202407281242 The Private Library

Being a More or Less Compendious Disquisition on The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom

The Private Library is the domestic bookroom: that quiet, book-wrapt space that guarantees its owner that there is at least one place in the world where it is possible to be happy. The history of its architecture and furnishing extends back almost to the beginning of history and forward toward a future that is in equal parts amazing and alarming.

All libraries are magical rooms. All their windows look out onto Faërie, and all their carpets can fly. […] Entering our library should feel like easing into a hot tub, strolling into a magic store, emerging into the orchestra pit, or entering a chamber of curiosities, the club, the circus, our cabin on an outbound yacht, the house an old friend. It is a setting forth and a coming back to center. ¹ (pp. 1, 3)

A visitor standing before this instantiation of language must have felt the true, right sense of the numinous.¹ (pp. 14)

A private library is a place for rest and relaxation, but also contemplation and thought. It is a place for the individual to find respite and transport oneself to new worlds. In its purest form, a library is only a library if that is its sole purpose. A study or an office can have many of the qualities of a private library but it may not truly be one if it can’t provide the enveloping nature of a pure library.

Private libraries have undergone tremendous change over time and yet have a remarkable resemblance throughout all of history. Type one libraries were those things of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and ancient Greece. Simply places to store tablets, papyrus, and the like to be taken out and read when needed. Type two libraries were those of classical antiquity of Greece and the Roman Republic. They consisted of a small stack room, now with shelves but bereft of furniture with access to a colonnade or peristyle for reading in the light. Type three libraries admitted furniture and became much more grand. 202205041102 Vitruvius wrote about the proper architecture for public libraries and the necessity of emulating public spaces for the private libraries of important people in De Architectura (202205041105 Firmitas, utilitas, venustas).