The royal site of Saint-Laurent-de-l'Escurial is a large complex (monastery, museum, college library, and palace) which is located on the territory of the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, located 45 kilometers to the north -West of Madrid. It is a former residence of the King of Spain.
The library, with a collection of more than 45,000 volumes, is located in a large nave 54 meters long, 9 meters wide and 10 meters high. The floor is of marble and the library furniture of noble, rich and sculpted wood. In the great hall, the vaulted ceiling is decorated with frescoes representing the seven liberal arts: rhetoric, dialectics, music, grammar, arithmetic, geometry and astrology. A large sphere also testifies to the interest of the time for astronomical discoveries.
Apart of the El Escorial Monastery, this Spanish library acts as a statement of intellectual leadership and Renaissance artistry. King Philip II of Spain commissioned the construction of the complex in 1563 that also includes a monastery, gardens, and pantheons for former rulers. The vaulted library showcases a series of seven frescoes, done by notable artists, such as Pellegrino Tibaldi and Federico Zuccaro, depicting the liberal arts: arithmetic, astronomy, dialectic, geometry, grammar, music, and rhetoric.
The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest most celebrated libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library. the institution’s 13 million printed items Together, the Bodleian Libraries hold over 13 million printed items with amongst, the Magna Carta and Shakespeare’s First Folio. First opened to scholars in 1602, it incorporates an earlier library built by the University in the 15th century to house books donated by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester. Since 1602 it has expanded, slowly at first but with increasing momentum over the last 150 years, to keep pace with the ever-growing accumulation of books, papers and other materials, but the core of the old buildings has remained intact.
Known to many Oxford scholars simply as ‘the Bod’, these buildings are still used by students and scholars from all over the world, and they attract an ever-increasing number of visitors.
One of the most recognizable buildings apart of the library group, the masterful Radcliffe Camera, designed by James Gibbs, is the earliest example of a circular library in England. The neoclassical structure has gain popularity in mainstream culture after being feature in films such as Young Sherlock Holmes and The Golden Compass.
Spanning across three buildings on Madison Avenue, the Morgan Library & Museum holds the private collection of financier J.P. Morgan. Bronze and inlaid Circassian walnut bookcases line the gold-decorated room with illuminated and original manuscripts of Sir Walter Scott and de Balzac sitting at the center of the space. Behind the shelves lie two secret stairways that connect to the balconies above and offer exquisite views of the fresco-covered ceilings by H. Siddons Mowbray. The galleries of the New York City landmark also display drawings from renowned artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso.
The priceless collection is rich with 350,000 pieces. It includes drawings and prints, old books, manuscripts from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, manuscripts of literary and historical works, original scores and antique seals. There are thus illuminations of the Ramsey Psalter, the Lindau Gospels, three copies of the Gutenberg Bible, a manuscript by Mozart, illustrated letters by Van Gogh and even the largest set of Rembrandt engravings preserved in the United States. There are also scores of Mozart, the original manuscript of Eugénie Grandet that Honoré de Balzac had given to Madame Hanska, jewelry and silverware, the original manuscript of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry as well as scores by Beethoven and Brahms.
The collection of seals from the Near East in particular is one of the largest in the world with pieces between 3500 and 330 BC.
The former court library to the House of Habsburg, this Baroque treasure hosts over 7 million objects dating back as far as the 4th century. The Austrian National Library found its permanent home in the Hofburg Palace in 1735 after the space was constructed by architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and his son Johann Emanuel. A work of art all on its own, the State Hall of the library stretches nearly 80 meters with a vibrant ceiling fresco by painter Daniel Gran and a collection of four Venetian globes.
While the Wiblingen Monastery was founded in 1093, the whimsical Rococo library wasn’t completed until 1744 under the design direction of Christian Wiedemann. The hand-carved wooden columns and statues, painted to resemble marble, depict the Christian virtues and disciplines with the books placed to correspond with the statues. The 15,000-item collection includes a large collection of both Pagan- and Christian-related imagery.
The beginnings of the George Peabody Library date back to the founding of the Peabody Institute in 1857 by George Peabody, who dedicated the institution to the citizens of Baltimore. Now a part of Johns Hopkins University, the “cathedral of books” contains nearly 300,000 volumes ranging from religion to British art to science. The library’s atrium soars 61 feet into the air with gold scalloped columns and cast-iron balconies and create a mesmerizing space for teaching and research.
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