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Massimo Listri. The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries. 40th Ed.

30Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)Availability: December 20, 2024
Bibliophiles, rejoice! In this rapturous photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries to celebrate their architectural and historical wonder. From medieval to 19th-century, from private to monastic, this is a cultural-historical pilgrimage to the heart of our halls of learning and the stories they tell.
Table of contents
Hardcover6.1 x 8.5 in.2.45 lb512 pages
“An immersive volume that showcases the finest reading-rooms from around the globe.”
Harper’s Bazaar
“Prepare to be transported to heaven on earth.”
BBC
“Listri’s meticulous attention to minutiae and details is exquisite. One can practically smell the dust on these ancient books.”
Artology
Massimo Listri. The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries. 40th Ed.

Massimo Listri. The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries. 40th Ed.

30

Temples of Knowledge

Exceptional access to the world’s illustrious libraries

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 and the Trinity College Library, home to the Book of Kells and Book of Durrow. 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.

At once a bibliophile beauty pageant, 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 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.

The photographer

Massimo Listri, a Florence native, is a photographer renowned for his masterful architectural and interior compositions. Known for capturing the opulence and rich histories of palaces, libraries, and museums, his work has been featured in design magazines and, in collaboration with international publishers, been collated into over 70 books. He has photographed numerous notable sites, including the Vatican Library and the Palace of Versailles.

The authors

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.

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 Wolfenbüttel 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.

Massimo Listri. The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries. 40th Ed.
Hardcover15.6 x 21.7 cm1.11 kg512 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-9381-6

Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)
Download product images here

5

/5

4 Ratings

Phillip K.,September 23, 2023
Beautiful books from the best art and photography book company ever!

Reportage fotografico stupendo

Cristina E.,September 7, 2023
Libro curatissimo, ogni pagina è una rivelazione, come entrare veramente nelle biblioteche raccolte in questo testo. Fa crescere il desiderio di visitarle tutte…per bibliofili

Stunning

Alex B.,June 20, 2023
Stunning and Sublime... the best £ 20 ever spent. One of those must have books, for every Bibliophile.

Smaller version of the 2022 edition

J.P,June 13, 2023
As far as I'm aware there are no content changes compared to the 2022 edition. This one is smaller in size to save on costs. It beats having to pay six times the price for the original. While bigger is admittedly nicer, this "40th Ed." saves space so the trade off is acceptable for me. Pictures are pretty, and there's a substantial amount of text to go with them. It also has a paint-like new book smell (for fellow book sniffers out there).