Massimo Listri. Les plus belles bibliotheques du monde

Description

From the mighty halls of ancient Alexandria to the coffered ceilings of the Morgan Library in New York, human beings have had a long, enraptured relationship with libraries. Like no other concept and like no other space, the collection of knowledge, learning, and imagination offers a sense of infinite possibility. It's the unrivaled realm of discovery, where every faded manuscript or mighty clothbound tome might reveal a provocative new idea, a far-flung fantasy, an ancient belief, a religious conviction, or a whole new way of being in the world. In this new photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries to reveal their architectural, historical, and imaginative wonder. Through great wooden doors, up spiraling staircases, and along exquisite, shelf-lined corridors, he leads us through outstanding private, public, educational, and monastic libraries, dating as far back as 766. Between them, these medieval, classical, baroque, rococo, and 19th-century institutions hold some of the most precious records of human thought and deed, inscribed and printed in manuscripts, volumes, papyrus scrolls, and incunabula. In each, Listri's poised images capture the library's unique atmosphere, as much as their most prized holdings and design details. Featured libraries include the papal collections of the Vatican Apostolic Library, Trinity College Library, home to the Book of Kells and Book of Durrow, and the holdings of the Laurentian Library in Florence, the private library of the powerful House of Medici, designed by Michelangelo. With meticulous descriptions accompanying each featured library, we learn not only of the libraries' astonishing holdings-from which highlights are illustrated-but also of their often lively, turbulent, or controversial pasts. Like Altenburg Abbey in Austria, an outpost of imperial Catholicism repeatedly destroyed during the European wars of religion, or the Franciscan monastery in Lima, Peru, with its horde of archival Inquisition documents. At once a bibliophile beauty pageant, an ode to knowledge, and an evocation of the particular magic of print, Massimo Listri. The World's Most Beautiful Libraries is above all a cultural-historical pilgrimage to the heart of our halls of learning, to the stories they tell, as much as those they gather in printed matter along polished shelves. Depuis les somptueuses salles de l'ancienne Alexandrie au plafond a caissons de la Morgan Library, a New York, les hommes entretiennent un lien etroit avec les bibliotheques. Comme aucun autre concept ou lieu, ces sommes de savoir, de connaissances et de reverie offrent des possibilites infinies. Ils sont les royaumes incomparables de la decouverte, ou chaque manuscrit defraichi, chaque volume finement relie contient une idee nouvelle et revolutionnaire, un imaginaire sans limites, une croyance ancestrale ou une foi religieuse, ou meme une nouvelle maniere d'exister. Grace a ce nouveau voyage en images, Massimo Listri parcourt bon nombre des plus vieilles et des plus belles bibliotheques au monde pour en reveler les merveilles architecturales, historiques et creatives. Il nous conduit derriere les lourdes portes de bois, a travers les escaliers en colimacon et les couloirs tapisses d'etageres de grandes bibliotheques privees, publiques, educatives et monastiques, dont la plus ancienne remonte a 766. Dans ces institutions medievales, classiques, baroques, rococo et du XIXe, on trouve parmi les plus precieux documents temoignant des pensees et des faits de l'homme, inscrits et imprimes sur manuscrits, livres, rouleaux de papyrus ou incunables. Il s'agit des archives papales de la Bibliotheque apostolique vaticane, de la bibliotheque de Trinity College qui abrite les manuscrits du Livre de Kells et du Livre de Durrow, ainsi que les inestimables possessions de la bibliotheque Laurentienne, a Florence, bibliotheque privee de la puissante famille des Medicis, concue par Michel-Ange. Les descriptions detaillees presentant chaque bibliotheque nous apprennent qu'un grand nombre de ces lieux de contemplation silencieux et feutres ont eu une existence animee, tumultueuse, voire controversee. Ce fut le cas de l'abbaye d'Altenburg, en Autriche, avant-poste du catholicisme imperial, regulierement detruite durant les guerres de religion qui ont marque l'Europe. Ou du monastere franciscain de Lima, au Perou, qui conserve une masse de documents d'archives de l'Inquisition temoignant du lien complexe entre religion et lois d'une cite recemment batie sur les ruines de l'Empire inca. Entre recueil de merveilleux objets bibliophiliques, ode a la connaissance et evocation de la magie particuliere qui entoure les livres, Massimo Listri, Les plus belles bibliotheques du monde est avant tout un pelerinage culturel et historique au coeur de ces hauts lieux du savoir et vers les histoires qu'ils racontent, aussi passionnantes que celles qu'elles conservent, imprimees et soigneusement rangees dans leurs etageres.

After studying history, German language and literature, education and philosophy, Georg Ruppelt gained his PhD with a doctoral thesis on Friedrich Schiller. He subsequently worked as a librarian, becoming deputy director of the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuttel in 1987, and director of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek in Hanover from 2002 to 2016. Ruppelt has published over 400 essays and 40 monographs on the subject of books, library science, and cultural history. Elisabeth Sladek studied Art History in Vienna, Classical Archaeology and Judaic Studies and wrote her dissertation at the Max Planck Institute in Rome. Her special field is the history of the Baroque art and architecture and she is an active researcher and teacher, among others in Vienna, Rome and Zurich. She also publishes regularly on the respective themes.

There was a time when extravagant cathedrals were created just to house books and manuscripts. Listri's large-format photographs document European libraries built between the 15th and the 19th century... * The New York Times * Listri's meticulous attention to minutiae and details is exquisite. One can practically smell the dust on these ancient books. * Artology *