State House? If not, take a tour sometime: it's magnificent.
posted by cheshyre at 4:48 AM on August 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


I kind of wish my screen had smell-o-vision.
posted by mattamatic at 4:59 AM on August 1, 2018 [4 favorites]


Oh god yes. This is basically brain porn for me. Thank you thank you thank you!
posted by lazaruslong at 5:38 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Biblioteca Joanina, Coimbria, Portugal
It is one of only two libraries in the world that houses bats to protect the books against insects
That is wild and awesome.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:42 AM on August 1, 2018 [7 favorites]


11. The Beast's library from Beauty & The Beast. (Although the Switzerland one looks close to what I would imagine it looks like)
posted by like_neon at 5:43 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


My wife and I were in Dublin a couple of weeks ago, and even with all the other tourists swarming about, the library at Trinity College really was breathtaking.
posted by briank at 6:08 AM on August 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


I've been working in this one for a couple of years now, and I still get a thrill from the view on the fifth floor.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:13 AM on August 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


Thank you for the delightful book porn.
Here's a factoid from the Guardian article, news to me, Biblioteca Joanina, Coimbria, Portugal It is one of only two libraries in the world that houses bats to protect the books against insects.
posted by theora55 at 6:49 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


We're renovating our living room. I see built-in bookshelves in our future...
posted by domo at 7:20 AM on August 1, 2018


12. The Laundry Archives, complete with zombie librarians.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:27 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


1. The monastic library in The Name of the Rose.

A long time ago I used the Build engine (Duke Nukem, Blood) to replicate the library labyrinth as shown in the book. The unfortunate result: it's actually nearly impossible to get lost in it as they do in the book. Too small, and due to its architecture (angle of walls, size of rooms) you can nearly always tell where you are.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 8:28 AM on August 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


I would not describe the Troy (NY) Public Library as beautiful, but it is quite interesting.
However, the Tiffany window, behind the check-out desk (at least when I was there) is quite beautiful.
posted by MtDewd at 8:58 AM on August 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

― Jorge Luis Borges
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:40 AM on August 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


Biblioteca Joanina, Coimbria, Portugal
It is one of only two libraries in the world that houses bats to protect the books against insects


Wait-a-minute... what protects the books against bat guano?
posted by kokaku at 10:06 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Wait-a-minute... what protects the books against bat guano?

posted by kokaku at 10:06 AM on August 1 [+] [!]


No books in the Bat Cave?
posted by Mental Wimp at 10:07 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


The Huntington Beach Central Library is the one I grew up in, and will always be my favorite, although I agree that it's not in the US top 10.
posted by Huck500 at 10:27 AM on August 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


We made a couple of those lists. Brutalism just next door, too.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:54 AM on August 1, 2018


(51) Don't forget the Holland House, London.
posted by standardasparagus at 12:34 PM on August 1, 2018


Not to forget University of Manchester's own John Rylands Library, in the Guardian's home town!
posted by Jakey at 2:38 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thats awesome, pyrogenesis! I’d love to tour around the place. I recall the secret room being fairly well concealed (it wasn’t obvious where it would have been located to a casual visitor). I wonder how navigating through it by candlelight would affect its navigability. Also, I think in the book there was some sort of mind-adding drug delivered by incense that made it more challenging for the characters to keep track of the maze.
posted by darkstar at 3:07 PM on August 1, 2018


If we are talking about Manchester then yeah Rylands is nice but you must not miss Chetham library where Marx and Engels met. Absolutely splendid.
posted by seawallrunner at 9:19 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thank you for the delightful book porn.

You are so very welcome. When I first saw the the 1st linked gallery, all my troubles for the day drifted away. It was like having a fragrant warm bath after a cold day, a long cool drink after a hot one, a hug after a day of shuns. It soothed me, calmed me, and made me remember the sustained beauty that humans can create. People don't build libraries just for their contemporaries, but for future people too.

I tried to find images or imaginative renditions of libraries from fiction, but there was no particular collection I could link to. And then I tried to see if other people classed gorgeous images of libraries under the term 'library porn'. Boy, was that a mistake. But it did lead to the results of the search term "libraries in space" which features very few books but, thankfully, cats.

I had my office in this library for awhile as I assessed and valued some of its collection. It's named after its founding librarian, a contemporary of Dewey's, who also tried to devise a cataloguing system. Unfortunately, O'Donovan's system was based the book's location in relation to other books in the library, not in relation to its subject matter as Dewey's is. The O'Donovan library, situated between the two 'houses' (rooms) of parliament is only open to the public one day a year, but if you are in Brisbane for that day, I recommend it.
posted by Thella at 12:12 AM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm glad to see the Beitou Library in Taipei made 3 of the lists. It's not as grandiose as a lot of the others, but it's so cozy, and sitting by the window reading in the natural lighting is so absorbing. Also it's super eco-friendly, made of wood and steel instead of concrete and with solar cells and rainwater collection on the roof.

The fact there's a hot springs a few minutes walk up the road is a bonus too.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 5:58 AM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


I really tried replicating the experience, darkstar. Making rooms dark, randomizing the starting location, the build engine only had like two textures for shelves of books anyway, so everything looked the same. But if you look at the final version of the labyrinth at the link you posted, see how distinct the actual individual rooms are. I mean imagine in real life, are you ever going to confuse a square room with a room that has one wall at a really sharp angle, with a room that is way longer than others and has an end with three walls, with a circular room? The rooms in the towers clearly align along a semicircle... and so on. I wish I still had the files so everyone could try it out themselves. But the fact of the matter is, if you have ever got really drunk and still a manged to stagger home, you have overcome a more difficult obstacle than eco's maze.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 7:36 AM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Related (with the misleading headline corrected): Found: The Oldest (remains of a) Public Library in Germany - Atlas Obscura's title isn't as clear as that from Deutsche Welle (DW) -- Sensational archaeological find is likely Germany's oldest library -- Archeologists in Cologne are sure they have found what looks like the foundations of the oldest verifiable library in Germany. It was built by the Romans about 1,800 years ago.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:02 PM on August 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Could a deliberately located and curated array of ancient rock art a library make? I'd argue that some of the caves or sheltered rock walls in Australia are the world's oldest libraries. The art tells stories, provides local information, shares culture and knowledge over generations. We have libraries of data on our computer. Is a library necessarily a book depository?
posted by Thella at 1:26 AM on August 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


Wait-a-minute... what protects the books against bat guano?

Oh, they have insects nibble it off.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:33 AM on August 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


And the roving sloth, er ...herd...(...pod? ...gaggle? ...dawdle? ...lassitude?)... takes care of the guano-eating insects.
posted by darkstar at 9:18 PM on August 3, 2018


These are super lovely and I might have to re-arrange my travel list.

Would like a pictorial of The Library at Mount Char while we're at it.
posted by nenequesadilla at 10:14 PM on August 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


The O'Donovan library, situated between the two 'houses' (rooms) of parliament is only open to the public one day a year, but if you are in Brisbane for that day, I recommend it.

That day is tomorrow from 10am - 3pm when you can attend the free Open Day on Saturday, 11 August.
See also : Ghosts, whispers and the smell of history.
posted by Thella at 9:34 PM on August 9, 2018


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