The Library: A Fragile History

Abstract

In The Library: A Fragile History, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen utilize copious primary and secondary sources, as well as websites, to trace the evolution of worldwide libraries and various forms of reading and recordkeeping materials from antiquity to the digital age. Also consulted were numerous international, multilingual sources. In the process, the authors investigate the social, cultural, historical, political, religious, military, national and international, and technological influences that impacted the meanings and developments of institutions and their collections. Pettegree and der Weduwen are ideally suited to this monumental task. Pettegree is professor of modern history at the University of St. Andrews and a renowned expert on the history of book and media transformations. Der Weduwen is a historian, postdoctoral fellow at St. Andrews, and author of books on the history of newspapers, advertising, and publishing. They collaborated previously on titles related to book and library history.This sweeping history of the evolution of books and print culture, reading rooms, and libraries investigates collections of materials—papyrus scrolls, codices, and manuscripts, as well as parchment, illuminated, and printed books—and housing facilities, including chests and cabinets; imperial courts; monasteries, mosques, synagogues, temples, and churches; great halls and private spaces; legal and research centers; universities; and national and special repositories. Libraries are defined not only as intellectual resources but also as architectural centerpieces, cultural capital, financial assets, symbols of power and control, and “statement[s] of what a nation or ruling class stood for” (9). The pivotal roles of religion; wars, incursions, and military conquests; political, national, and international events; finance; and technology are extensively covered by the authors. They also assess the impact of philosophical movements, such as humanism, the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Ages of Discovery and Enlightenment, on library genesis and expansion, collection development (or destruction), and access issues. Further, Pettegree and der Weduwen trace perceptions of and reactions to rare, illustrated, and printed materials through the ages, and they examine the advent of book catalogs and lotteries and their bearing on the evaluation, pricing, and sales of books. The involvement in book and library development of well- and lesser-known figures, including national and faith leaders, library professionals and benefactors, town council members and city administrators, and community residents, offers personal dimensions that supplement reportage of historic details.Pettegree and der Weduwen contend that the evolution of libraries is not linear and that throughout the ages libraries survived because they adapted to ever-changing public attitudes and social, cultural, historical, religious, and political considerations. Following intentional or unintentional degradation, ruin, destruction (including instances of environmental or collateral damage), neglect, or plunder of libraries, a recovery phase often succeeded growth and decline, even if recovery took decades or centuries. Recovery included changes in stakeholders, administrative control, and purpose and focus of collections. The authors maintain that “no society has ever been satisfied with the collections inherited from previous generations” (2) and that “the desire to accumulate knowledge competed with the desire to control access to it, or to use it to somehow ‘improve’ its readers” (7). They further contend that well-maintained and appreciated libraries require constant curation and appropriate disposal. These decisions are often contingent on specific circumstances and the personal and/or professional agendas of stakeholders responsible for decision-making. For instance, while scholar librarians such as Gabriel Naudé served the professional community writ large and bolstered their personal prospects with their expertise and professionalism, in many European facilities librarians functioned merely as sinecures. The Library is punctuated with such informative examples, which complement the content without interrupting the flow of the text. Ultimately, the cogently identified theses provide an outline for the forthcoming text, which is predicated on sound and valid arguments supported by a profusion of historical, intergenerational, and international examples, as well as critical analysis and insights.The Library makes several significant contributions to library history. First, Pettegree and der Weduwen demonstrate that while local situations, conditions, and eras varied, the commonalities nations and cultures share evidence generalizable patterns of library genesis and development. Second, they expand content cursorily addressed—if addressed at all—in previously published broad-scope works. While they focus primarily on European, Mediterranean, and, later, American facilities—exclusive focuses of many library histories—they present far broader geographical and cultural perspectives than comparable works. They also include comparative histories, such as the functions and contributions of eastern European libraries and print culture, as well as histories of sophisticated Aztec and Mayan facilities. These latter repositories, when “discovered,” were jealously perceived as threats to European culture, which made them targets for conquest. Particularly threatening were Mayan achievements in mathematics, astronomy, and alphabetical writing that prompted systematic destruction of their books and archives. When certitude regarding circumstances or conditions is impossible, as in the “elusive” histories of court libraries in Cairo and Baghdad or of medieval Chinese, Korean, and Japanese book collections, reasonable explanations are provided. For example, the authors remark that the consequence of the destruction of great Muslim libraries during the medieval period is that reliable information on the scope of their collections is impossible to determine.Specific features of The Library include numerous black-and-white illustrations and photographs, as well as full-color plates, which supply visual complements that further enliven the rich text. Abundant, informative endnotes and an extensive index are also valuable components. Comprehensive bibliographies organized by chapter, rather than collectively compiled, facilitate research. Noteworthy strengths of the book include superb structure and logical organization that readily enable contextualization of the content. The exquisite prose makes reading a joy.The Library has few limitations, though select topics are conspicuous in their omission. The authors discuss seventh-century Chinese and, later, Islamic societies’ origination of paper, as well as China’s invention of woodblock printing, but there are few references to Chinese book and library history. A brief section on the “‘library cave’” in Dunhuang, western China—an underground monastic complex that housed Buddhist texts and diverse international works—is the exception. Also missing from The Library is a discussion of the Cairo Geniza, the irreplaceable primary-source collections of manuscript fragments and documents that record every aspect of Jewish lifeways from 870 CE to the nineteenth century. This omission is especially glaring given the authors’ extensive coverage of the devastation of Jewish libraries by papal orders in the second half of the sixteenth century, as well as the Nazis’ destruction and appropriation of Jewish books and print culture. The authors address Muslim libraries in northern and northeastern Africa, but coverage of Timbuktu’s research center makes no reference to its sub-Saharan locale.The Library will remain the definitive broad-scope study of libraries and print culture for years to come, but two previously published titles merit mention. Although briefer and less comprehensive than Pettegree and der Weduwen’s opus, Matthew Battles’s Library: An Unquiet History is comparable in its broad focus on libraries. Justifiably praised when initially released, The Great Libraries: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (3000 BC‒1600 AD), by Konstantinos Sp. Staikos, is supplanted by The Library.1Material on Asian libraries and print culture is relatively scant, but two works are highly recommended. Theodore F. Welch’s Libraries and Librarianship in Japan (Guides to Asian Librarianship) traces the origins and evolution of both “traditional” and modern libraries and librarianship. In “Library History: Seeking the Origin of the Chinese Library from Its Tradition,” Yunyan Zheng contends that China’s libraries evolved from Chinese book chambers rather than western influences.2 Shelomo Dov Goitein’s A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza and Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole’s Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza provide admirable subject coverage.3 In “Manuscript Libraries of Sub-Saharan Muslim Africa,” Liazzat J. K. Bonate addresses libraries featuring Arabic and ʿ Ajamī manuscripts that emerged due to the expansion of Islam from the eighth century onward through trade and Qurʾ ānic schools. In “Book History in the African World: The State of the Discipline,” Elizabeth Le Roux maintains that print culture and book history in Black Africa “has far-reaching antecedents and a multitude of sources.” In “African Bibliophiles: Books and Libraries in Medieval Timbuktu,” Brent D. Singleton highlights books and libraries during the city’s golden age (1493‒1591) and notes distinctions between Timbuktu’s library practices and those of the wider Islamic world.4The Library is essential reading for all library school faculty and their students, as well as library historians, librarians, and social science scholars. It should be required reading for curriculum developers. General readers and book and print-culture aficionados will find the work accessible, engaging, illuminating, and compelling. This important title also will be of interest to those concerned with the interplay between history, religion, geography, politics, and culture.