#baroquelibraries

The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, Prague

I return to the Charles Bridge to being my sequence toward the Clementinum Monastery, home to one of the world’s most beautiful monastery libraries. 

The interior of the Clementinum Library. 

The Philosophical Hall, Strahov Monastery. This beautiful library dates from the early baroque period. While it feature ornate carvings and beautiful centerpieces above the bookshelves that receive the ceiling vaults, the space is not a intricate as the high baroque libraries would later demonstrate. Still, the frescoes are beautiful and the windows bring in a soft diffuse light from the nearby courtyard to the right. On the other side of the courtyard is the Theological Hall, a later Baroque Library that was added. 

Old Town Square, Prague

At the top of the stairs, the large portal in the center leads to the grand hall, and the door to the left leads to a foyer before the smaller reading room. Many of the Baroque Reading rooms from this time period serve a dual purpose of offering a place to comfortably read and a place to showcase wealth and knowledge. Here, the two functions are split into separate rooms. The room for reading more comfortable, the room for presentation more grandiose. 

In the mid 1400s, books were rare, and valuable. A single book would be composed of a hundred sheep skins, left out to dry for a year. Then each book would take a year to scribe by hand. Few could read them, making this library unique for being public from the beginning. Because of the value of each book, they were given metal bindings, which were chained to rods that ran along the fronts of the desks. This looks like a church, but it predates the use of pews in churches. During medieval times, prayers sat on the floor. Here, the bench desk combinations were used for reading, The reader would go to the book. Because they were chained, all of the original books remain. It is an inspiring place, one that instantly brings the inhabitant back to a former time. The serenity and focus is inspiring. The ambition of a public library in the Middle Ages is inspiring. 

The reading room adjacent to the medieval library