Table of Contents

Order Nr. 58026 THE GREAT LIBRARIES: FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE RENAISSANCE. Konstantinos Sp Staikos

THE GREAT LIBRARIES: FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE RENAISSANCE.

New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. 9.5 x 13 inches. hardcover, dust jacket. 600 pages. First edition in English, second impression. This monumental work chronicles the development of the library from 300 B.C. to 1600 A.D. Beginning with the clay-tablet libraries of the ancient Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian empires, to those inspired by the Italian Renaissance, Mr. Staikos reveals the majesty of Western literature within these great depositories of human knowledge. Using over 400 illustrations..... READ MORE

Price: $125.00  other currencies  Order nr. 58026

Table of contents

                                     CONTENTS

Foreword by the Publisher                                                      i
Preface by Hélène Ahrweiler                                                iii-v
Author's Introduction                                                     vii-ix
Acknowledgements                                                              xi
Methodology                                                                  xii

                         BOOK ONE: CHAPTERS ONE TO ELEVEN

CHAPTER ONE. THE PEOPLES OF MESOPOTAMIA                                     3-17
I. The Sumerians                                                             3-9
    1. The first schools and the first school libraries                      4-6
    2. The first public record offices                                       6-7
    3. The Epic of Gilgamesh                                                 7-8
II. The age of Hammurabi                                                    8-12
    1. Public record offices and literary libraries                         9-11
    2. How the tablets were classified and arranged                        11-12
    3. The first library catalogue                                            12
III. Assurbanipal's library                                                12-16
    1. What the library contained                                             13
    2. The royal scribes                                                   13-16

CHAPTER TWO. EGYPT                                                         19-27
From the Pharaohs to the Ptolemies
    1. The papyrus roll                                                    19-20
    2. Egyptian writing: Hieroglyphics                                     20-21
    3. The Book of the Dead                                                21-23
    4. Popular reading matter                                              23-26
        (a) Subject matter                                                 23-25
        (b) Readership                                                     25-26
    5. Libraries                                                           26-27

CHAPTER THREE. THE HELLENIC WORLD                                          29-55
From the Pre-Socratics to the end of the Classical period
I. The Pre-Socratic period                                                 29-31
    1. Public libraries                                                    29-30
    2. The first private collections                                       30-31
II. The Classical period                                                   31-55
    1. How the sophists helped to popularize books                         33-37
    2. Private libraries                                                   37-41
    3. The book trade in the Hellenic world                                41-43
    4. Aristotle                                                           43-45
    5. The eventful subsequent history of Aristotle's library              45-49
    6. What books were made of                                             49-52
    7. Library architecture                                                52-55

CHAPTER FOUR. THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD
    THE GREAT LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA                                        57-89
    1. The foundation of the Museum                                        60-63
    2. The Library                                                         63-66
    3. The directors of the Library                                        66-69
        (a) Arrangement by literary genre                                  67-68
        (b) Architectural layout                                              68
    4. The Library's stock of books                                        69-74
    5. The destruction of the Library                                      74-80
    6. A chronicle of the Library's history                                80-81
    7. Postscript                                                          88-89

CHAPTER FIVE. OTHER LIBRARIES IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD                    91-96
I. Pergamum                                                                91-94
    1. The foundation of the library                                       91-92
    2. The library at its zenith                                              92
    3. Expansion of the library                                            92-93
    4. The problem of pseudepigraphy                                       93-94
    5. Architecture                                                           94
II. Ai Khanoum                                                             94-96

CHAPTER SIX. LIBRARIES IN THE ROMAN PERIOD                                97-121
I. The world of Latium                                                    97-109
    1. The beginnings of Roman literature                                 97-100
    2. The first libraries                                               100-101
    3. Education                                                         101-102
    4. Private libraries                                                 102-104
    5. Authors and public recitation                                     104-105
    6. Promotion of books by their authors                                   105
    7. Relations between author and publisher                                105
    8. Publishers                                                        105-106
    9. The antiquarian value of old books                                    106
    10. Booksellers                                                      106-109
II. Public libraries                                                     110-121
    1. Pollio's library                                                      110
    2. Augustus's library (the Palatine Library)                         110-111
    3. Tiberius's library                                                    111
    4. Vespasian's library                                                   111
    5. Trajan's library                                                  111-112
III. Architecture                                                        112-121
    1. Pollio's library                                                  112-113
    2. Augustus's library                                                113-114
    3. The Library of the Temple of Peace                                    114
    4. The Bibliotheca Ulpia                                                 114
    5. Libraries in bath-houses                                          116-117
    6. Private libraries                                                 117-120

