Libraries 2: Strahov library, Prague

Strahov Monastery in Prague, Czech Republic, was founded in 1149.  It has two libraries, the Philosophical Hall and the Theological Hall.

The Philosophical Hall seems to have a lot in common with showpiece libraries around the world: ornate balconies, vintage books and a painted ceiling.  But distinguishing this library is the existence of a full panorama photo in all dimensions that has been created of it.  Stitched together from thousands of high resolution photos, it claims to be the current "largest indoor photo in the world".

You can view and navigate it in full here.  It is wonderful to be able to pan all through this vista, and zoom to closeups of the books (yes, you can read the titles of quite a few of them).  In fact, most of the shelves seem to hold two rows of books, one in front of another, so there's possibly twice as many books here as it seems.  How to build up a large number of impressive-looking books: either get them custom bound, as Vanderbilt often did, or acquire numerous sets of books.

Some of the titles I saw here include a set of the complete works of Goethe, and a number of sets of history books on various countries, such as "Theiner Monumenta Historica" sets for Poland, Russia, Hungary, etc.   There's more than immediately meets the eye, too.  If you look closely, you'll see that books are frequently shelved

Libraries are built up, expanded over time.  Yet like this one, many libraries become mausoleums of artifacts, rather than breathing, functional communicators of knowledge and wisdom.  Inevitable in a sense, because paradoxically books become both more valuable over time, and for the most part less useful.  This library has, in fact, been transformed into a museum.  It would be comforting to think the Strahov libraries could still be used for academic research, but it rather looks like such a use would be discouraged.

Coming up: another display library, but of a very different type.  What would you collect if you had more money than you knew what to do with?

The consummate private library: The Biltmore

Our library is rather modest. It has grown organically, and so is rather a jumble to look at. There's about 800+ books (and about 600+ CDs), not all of which can fit. Some day we'll have to have to get it done properly, with built-in cases.


On the other end of the scale, there's the Biltmore.  

It's the private library we can but aspire to.  Two floors of books in a sumptuous setting of rich carved wood and iron lacework.  An extra large fireplace and a Pellegrini painting set in the ceiling to rival those of the great European libraries.  What more could you want?


To put it in context, it's a Vandebilt holding.  It's in the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, part of the largest privately-owned house in the US.

The house was modelled in the style of the French chateau, was built over a hundred years ago by a Vandebilt who sunk most of his time and money into the estate - then promptly died.

The books are genuine antiques and rarities, the collection having been built up from the time the house was built.  There are about 10,000 in the room of a total of about 27,000, most of which are in storage.  With the caveat that the original owner was an avid reader and book collector, I doubt that these books ever saw much real use; they certainly aren't handled any more, except to catalogue them, a process that only began properly within the last ten years.  If you're wondering: history books predominate, alongside architecture, art, poems and plays and various other fields.  Many were deliberately acquired in an original unbound state, which would explain some of the uniformity of the volumes.

There is a number of secret panels around the room; the balcony level includes doors that lead to the second-floor bedrooms.

The estate - what is left of it - is still owned by the Vandebilt family, and open to the public - there's even a conference there, on Data Governance, later this month.  I wish.

There's very little documentation on the library specifically; but some more detail can be found here (with a few more photos including the full glory of the ceiling) as well as in an interview with the special collections manager here.  More photos demonstrating the full scope of the library can be seen here; more of the house can be seen here.

In lieu of visiting there in the near future, here's hoping someone can stitch up the photos into a good VR panorama...