Libraries

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We have seen some lovely libraries:

Ephesus: facade and shell, but still a beautiful space

The sultan's library in Topkapi Palace, Istanbul: light-filled and beautifully decorated.

Goethe's library in Weimar. He only had a few thousand books, as he also used the city library. (He was among other things the city administrator, and was therefore responsible for the library!)

In Sélestat, in Alsace, the wonderful Bibliotheque de l'Humanisme, which has a collection of incunabula (books printed before 1500). The earliest one in the library was from the 7th. Century. They were collected by a wealthy scholar, Beatus Rhenanus and others added to its collection. It even has some of his school workbooks, with his translations from Latin, and annotations of the texts he studied. There are examples of many of the Classical & European writers, historians, theologians and philosophers in editions printed in the 16 - 18th Centuries. Rhenanus was friends with Erasmus and helped him publish some of his writing.

There is also a copy of the catalogue! The original was burnt in a fire in the library in Colmar, but this copy has enabled the collection to be assembled and preserved.

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Photos

Topkapi Palace library
There are four side spaces like this for reading the scrolls that were kept in the shelves and cupboards you can see. Note the seating around the walls.

Sélestat
Bibliotheque de l'Humanisme
The books are kept in cases under the red curtains to protect them from the light.

Sélestat
Merovingian book (7th century)

Sélestat
12th century book