CHAPTER SEVEN. LIBRARIES IN THE ROMAN PROVINCES                          123-130
I. The library of Pantaenus                                                  123
II. Hadrian as a patron of art and learning                              123-130
    1. Hadrian's library in Athens                                           125
    2. Hadrian's library at Tibur                                        125-130

CHAPTER EIGHT. THE EARLY CHRISTIAN WORLD                                 131-134
I. The first Christian libraries                                         131-134
    1. Parish libraries                                                      132
    2. Private libraries                                                 132-133
II. Architecture                                                         133-134

CHAPTER NINE. BYZANTlUM                                                  137-187
I. From Constantine to early Byzantine humanism                          140-154
    1. The first 'imperial' library                                      141-143
    2. Education                                                             143
    3. The crisis in the sixth century: from Justinian I to Leo IV       143-146
    4. Monasticism and monastic libraries                                146-149
    5. Private libraries                                                 149-153
    6. Booksellers                                                       153-154
    7. The changeover to lower-case script                                   154
II. Byzantine humanism in the ninth century                              154-165
    1. Three humanistic libraries                                        154-162
    2. Monasteries and centres of monasticism                            162-164
    3. A general library in the imperial palace.                         164-165
III. From Constantine VII to the capture of Constantinople
     by the Crusaders                                                    165-167
IV. The Empire of Nicaea                                                 167-170
    1. Higher education: Nikephoros Blemmydes                            168-169
    2. Theodore II Laskaris                                              169-170
V. The last Byzantine renaissance: from 1261 to 1453                     170-182
    1. The shortage of parchment                                         170-172
    2. Libraries of the literati                                         172-175
    3. University libraries                                              175-177
    4. Byzantine libraries in the West: from 1400 to 1453                177-182
VI. Architecture                                                         182-187
    1. Secular libraries                                                 182-184
    2. Monastic libraries                                                184-186

CHAPTER TEN. THE MIDDLE AGES                                             189-212
I. The Dark Ages                                                         190-198
    1. Book production in the Late Roman period                          190-192
    2. The Greek world at the service of monastic learning:
       The Vivarium                                                      192-196
    3. Schools in the Middle Ages                                            196
    4. The decline of Latin scholarship                                  196-197
    5. The Celtic and Anglo-Saxon worlds                                 197-198
II. The Carolingian renaissance                                          202-205
    1. Alcuin: Educational reforms and the revival of libraries          202-203
    2. Libraries during the Carolingian renaissance                      203-205
III. Books and libraries at the universities                             205-212
    1. The foundation of the first universities                          205-209
    2. The pecia system                                                  209-210
    3. University libraries                                              210-212

CHAPTER ELEVEN. THE RENAISSANCE                                          215-238
I. Humanism                                                              215-226
    1. The first humanist libraries. Lovati and his circle               215-218
    2. The revival of the bilingual library                              218-221
    3. Court libraries                                                   221-224
    4. Academies and scriptoria                                          224-226
II. The achievements of the early printers                               226-235
    1. Humanist presses                                                  229-232
    2. The impact of printed books on the growth of libraries            232-235
III. Architecture                                                        235-238
    1. Three-aisled libraries                                            236-237
    2. Libraries with painted decoration                                 237-238

BOOK TWO: CHAPTERS TWELVE TO TWENTY-FIVE
Ch. 12. The Library of the Oecumenical Patriarchate                      244-265
Ch. 13. The Library of the Monastery of St. John on Patmos               266-283
Ch. 14. The Vatican Library                                              284-303
Ch. 15. The Biblioteca Malatestiana at Cesena                            304-319
Ch. 16. The Biblioteca Marciana                                          320-337
Ch. 17. The Biblioteca Laurenziana                                       338-357
Ch. 18. The St. Gall Library                                             358-377
Ch. 19. The Library of Beatus Rhenanus at Selestat                       378-391
Ch. 20. The Herzog August Library at Wolfenbiittel                       392-407
Ch. 21. The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris                              408-427
Ch. 22. The Nationalbibliothek in Vienna                                 428-445
Ch. 23. The Corvinian Library                                            446-463
Ch. 24. The Library of Strahov Abbey                                     464-483
Ch. 25. The Bodleian Library                                             484-501

ABBREVIATIONS                                                            503-504
BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                             507-539
INDEX                                                                    543-563