Libraries are “well-kept gardens, where at every step new flowers spring up, beautifying the area, and fragrant with pleasure.” This is what the German theologian and educator Johann Christoph Stockhausen wrote in 1771.
Libraries look back on an eventful past and are as diverse as mankind itself. The oldest surviving libraries in Europe date from the early Middle Ages. The Abbey Library of St. Gallen in Switzerland has existed since the 8th century, the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome since the year 800, and the library of the Archabbey of St. Peter in Salzburg since the middle of the 9th century.
The most beautiful libraries in the world
These are just three of the libraries photographer Massimo Listri used for the illustrated book “The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries”. held for eternity. The magnificent work was published in December 2022 with large-format photographs showing a selection of the most beautiful libraries in the world – built between the 15th and 19th centuries.
Compact edition on the market
After the XXL bestseller, Taschen Verlag is now bringing out a more compact edition of this work that is easy on the wallet. The photographic journey leads through carved wooden doors, up mysterious spiral staircases, along exquisite corridors lined with shelves. On his photo expedition Listri visits the monastery of St. Michael in Metten, the palace library of Mafra or the “Portuguese Royal Cabinet of Literature” in Rio de Janeiro. His pictures always impressively capture the atmosphere of the respective library and show the most valuable holdings and unique design details.
the authors
Essays by Elisabeth Sladek and Georg Ruppelt accompany Listri’s photographs in three languages: German, English and French. Sladek studied art history, classical archeology and Jewish studies in Vienna and wrote her dissertation at the Max Planck Institute in Rome. Ruppelt studied history, German, education and philosophy and wrote his doctoral thesis on “Friedrich Schiller in National Socialist Germany”. After his studies, he began his career as a librarian and, after various positions, became deputy director at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel in 1987 and then headed the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hanover from 2002 to 2016 as director.