#private libraries

... endless amount of knowledge ...

Hermann Hesse in his library at Montagnola

" Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it. "

By O. Von Corven - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2307486

As the Classical Period began, the Achaemenid Empire had several 'outstanding libraries' that functions two main purposes: to keep administrative records, such as governmental orders, budgets, and transactions, and as a collection point of resources about subjects such as astronomy, geometry, history, medical science, and philosophy. They still recorded their writings on clay tablets in three languages that relied on cueniform: Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. The collection that was found in Persepolis known as the Persepolis Fortification Archive survives to this date and was rediscovered in the 1930s and thousands of tablets were recovered that detail the years between 509-457 and supply detailed information about the religion, geography, economy, administration, and social conditions in the region, which was 'the heartland of the Persian Great Kings from from Darius I the Great to Araxerxes I', representing 'the single most important extant primary source for understanding the internal workings of the Persian Achaemenid Empire'.

As Alexander III of Macedon, more commonly known as Alexander the Great, stormed across the Near East, a lot of the stored information was redirected through his empire, especially to the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, though there were claims made of a sizable library known as Sarouyeh located in Isfahan, Iran, that might have had its works transferred to Baghdad at some point, though the historicity of this particular library is uncertain. In contrast, the Library of Alexandria is perhaps one of the best known libraries in history and potentially the 'largest and most significant great library of the ancient world'. Under the Ptolemies, it flourished and became 'the capital of knowledge and learning', enticing scholars from around the Greek empire, including Callimachus, a Greek poet and scholar who wrote the Pinakes, which is 'sometimes considered the world's first library catalog', an update from the inventories that existed in the ancient world. It entered a period of decline beginning in 145 BCE as Ptolemy VIII Physcon, who purged the intellectuals from Alexandria as part of a purge of those who opposed him, with even the head librarian, Aristarchus of Samothrace who 'produced the definitive texts of the Homeric poems', to resign and enter into self-imposed exile in Cyprus.

Private libraries began to appear during this time as well, with a list of the most celebrated being collected around 200 CE in the Deipnosophistae, though this work focuses only on the libraries of the ancient Greeks and was silent on the libraries of the ancient Romans. Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, railed against 'libraries fitted out for show by illiterate owners who scarcely read their titles in the course of a lifetime, but displayed the scrolls in bookcases (armaria) of citrus wood inlaid with ivory that ran right to the ceiling: " by now, like bathrooms and hot water, a library is got up as standard equipment for a fine house (domus)"'.

The first public libraries were established in the Roman Empire by Asinius Pollio, one of Julius Caesar's 'most ardent supporters', which he established because Julius Caesar desired to do so. He established the Alna Libertatis, which was in the Forum Romanum in the Atrium Libertatis. It separated Greek and Latin works as part of its architectural design, which later Roman libraries would follow. There was also an art gallery connected to the library, both of which were open to the public. Some scholars disagree with these being the first public libraries, stating that Athens had a public library as early as the 6th century BCE and that they were then widespread, including the Library of Alexandria. The difference between the two was that in Roman libraries, the public had 'direct access to the scrolls, which were kept on shelves built into the walls of a large room. Reading or copying was normally done in the room itself'.

These libraries had a focus on books that were 'religious [in] nature, such as volumes of the Bible or religious service books. "In a number of cases the library was entirely theological and liturgical, and in the greater part of the libraries the non-ecclesiastical content did not reach one third of the total"', with Plato being quite popular for that non-ecclesiastical portion.

In general, I’m interested in other people’s book collections. How many books, which ones, how are they kept, where are they kept? So, one rainy afternoon, I started poking around the book collections of famous people, to see which ones happened to be (technical or actual) book hoarders.

This list is in no way scientific or exhaustive—no doubt there are scores of famous people out there with large libraries. Notables with high figures who didn’t make the top ten include Marilyn Monroe (400 books), George Washington (1,200 books), Charles Darwin (1,480 books), Oprah (1,500 books), Frederick Douglass (2,000-odd books), and David Markson (2,500 books).

Karl Lagerfeld: 300,000 books.

Karl Lagerfeld has more books than pretty much anybody. His collection includes books in French, English, and German, and in order to create more space in his home for all the volumes, he stacks his books sideways—that is, horizontally instead of vertically. Oh, and there’s a catwalk to reach the upper levels. This is Lagerfeld, after all.

George Lucas: 27,000 books+

In 1978, George Lucas established the Lucasfilm Research Library—first collecting volumes at his Los Angeles office, and eventually moving the library to the main house at Skywalker Ranch. In addition to the more than 27,000 books, the collection includes over 17,000 films, as well as photographs, periodicals, press clippings, and more.

Nigella Lawson: 6,000 books 

Food writer, television personality and “domestic  goddess” Nigella Lawson is pictured above in front of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with thousands of cookbooks in her house in Belgravia, London. It’s not just cookbooks that populate her reading lists, though—she also has a literary bent. Her favorite book is David Copperfield. 

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It’s Library Shelfie Day! We’re celebrating with a shelfie featuring books about book collecting, bookplates, and bibliophilism.

The Archive Lady: Why Genealogists Should Never Laminate Genealogical Documents - Abundant Genealogy

Behold the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript: the 15th-Century Text That Linguists & Code-Breakers Can’t Understand - Open Culture

A Bibliophile's Guide to Finding Your Park - National Park Foundation

The Business of California - The Legal Genealogist

Constitution Day Through the Years - Pieces of History

Hispanic American Heritage Month - Folklife Today

How to Stop Hackers from Ransoming Your Mac or iPhone - Lifehacker

Library Launches labs.loc.gov - The Signal