Thursday, September 15, 2016

The Secret Libraries of History

The Secret Libraries of History. Fiona Macdonald. BBC.com. 19 August 2016.
     Religious or political pressures have meant that books have been hidden throughout history – whether in secret caches or private collections. This article looks at libraries that have been preserved over time, either to keep them hidden, or because of neglect.
  • Syria’s secret library currently beneath the streets of a suburb of Damascus
  • The Library Cave on the edge of the Gobi Desert in China, sealed for almost 1000 years.
  • The Vatican Secret Archives with papal correspondences going back over 1000 years,
  • The Cairo Genizah in a wall of the Ben Ezra synagogue containing almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries
  • A Hidden Medieval Archive found in papers used in binding medieval books
[Note: This is a good reminder of what it is we are trying to do, to keep important content for future generations. Chris]

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