The Aesthetics of Libraries and Reading Rooms

[摘要] Libraries are a permanent feature in the cultural history of the world. The earliest, being collections of clay tablets, date back to 2600 BC (1). Library buildings were features in early town planning, in towns such as the Hellenistic Pergamum in Anatolia (today's Turkey) and Alexandria in Egypt (third to first centuries BC), both collections being widely famous in the ancient world. It is said that there were 28 libraries in Rome in the fourth century (1). After the fall of the Roman Empire, monasteries became the most significant book repositories. The books were collected and copied there from the seventh century onwards, but spectacular Baroque libraries were built in Benedictine monasteries as late as the 18th century. In parallel, from around the 11th century, libraries appeared in the new institutions: the universities. They became central to universities, and today often are an integral part of the image of a particular university, such as the Trinity College Library in Dublin, where the Book of Kells …

[学科分类] 过敏症与临床免疫学