Book: Period Libraries

[jducoeur]

Rather specialized and a tad dry, but it seems like some of my friends might well be interested: Project Gutenberg has just put up Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods, by J. W. Clark. This book from 1894 goes through the evolution of book-storage in period, from the early days when you might have a full desk for a single volume, through the later period need for more modern bookcases.

It's almost recursive to point SCAdians at a book on the history of bibliophilia, but does seem somehow apt...

Comments

[selkiechick]

That sounds facinating. One of the things I had been considering researching (for fun) was what books "literate" people were expected to have read at different times- what is the bookshelf of the "educated man" in 1500, or at 1700...

[jducoeur]

Very neat idea, and I have only the vaguest notion of what the answer would be. (Aside from the Bible, which I suspect is true for most times after it became legitimate to read it in the vernacular...)