What do you think?
Rate this book
The Great Libraries: From Antiquity to Renaissance
This monumental work chronicles the development of the library from 300 B.C. to 1600 A.D. Beginning with the clay-tablet libraries of the ancient Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian empires, to those inspired by the Italian Renaissance, Mr. Staikos reveals the majesty of Western literature within these great depositories of human knowledge. Using over 400 illustrations [130 in full color] the reader is treated to hundreds of beautifully photographed interiors of these legendary libraries and their rare treasures.
Chapter by chapter, the stories of the fabled libraries of Alexandria, Greece and Rome unfold like an unbroken chain, connecting the wisdom of the ancients to the magnificent libraries of the European Renaissance.
The author also shares with us the very personal stories of the founders and the un-sung librarians, who struggled during wars and countless disasters to preserve and protect their precious holdings. The chapters on the contributions of the Byzantine and Greek monastic libraries, the foundation of the Western Renaissance, are especially revealing.
Mr. Staikos' original scholarship and well-written prose makes a very readable work of surprising originality. He has created a literary masterpiece that captures the rich heritage of one of man's greatest achievements. This is a very special, large-format volume no bibliophile will want to be without. Co-published with The British Library.
Chapter by chapter, the stories of the fabled libraries of Alexandria, Greece and Rome unfold like an unbroken chain, connecting the wisdom of the ancients to the magnificent libraries of the European Renaissance.
The author also shares with us the very personal stories of the founders and the un-sung librarians, who struggled during wars and countless disasters to preserve and protect their precious holdings. The chapters on the contributions of the Byzantine and Greek monastic libraries, the foundation of the Western Renaissance, are especially revealing.
Mr. Staikos' original scholarship and well-written prose makes a very readable work of surprising originality. He has created a literary masterpiece that captures the rich heritage of one of man's greatest achievements. This is a very special, large-format volume no bibliophile will want to be without. Co-published with The British Library.
563 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Konstantinos Staikos
21 books4 followersKonstantinos Staikos is a Greek architect and book historian.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Want to read
February 13, 2019A little pricey but it's the ultimate in eye candy for every book lover. I look forward to buying myself a copy and spending hours upon hours perusing the pages in glassy-eyed bliss.
April 28, 2020
For years, I scoured eBay and reclusive Amazon sellers to find a copy of this that wasn't over $180. Finally, some guy out of West Palm Beach let me haggle it down to $40, so when this enormous hardback arrived, the nerding out radar was maxed.
I thought I was getting a coffee table book. You know, books that one doesn't really read, per se, but rather, the enjoyment and purpose is derived from the splendid and manifold photographs throughout. A browsing, pleasant, time-passing book. A step up from a book you read on the toilet, and a step down from a book you read before bed and leave on the nightstand and dream about.
This isn't a coffee table book, guys. Not even close.
Rather, it's a research book, a treatise of the history of libraries. And though there ARE photographs, and they are splendid and manifold, there's also some copious amounts of text and footnotes and endnotes and inset notes and notes ABOUT the notes, etc. Noteception = present.
I enjoyed it, even though it wasn't what I'd been expecting. The library's fraught and fanciful trajectory was tracked so lovingly, from Hellenistic times to modern, from the Corvinian to the Bodelian. The author name dropped illuminated manuscripts and Romanesque abbeys like a rapper namedrops alcoholic beverage brands in a song, but I got the gist of it. The author, a Greek interior architect and designer, clearly undertook this project as a labor of love, and it really shows. I can picture Rebecca from "Pawn Stars" holding this book close to her heart and fair swooning.
Highly recommend for anyone interested in libraries beyond Alexandria and Congress.
I thought I was getting a coffee table book. You know, books that one doesn't really read, per se, but rather, the enjoyment and purpose is derived from the splendid and manifold photographs throughout. A browsing, pleasant, time-passing book. A step up from a book you read on the toilet, and a step down from a book you read before bed and leave on the nightstand and dream about.
This isn't a coffee table book, guys. Not even close.
Rather, it's a research book, a treatise of the history of libraries. And though there ARE photographs, and they are splendid and manifold, there's also some copious amounts of text and footnotes and endnotes and inset notes and notes ABOUT the notes, etc. Noteception = present.
I enjoyed it, even though it wasn't what I'd been expecting. The library's fraught and fanciful trajectory was tracked so lovingly, from Hellenistic times to modern, from the Corvinian to the Bodelian. The author name dropped illuminated manuscripts and Romanesque abbeys like a rapper namedrops alcoholic beverage brands in a song, but I got the gist of it. The author, a Greek interior architect and designer, clearly undertook this project as a labor of love, and it really shows. I can picture Rebecca from "Pawn Stars" holding this book close to her heart and fair swooning.
Highly recommend for anyone interested in libraries beyond Alexandria and Congress.
July 10, 2023
This is a wonderful book filled with history and rich imagery. If you love booklore, then this is a must-read.
February 18, 2010
Do you think the library would notice if I kept this book?
April 11, 2017
No time to finish, because it's massive and I'm libraried-out at the moment. But this was great! Exactly what I like in a history book- FREQUENT FOOTNOTES!!! Seriously. I can't convey how much I love footnotes. Also, the writing was accessible to me, even though I zoned out in the Hellenistic period. I'll have to revisit next year.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews