The World's Most Beautiful Libraries - new book from Italian photographer's travels around the globe

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Stiftsbibliothek Kremsmu¨nster, Kremsmu¨nster, Austria
This monastery library was built between 1680 and 1689 and contains about 160,000 volumes

Biblioteca Statale Oratoriana dei Girolamini, Naples, Italy
The oldest library in Naples which has been open to the public since 1566

Real Gabinete Portugue^s de Leitura, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
This institution was founded in 1837 by a group of Portuguese immigrants to promote culture amongst the Portuguese community

Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland
The oldest library in Switzerland is also one of the earliest and most important monastic libraries in the world

Strahovska´ Knihovna, Prague, Czech Republic
The library boasts two grand baroque halls but visitors are unable to go inside them: it was found that fluctuations in humidity could affect the paintings

In a new Taschen book, the Italian photographer Massimo Listri travels around the world to some of the oldest libraries, revealing a treasure trove of unique and imaginative architecture

Bibliophiles, rejoice! In this rapturous photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries around the world to celebrate their architectural and historical wonder. From medieval to 19th-century institutions, private to monastic collections, this is a cultural-historical pilgrimage to the heart of our halls of learning and the stories they tell.

From the mighty halls of ancient Alexandria to the coffered ceilings of the Morgan Library in New York, human beings have had a long, enraptured relationship with libraries. Like no other concept and like no other space, the collection of knowledge, learning, and imagination offers a sense of infinite possibility. It’s the unrivaled realm of discovery, where every faded manuscript or mighty clothbound tome might reveal a provocative new idea, a far-flung fantasy, an ancient belief, a religious conviction, or a whole new way of being in the world.

In this new photographic journey, Massimo Listri travels to some of the oldest and finest libraries to reveal their architectural, historical, and imaginative wonder. Through great wooden doors, up spiraling staircases, and along exquisite, shelf-lined corridors, he leads us through outstanding private, public, educational, and monastic libraries, dating as far back as 766. Between them, these medieval, classical, baroque, rococo, and 19th-century institutions hold some of the most precious records of human thought and deed, inscribed and printed in manuscripts, volumes, papyrus scrolls, and incunabula. In each, Listri’s poised images capture the library’s unique atmosphere, as much as their most prized holdings and design details.

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Photo courtesy Taschen / Massimo Listri