The Great Libraries: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (3000 B.C. to A.D.1600) [Hardcover]

Konstantinos Staikos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000 | ISBN-10: 1584560185 | ISBN-13: 978-1584560180 | Edition: 1st English ed

This work chronicles the development of the library from 3000 BC to 1600 AD. Beginning with the clay tablet libraries of the ancient empires, to those inspired by the Italian Renaissance, the history of these great depositories of human knowledge is examined, together with that of the scholars and librarians who struggled to increase and preserve their precious holdings. Illustrated throughout, this large format volume should provide an addition to the library of every bibliophile.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

At first glance, this book, copublished with the British Library, appears very similar to Anthony Hobson's Great Libraries (Putnam, 1970. o.p.), but only the second half is comparable to the earlier work. Book 1 is an encyclopedic narrative history of libraries from approximately 3000 BCE to 1600 CE. Except for two short chapters on library development in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, this section is nearly equally divided between the libraries of the Greek East and the Latin West. Book 2 contains individual chapters on 14 European libraries founded before 1600. Ten of the libraries, including the Vatican Library, France's Biblioth que Nationale, and Oxford University's Bodleian Library, are also covered in Hobson. Staikos also includes additional Eastern European libraries such as the Oecumenical Patriarchate Library in Constantinople, the Strahov Abbey Library in Prague, and Hungary's defunct Corvinian Library but, unlike Hobson, excludes all non-European libraries. Author Staikos (The Charta of Greek Printing) has worked on the interior design of two of the historic Greek libraries featured here, and he displays impressive scholarship in this lavishingly illustrated (in both black-and-white and color) tome. For large libraries collecting on library science and European history and civilization.DThomas F. O'Connor, Manhattan Coll. Libs., Bronx, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

Product Details

• Hardcover: 563 pages
• Publisher: Oak Knoll Pr; 1st English ed edition (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584560185
• ISBN-13: 978-1584560180
• Product Dimensions: 13.4 x 9.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,498,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on Libraryhistory!, December 11, 2001

By 

Jesper Mikkelsen (Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Libraries: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (3000 B.C. to A.D.1600) (Hardcover)

This is definetely one of the most stunning books about books, that
have been published in recent times. First, the sheer size seems
enormous, but what really counts is the insides. The book is devided
into two parts, the first tracing the history of libraries, the second
describing some of europes most exciting libraries.
The text is easy to read, and never becomes academically, but always
well told and interesting.

The production of the book derserves a few words. As told before
this is a big and heavy book. One could actually wish, that the book had
been split into two smaller volumes, since its hard to sit and read with
a volume this gigantic. With that said, it should be noted that everything
else about this book is topnotch; the paper, the binding and the illustrations
(nearly one on every page).
This book deserves to be on every booklovers shelf.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest books on libraryhistory!, December 11, 2001

By 

Jesper Mikkelsen (Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Libraries: From Antiquity to the Renaissance 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600 (Hardcover)

This is definetely one of the most stunning books about books, that
have been published in recent times. First, the sheer size seems
enormous, but what really counts is the insides. The book is devided
into two parts, the first tracing the history of libraries, the second describing
some of europes most exciting libraries.
The text is easy to read, and never becomes academically, but always well
told and interesting.

The production of the book derserves a few words. As told before this is a big
and heavy book. One could actually wish, that the book had been split into two
smaller volumes, since its hard to sit and read with a volume this gigantic.
With that said, it should be noted that everything else about this book is topnotch;
the paper, the binding and the illustrations(nearly one on every page).
This book deserves to be on every booklovers shelf.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An impressive work of enduring scholarship, December 13, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Libraries: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (3000 B.C. to A.D.1600) (Hardcover)

The Great Libraries From Antiquity To The Renaissance is a 600 page work of impressive historical scholarship that traces the development of the library from its beginnings as repositories of clay tablets in ancient empires of Sumaria and Assyro-Babylonian, to the fabled libraries of Alexandria, Greece and Rome, to the Byzantine and Greek monastic libraries, to the magnificent libraries of the European Renaissance, to the phenomena of the free public libraries throughout the modern western world. Enhanced with 200 full color illustrations and 200 black & white illustrations, The Great Libraries From Antiquity To The Renaissance is an impressive work of enduring scholarship. The Great Libraries From Antiquity To The Renaissance is an especially appropriate recommendation as an academic or community library Memorial Fund acquisition selection .