Libraries in the Manuscript Age

Description

The case studies presented in this volume help illuminate the rationale for the founding of libraries in an age when books were handwritten, thus contributing to the comparative history of libraries. They focus on examples ranging from the seventh to the seventeenth century emanating from the Muslim World, East Asia, Byzantium and Western Europe. Accumulation and preservation are the key motivations for the development of libraries. Rulers, scholars and men of religion were clearly dedicated to collecting books and sought to protect these fragile objects against the various hazards that threatened their survival. Many of these treasured books are long gone, but there remain hosts of evidence enabling one to reconstruct the collections to which they belonged, found in ancient buildings, literary accounts, archival documentation and, most crucially, catalogues. With such material at hand or, in some cases, the manuscripts of a certain library which have come down to us, it is possible to reflect on the nature of these libraries of the past, the interests of their owners, and their role in the intellectual history of the manuscript age. Contents Towards a Comparative Study of Libraries in the Manuscript Age The Islamic World The Islamic World Princes’s Readings: The Poetry in Mūlāy Zaydān’s Collection at El Escorial Collecting Books in Eighteenth-Century Morocco: The Bannānī Library in Fez East and South Asia Two Libraries of the Tang Capital Institutional Libraries in Japan’s Classic Court Age (Heian Period, 794–1185) Palm-leaf Manuscript Libraries in Southern India Around the Thirteenth Century: The Sarasvatī Library in Chidambaram Byzantium How Many Books Does It Take to Make an Emperor’s Library? Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus and a Chapter of History of the Manuscript Book Byzantine Libraries: The Public and the Private Western Europe How Private Libraries Contributed to the Transmission of Texts Libraries and Teaching: Comments on Western Universities in the Middle Ages An Ideal Library for an Ideal King? Showcasing the Collection, Organization and Function of the Royal Louvre Library in Late Medieval Paris Index of Manuscripts