Technology risk losing the way we store written word
Famed across the Known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, build up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings – the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, historians at the University of
St Andrews, begin their survey in the libraries of the ancient world, but deal with these and with medieval libraries fairly swiftly before focusing on early modern Europe. They cover the twin phenomenon of the Reformation and invention of printing by movable type in the West. The explosion is the availability and circulation of texts in print that followed created two profound challenges for European libraries from the mid-15th century onwards. Pressure on space led to the building of bigger and more sophisticated buildings, and the growth of available knowledge led to a more philosophical response, as libraries and librarians had to face the issues of selection and access. When the Universe of knowledge becomes so great, and resources are limited, policies are needed to help chose what to acquire and what to leave aside. With ever-bigger bodies of knowledge to care for libraries have to create their own technologies to enable users to navigate towards the material thye need including catalogues, and schemes of subject classification. The authors allow us to eavesdrop on a future Pope’s excited discovery of Gutenberg’s new technology, and we encounter some of the great libraries of the age now little known outside the cognoscenti. These include the one established by Fernando Colon son of Christopher Columbus, who founded what the authors regarded as the greatest collection of the early modern world, still accessible in the Cathedral of Seville. There’s also the library of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungry, full of cutting-edge humanistic learning, but now dispersed across several libraries in Europe and North America.
They look at the future preservations, explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattle public resources we cherish today. In the Library, the historians, introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world’s great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and revel the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rate valuable manuscripts.
The Library: A Fragile History by Andre Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, Profile Books £25/ Basic Books $35, 528 pages.