Ninth-century illuminated manuscripts and the earliest known architectural plan drawn on parchment are just some of the literary treasures at the resplendent 1,200-year-old Baroque-style Convent of St Gall in Switzerland.
Photograph by Heeb, Laif, Redux
“I had to take an oath!” squealed poet Annie Persons, recounting a visit to the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries, whose 12 million printed holdings include the Vernon Manuscript, Shakespeare’s first folio, and the first book printed in Arabic with moveable type.
Photograph by Joe Daniel Price, Getty Images
Every child can love a book by its cover at the international Picture Book Library in Iwaki, Japan. Tall windows provide sunny Pacific views, all the books face forward, and large stair steps provide perfect reading nooks.
Photograph by Kenji Shimizu, AP Images
The University of al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco (one of the oldest operating libraries in the world) was founded by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, in 859 C.E. Female architect Aziza Chaouni recently restored the space and opened it to the public unveiling ancient mosaics, solar panels, and a café.
Photograph by Izzet Keribar, Getty Images
Enjoy Poet Laureate readings, braille and “talking book” collections, and free, themed walking tours at the marble-columned Library of Congress in Washington D.C., where the Great Hall’s 19th-century lunette murals illustrate the “Evolution of the Book.”
Photograph by Doug Armand, Getty Images
Bibliotheca Alexandrina features a terraced, sunlit reading room, a planetarium, an exhibition of the 1820 Bulaq Press, and the world’s largest collection of digital manuscripts. Its sweeping hieroglyphic walls pay respect to Alexander the Great’s ancient Library of Alexandria.
Photograph by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Lire à la Plage’s many pop-up libraries have graced French Seine-Maritime beaches for the past decade. The red and white cabanas lend out an eclectic collection of board games, comics, novels and, of course, French poetry.
Photograph by Benoit DECOUT, Redux
Shaped like a giant treehouse (or manta ray), Soneva Kiri’s children’s library boasts suspended reading rooms, rainforest skylights, a music room with Thai instruments and sheet music walls, as well as books on permaculture and local tradition.
Photograph by Marco Moretti, Redux
Bright white cubic walls grant a Yayoi Kusama-esque pop to a pantheon of books in Stuttgart’s new City Library. Stop at the café, then pass the glass ceiling to the rooftop terrace for brilliant views of Stuttgart’s city centre.
Photograph by ioriyoshizuki, Getty Images
Galileo’s inky 1633 trial signature, St. Peter’s letters written on papyrus scrolls, and the oldest known Bible in existence are quietly tucked away in the Vatican Library in Rome. Non-scholars should book a guided tour.
Photograph by Rex Features, AP Images
Muyinga’s first library was community-constructed out of locally sourced earthen blocks, clay tiles, and eucalyptus beams. Porch windows open to airy views of Burundi’s “milles collines,” and the children’s reading room offers a wide, sisal-rope-hammock draped between the first and second story.
Photograph by BC architects & studies
Originally built in 117 C.E. atop the tomb of Celsus Polemaeanus, the Library of Celsus’s marble facade lives on in Turkey’s Ephesus city ruins. The entryway’s four Roman figures, which symbolise the former governor’s wisdom, once guarded more than 12,000 scrolls.
Photograph by Monica Gumm, Redux
Started in 1959, the 85-foot-long Epos library boat floats the fjords every summer, sharing roughly 6,000 books (of its 53,300-item collection) with 150 different towns along Norway’s island-fringed west coast.
Photograph by Stian Vik, Bokbaring Epos
The New York Botanical Garden’s Mertz Library holds the world’s largest collection of botanical books and materials. A tulip tree allée leads from the centenarian book trove to a tropical Victorian conservatory and the second largest herbarium in the world.
Photograph by Heeb, Laif, Redux
