library:
earliest traditions
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Paris produces two insights into the expression of ‘library’.
The first is Étienne-Louis Boullée’s design for the Bibliothèque
Nationale of 1785. It is conceived
of as an amphitheatre of books. Such
monumentality is justified given the ever-increasing size of book collections.
Boullée saw a challenge: “S’il est un sujet qui doit plaire à un
architecte, et en même temps échauffer son génie, c’est le projet d’une
bibliothèque publique. The second
project is Henri Labrouste’s Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève of 1843-51.
Again, the monumentality is not lacking.
However, a separation has occurred between reader and book.
The stacks sit one floor below the reading room.
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