Beautiful Libraries

Books were everywhere.  Piled under the table, in corners, and stacked neatly on bookcases that went up to the ceiling.  The room was messy in a very tidy sort of way.  A shaft of sunlight poked through a large bay window on the opposite wall from the door, and the little window seat was padded with a long cushion of silver and red and matching pillows.  On the round table in the middle of the room there was a globe, a quill and ink, and an open, empty volume that Ren guessed was someone’s journal or log book.  The whole room had a musty, comfortable smell that made Ren wish she were better at reading.

- An Excerpt from Seaspear ©

Today in the oversize section I found a book entitled, "The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World", with pictures by Guillaume De Laubier.  Needless to say, I brought it home and oohed / ahhed over the full color photographs - some in three fold parts!

Here is my favorite - the Benedictine Abbey Library of Admont, Austria.  It's the biggest monastery library in the world.

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Can you imagine sitting down on one of those ladders with a favorite tome (fancy word for book)? Wouldn't it be just ... out of this world? I know I would not be able to concentrate on reading with that huge expanse of tile and that huge mural stretching overhead.  And can you imagine the silence....?

Here is the Abbey Library of Saint Gall in Switzerland.

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Also very cool.  (Although - and I can't stop thinking this - the ceiling decorations look like some odd mildewing fungus.  But I say this in all due respect...)

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And here is the Wren Library of Trinity College in Jolly Olde England.

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Mmmm, the sight makes me want to settle down with a Jolly Olde classic by Dickens or Austen.

Although the lack of twisty stairs / balconies is a little disappointing.  I guess the English were too practical for that? :)

What about you - which of these beautiful libraries would you most like to visit?

(By the way - when did I become an expert in European architecture? Never.)  

Yours,

Ellyn