Which of these is Western Europe's most beautiful old library?

trinity is tasteful

Hard to decide but the one that looks like the most fun to stroll around for me would be the Czech National Library plus all the books not in Latin would likely be in German or Czech and I could imagine Borges-like all kinds of recondite erudition with out the intrusion of any kind of actual knowledge or comprehension.

can u post some pix of these libraries

no rad cam, no credibility

I like Trinity but despite its 'tastefulness', I'd rather not imagine a world with no batshit ornate Baroque and Rococo excesses.

"leather bound books"

and smell of rich mahogany.

ok ha i missed the link at the top xp

Not even just the smell of mahogany but several hundred years of furniture polish.

and brass polish. some of these probably smell like a strip club

i was making a clever anchorman reference.

i kinda like the liverpool public library. also trinity and saint-genevieve. not really a fan of the ornate excesses!

Great, now I'm imagining careening around Europe to see all these lovely libraries with a tour bus full of strippers. I suppose it is the highest expression of all my life's aspirations.

I was too chemically enhanced to remember any of the bits of 'Anchorman' I saw. I think I'm okay with that, too.

no rad cam, no credibility

otm. Though I've never been inside.

A bit low on the murals and high on the lo-tech IT:
http://www.simonho.org/images/photographs_oxford/Oxford_RadcliffeCamera2.jpg

St. Florian:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zb/237681045/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorcasino/1054540634/

Not as enormous as some of these, but wonderfully packed with books. Very enveloping, with the convex Baroque bits of shelf pushing in and out of the space.

british library reading room:

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/BRITISH-LIBRARY-LONDON%20().jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/410209545_2b4c7b8483.jpg?v=0

Saint-Florian's on the list Dr. C.

The Radcliffe has a certain stately majesty.

I love the BLRR and it's doubly cool to think of various people, like Marx, who worked in there.

I don't know if Trinity is amazing me with its "tastefulness", it's just so long that it looks like a CGI library from a bad movie, like...oh, Tomb Raider or something, where they do faux "research" at a faux secret facility. And then of course Trinity isn't faux, it's REAL, so the photo keeps flipping my brain over. Kind of mesmerizing.

The dimesions are the only thing that's fantastic(al) about Trinity, though. Otherwise it has, to me as an American of Anglo and Irish stock, nothing unfamiliar or exotic, though one imagines it might for Mr. Ergun. I'm not saying it's not lovely but that it's quite familiar.

I might have added the Playfair Library at Edinburgh University:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/24/45604606_a23f6ae864.jpg

Yes but that photo needs some actual books.

The books are in the rows between the columns:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bpV_L-RdI7c/R3fTnD-2WGI/AAAAAAAAAOI/kWC86i7Te_o/s400/DSCF0489.jpg

The Irish/British ones have such severe, classical lines. Very much in the model of Rome but they lack whimsy. The Playfair is less for looking at, to me, than it is a perfect geometrical expression.

treefell, is it sometimes used as a lecture hall/auditorium?

http://www.blenheimpalace.com/content/en/thepalace/imagelibrary/gallery/long_library_lg.jpg

I remember this as being a nice looking library.

A bit low on the murals and high on the lo-tech IT

If it's painted ceilings you're after then Duke Humfrey's reading room in the Old Bodleian across the cobbles does better than the Rad Cam, though nothing on those continental ceilings.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1022/1034837932_1bccb1b574.jpg http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2161/51917045.jpg

(the british library reading room pictured there is no longer in use :/)

Wow, spececadet. That's great! When's it from, the 15th or 16th Cent?

"The Library is composed of three major portions; the original medieval section (completed 1487, rededicated 1602), the Arts End (1612) to the east, and Selden End (1637) to the west."

To be honest I'm not sure which part those pictures are of. I think it may be the 1612 one. The older bit is similar in style but a little more open and less showy IIRC.

Finished in 1489, apparently, to house Duke Humphrey's rather large bequest.

xposts
The Playfair Library is used for lectures, conferences, exams, corporate events and even weddings.

No odd weddings allowed?

Saint-Florian's on the list Dr. C.

I know! I'm lobbying for it! Vote Florian!

