The Library: A Fragile History

Book review by Deane Barker tags: books, library
An image of the cover of the book "The Library: A Fragile History"

This is exactly what it promised – a long, detailed history of libraries, from scrolls in chests to books on the shelves.

Libraries really started with the church. They were first repositories of books, and they grew from there. Back in the day, books were expensive because mass printing was in its infancy. Books were considered a sign of wealth.

The book covers the growth of book collecting through Europe and beyond. It covers lots of interesting periods in history like:

There’s a lot here, but it’s a nice read. There are two sets of pictures throughout the book.

Book Info

Author
Andrew Pettegree
Year
Pages
517
Acquired
  • I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
  • A hardcover copy of this book is currently in my home library.

Here are some notes I took on the acquisition of this book:

I bought this at a bookstore in Sydney while I was down there on business. I had seen it the day before, but went back the next day and it was gone. One of the employees found it in the pile of books about to go back to the published for being unsold.

Links to this – Vainglorious April 11, 2023
The root is “vainglory,” which is clearly just a compound word of “vain” and “glory.”
Links to this – Psalter April 5, 2023
This is just another name for the Psalms. “Psalter” is often used to refer to a bound collection of the just Psalms – so a small book of the Psalms.
Links to this – Abecedarium January 15, 2022
This is the alphabetical list of letters present in every childhood classroom, and printed on every elementary school desk: “A-B-C-D…” Technically, this is an ordered list of letters in any language, not just English. Now, you would think it’s a word formed from “ABC,” but it’s not. It’s actually a...