{"product_id":"9783836593816","title":"Massimo Listri. The World's Most Beautiful Libraries. 45th Ed.","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. \u003cb\u003eLike no other concept and like no other space, the collection of knowledge, learning, and imagination offers a sense of infinite possibility\u003c\/b\u003e. 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this new photographic journey, \u003cb\u003eMassimo Listri\u003c\/b\u003e travels to some of the \u003cb\u003eoldest and finest libraries to reveal their architectural, historical, and imaginative wonder\u003c\/b\u003e. 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 \u003cb\u003emedieval, classical, baroque, rococo, and 19th-century\u003c\/b\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFeatured libraries include \u003cb\u003ethe papal collections of the Vatican Apostolic Library\u003c\/b\u003e and the \u003cb\u003eTrinity College Library\u003c\/b\u003e, home to the \u003ci\u003eBook of Kells \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eBook of Durrow\u003c\/i\u003e. 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 the Franciscan monastery in Lima, Peru, with its horde of archival Inquisition documents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt once a \u003cb\u003ebibliophile beauty pageant\u003c\/b\u003e, an ode to knowledge, and an evocation of the particular magic of print, this compact edition of our best-selling XXL-title is above all \u003cb\u003ea cultural-historical pilgrimage \u003c\/b\u003eto the heart of our halls of learning, to the stories they tell, as much as those they gather in printed matter along polished shelves.","brand":"TASCHEN","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42371118268477,"sku":"9783836593816","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0603\/0838\/9949\/files\/9783836593816_p0.jpg?v=1771564653","url":"https:\/\/www.tatteredcover.com\/products\/9783836593816","provider":"Tattered Cover","version":"1.0","type":"link"}