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LIBRO · Milano · the written record of the house

The Journal

Essays on capital, craft, and the institutions that last, entered in order and kept for good.

The East Room of the Pierpont Morgan Library photographed in black and white, tiered bookcases rising to a painted ceiling above a tapestry and fireplace

Entry N° 15 · Institutions

When a Private Library Becomes an Institution

J. Pierpont Morgan built a room for his books. His son eventually gave the room, the collection and its future to trustees.

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The Hours of Jeanne d’Évreux held open to a grisaille miniature spread, the small vellum prayer book resting on its sewn binding

Entry N° 14 · Provenance

The Hours of Jeanne d’Évreux

A royal prayer book, less than four inches high, passed through kings, collectors, confiscation, recovery and finally The Cloisters.

Trompe l’oeil painting of a letter rack, envelopes, cards and a newspaper clipping tucked behind pink tapes pinned to a wooden board

Entry N° 13 · Maison

The House Archivist

Private houses preserve wine, paintings, property and jewellery with great seriousness. Their own memory is often left in cardboard boxes.

Lithographed tailoring plate of gentlemen in evening dress, overcoats and lounge suits, titled American Fashions, August 1899

Entry N° 12 · Dress

The Dinner Jacket

How a coat made for less formal evenings became one of the few uniforms that survived the century almost intact.

An elderly reader in a dark coat stands high on a library ladder, a book open in one hand, another under his arm and a third held between his knees

Entry N° 11 · Library

I Read the Shelves First

A private library is one of the few rooms in a house that becomes more revealing as it becomes less perfect.

Portrait of a man in a fur lined coat holding a small hand balance, gold coins resting on the ledge before him

Entry N° 10 · Capital

The Quiet Ledger

Every durable house keeps two books: the one the law requires, and the one that records what the family actually learned.

Sixteenth century Qur’an binding opened flat, gilt tooled covers inset with turquoise and a pointed fore edge flap lined with painted lattice panels

Entry N° 9 · Craft

A Grammar of Bindings

Sewn, glued, cased, or bound in boards: the structure of a book is a sentence about how long it intends to live.

Painted portrait of Adam Smith in a dark coat and powdered wig, seated against a plain ground, known as the Muir portrait

Entry N° 8 · Maison

Seventeen Seventy-Six

The year in our mark is not the founding of a shop. It is the publication of a book: the one the house is built on.

Engraving of a sixteenth century printing workshop, compositors setting type at sloped cases while pressmen pull freshly printed sheets at the press

Entry N° 7 · Research

Studies in Longevity

Why the house keeps a research library on the world’s oldest firms, presses, and archives, and what it is looking for.

Pierced silver filigree cover enclosing a small book, scrollwork panels hinged around the boards and spine with an oval medallion at the centre

Entry N° 6 · Craft

The Art of the Slipcase

A fine book is an object under threat: from light, from dust, from its own weight. The case around it is where craft begins.

Title page and specimen page of Bodoni’s Manuale Tipografico, Roman capitals printed large beneath the heading Majuscole

Entry N° 5 · Maison

Milano, Printed

The city taught the world that commerce and beauty are one trade. The house keeps its ledger in that tradition.

Dürer’s engraving of Saint Jerome writing at a desk in his sunlit study, a lion and a sleeping dog resting on the floor before him

Entry N° 4 · Library

What a Library Owes Its Owner

A shelf assembled with judgement is not décor. It is a working instrument, and it has obligations.

Dutch still life of worn books with frayed pages piled beside a lute, two globes, a pewter jug and a glass of wine

Entry N° 2 · Craft

On Patina

The luxury trades agree on one heresy: some wear improves the object. The question is which wear, and why.

Painted bookshelves filled with music treatises, loose scores, quills and an inkwell resting among the worn volumes

Entry N° 1 · Capital

The Shelf as Portfolio

Owners diversify their capital and concentrate their attention. A good shelf is built on the opposite discipline.