James W. P. Campbell

This is a beautiful showing the history of the larege nd relly gorgeous librries of the world, but stressing Western Europe. It takes from early building ruins, through the age of fewer books and kept secret or locked up in some way, to the current openness. The large beautiful reading rooms with decorated ceilings surrounded by an oustanding supply of well bound reference books seems out of our ordinary appreciation. But these places still do exist, but usually in the large cities, show more well-established universities and religious citadels. These are the places of cavernous stacks and overstuffed balconies. This book is a welcome addition to any bibliophile's own library show less

An interesting and informative book. Easy to read and a joy to browse through the gorgeous photographs. A pleasure to own this one.

A stunningly beautiful pictorial & authoritative architectural history of over eighty of the world's libraries. I love books and I love libraries! What a fabulous $75.00 Christmas gift of this year 2015 given to me by my sister Tina and her husband Stephen!

It covers the history of the library from ancient times to the very present. While the majority of the focus is on Continental Europe and England there are a number of Asian and American examples included as well.