Famous Libraries

             Everyone has some kind of place that makes them feel transported to a magical realm. For some it’s castles with their noble history and crumbling towers. For us here at the Gentleman Scholar, there has always been something about libraries. Row after row, shelf after shelf, there is nothing more magical than a beautiful old library. (Table of Contents:  Famous Libraries of the World) 

Click here for a 3-D tour of St. Florian Monastery-Library, Austria


Stiftsbibliothek Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg, Austria


Trinity College Library, AKA, The Long Room, Dublin, Ireland

Strahov Theological Hall - Original Baroque Cabinet

Strahov Philosophical Hall

 

Abbey Library St. Gallen, Switzerland

Angelica Library, Rome, Italy

Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel, Germany

Beatus Rhenanus Library, Basel, Switzerland

Bernadotte Library, Stockholm Sweden

Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, Italy

Biblioteca Di Bella Arti, Milan, Italy

Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I, Lisbon Coast, Portugal

Biblioteca do Pala`cio Nacional da Ajuda Lisboa III, Lisbon, Portugal

Biblioteca Geral University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Biblioteca Palafoxiana, Puebla, Mexico

Bibliotecha de la Real Academia De La Lengua, Madrid, Spain

Bibliotheque Alencon, Normandy, France

Bibliothe´que Nationale de France, Paris, France

Duke of Humphrey’s Library, Bodleian, Oxford University, England

Boston Copley Public Library, Boston, USA

Old British Reading Room, British Museum, London, England

Casanatense Library, Rome, Italy

Cathedral Library, Kalocsa, Hungary

Chetham’s Library, Manchester, UK

Dutch Royal Archives Library, Netherlands

El Escorial Library, San Lorenzo, Spain

Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag, the Hague, Netherlands

Hereford Cathedral Chained Library, Hereford, England (Rare books were once kept chained to the bookshelf to prevent stealing.)

Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek Weimar II, Germany

Joanina LIbrary University of Coimbra, Portugal

Kremsmuenster Abbey Library, Kremsmu¨nster, Upper Austria.

Biblioteca Castilla La Mancha, Spain

Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA

Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada

Library of St. Walburga, Zutphen, Netherland (Preserved from the 16th century)

Library of the Benedictine Monastery of Admont, Austria

Library of the National Palace of Mafra, Portugal

Library of the Prussian King Frederic the Second in Potsdam, Germany

Melk Monastery Library, Melk, Austria

National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

North Reading Room, UC Berkeley, California, USA

New York Public Library, New York, USA

Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, Belgium

Queen’s College Library Oxford

Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Rennie Mackintosh Library, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland

Riggs Library, Georgetown University, USA

Rijkmuseum Library, Amsterdam

Riksdagen Library, Swedish Parliament Library, Stockholm, Sweden

Russian National Library, St. Petersburg

St. Florian Monastery-Library, Austria

Salamanca Library, Salamanca, Spain

Sansovino Library, Rome, Italy

Sorbonne Library, Paris, France

State Library, Victoria, Australia

Suzzallo Library, Seattle, Washington, USA

The New Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Theology Room at St. Deiniol’s library, North Wales

University-Library, Helsinki, Finland

Vatican Library, Vatican City, Rome

Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria

Waldsassen Abbey Library, Bavaria, Germany

Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, England

Yale, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

 

Bad Schussenried Bibliothekssaal, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy

Bibliothe`que Solvay, Brussels, Belgium

Boston Athenæum, Boston, MA, USA

Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford, England

Cornell Law School Library, Ithaca, NY, USA

Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., USA

George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore House Library, Asheville, N.C., USA

Harper Library, The University of Chicago, IL, USA

John Rylands Library, Manchester, England

Klementium Library, Prague, Czech Republic

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales

National Library of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

Old Chicago Public Library (Current Cultural Center), Chicago, IL, USA

Pierpont Morgan Library, NY, NY, USA

Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany (The reading room pictured is entirely underground, the ceiling being level with the grass.)

Sterling Memorial Library, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

The Grolier Club Library, NY, NY, USA

Law Library, Iowa State Legislature, IA, USA

The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Northeast Vermont, USA

Thomas Crane Library, Quincy MA, USA

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto, Canada

University of Michigan (Old) Law Library, MI, USA

Widener Library, Harvard. Cambridge, MA, USA

Wiblingen Monestary Library, Ulm, Germany

 

Click here to return to the top of the list of the most famous libraries of the world.  Please also take advantage of our online library.