HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION VOL V: THE RENAISSANCE FROM PETRARCH TO MICHELANGELO

This fifth and final volume of The History of the Library in Western Civilization contains eight chapters giving a comprehensive account of the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and the effects of the revival of interest in the Greco-Roman tradition on the European cultural scene, at both the secular and religious level. The first chapter looks at the early exponents of humanism in Europe and assesses their role in the revival and promotion of classical thinking. It also describes the particular characteristics of the books in the libraries of pioneers of the humanist movement, such as Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Leonzio Pilato, and the organization of the first bilingual library of the Renaissance by Palla Strozzi in Florence. With Byzantine scholars leaving Constantinople and settling at first in Italy, bringing their fine collections of books with them, the second chapter describes the 'brain drain' from East to West in the fifteenth century. It discusses the systematic study and diffusion of the Greek language, while including brief historical accounts of three humanistic libraries: those of Novello Malatesta and Cardinal Bessarion, and the Vatican Library. Three more great libraries: those of King Matthias Corvinus, Janus Pannonius, and the Medici family are described in the third chapter, as the part played by the invention of printing in the spread of learning and the formation of libraries is explored.