Also that diaoporama isn't exhaustive, apparently. The article it's linked to has photos of the Escurial and Duke Humphrey's Room and references to several others.

yale university's sterling memorial library is one of my favorites. utterly amazing:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Cf_V01KEqGM/R2CxHNznJwI/AAAAAAAAA10/6NW-ShgfbYM/SMLsmall.jpg

http://historicbuildingsct.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/sterling-memorial-library.jpg

http://www.yale.edu/res/slideshow/images/02_sterling.jpg

yale's rare books and manuscripts library is pretty cool, too. no windows to protect the contents

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yale_Beinecke_Library.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beinecke_Library_interior.JPG

hmm guess the images aren't showing up

it's called the beinecke library anyways

yale is in western europe now?

haha sorry i totally just realized the thread title like two seconds before you said that

but i'm still gonna post photos of the beinecke if they show up:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/research/specialcollections/oralhistories/images/bunshaftbeinecke.jpg

http://tarzanvsibm.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/beinecke2.jpg

http://www.som.com/resources/category/5/0/5/8/8/6/images/Yale-University-Beinecke-Rare-Book-and-Manuscript-Library2.jpg

guess i just thought it was a 'let's talk about cool libraries' thread w/o realizing it

I do really like the decadence of some of these, but Trinity superbly shows off the beauty of the books themselves, so I'm really tempted to go for that one. I shall have to drool over the pictures some more, I think.

I won't get bent out of shape by shout-outs to cool libraries anywhere but I really am most curious about old European ones. I wonder about old libraries in Eastern Europe. I bet Crakow or St. Petersburg or Budapest have some crazy bookeries too.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/47161094_8525dec893.jpg?v=0

Collegium Maius Library at Jagellonian University in Crakow.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3005/3008001862_5e3a9ae921.jpg?v=0

Old Library, Money Museum in Utrecht.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/111/368343286_1023757d8a.jpg?v=0

Library, Hofburg, Vienna.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/2564947214_43f0501c19.jpg?v=0

Library at Chatsworth.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3272/2904353922_43cf320e70.jpg?v=0

Fontainebleau

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/59/229551648_1de4be8ee7.jpg?v=0

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Laurentian Library)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3414/3435121398_d843e5244a.jpg?v=0

La bibliothèque du Duc d'Aumale, Chantilly

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/Biblioteca%20do%20Palacio%20e%20Convento%20de%20Mafra%20I.jpg

Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I, Lisbon

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/HANDELINGENKAMER-TWEEDE-KAM%20%28%29.jpg

Handelingenkamer Tweede der Staten, Den Haag

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/Bibliothek.Admont_gesamt.jpg

Another one of Admont, all taken from this immense repository: http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=78

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/Biblioteca%20Geral%20da%20Universidade%20de%20Coimbra%20IV.jpg

Biblioteca Geral University of Coimbra

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/kremsmuenster_60.jpg

Kremsmuenster Abbey Library

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/Vatican.jpeg

Vatican Library

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/riksadagen%201.jpg

Riksdagen Library, Stockholm

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1348/1303201691_e5cabf0a02_o.jpg

Strahov Monastery, Prague

http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/202146600_37b58ca97a.jpg

Klementium Library, Prague

i love the trinity college one, though it's far from my favorite here. i don't mind the familiarity, or maybe in fact the familiarity is what makes it?

my favorites on this thread: the Old Bodleian library, the klementium, the beinecke. some of the others are beautiful but i think my preference runs towards ones which hint at a certain darkness, maybe.

The Hague and Stockholm are wowing my eyes out! Both so impossibly airy....

Czech National = Clementium, btw.

Voted for Trinity, simply and understating.

Also, I’m a little dubious of the list as there are no libraries in Liverpool.

Oddly, and I don't know how much this points out the deficiencies in my googling ability, the lack of interest (for at least photographing them) amongst Germanics for old royal libraries (or their having been destroyed) or the lack of interest or dedication in royal or aristocratic families in Germany but I found precious little in the way of princely or royal libraries.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I visited the Sainte-Geneviève Library and it was very very beautiful (I took pics and may post a few here eventually). It had great iron work in the ceiling. I also spent time in the Mazarine Library of the Institut de France, the library of the Sorbonne, and of the Banque de France. I missed my chance to visit the BNF's Richelieu library (also on this poll), but I will going there in the near future. These libraries are great and I'd like to find an excuse to work in them but it's kinda silly also as they have very few books, and so very very few on the topics I work on. But I could bring my laptop and work there for a day just to soak in the awesomeness, like Marx in the British Library (my beard is getting to Marx length at this point, so it would work).