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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Libraries in the Manuscript Age

Libraries in the Manuscript Age

de Castilla, Nuria
Déroche, François
Friedrich, Michael

Hardcover

Series: Studies in Manuscript Cultures, Book 29

Medieval & Renaissance HistoryLiterary CriticismAncient History General

ISBN10: 3110772108
ISBN13: 9783110772104
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: Feb 20 2023
Pages: 273
Weight: 1.23
Height: 0.63 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

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.

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