Massimo Listri. The World's Most Beautiful Libraries

The Library Essay

Rooms Built to Keep Thought

Massimo Listri, the Florentine photographer of architecture, has spent decades making large-format portraits of interiors, and libraries are his natural subject, since no other building type states its purpose so frankly in its fabric. This Taschen XXL volume gathers his photographs of the great collections of Europe and beyond, monastic halls painted like chapels, court libraries gilded like ballrooms, national reading rooms built like basilicas.

Listri photographs them empty, in natural light, with the symmetry the architects intended, so each room sits for its portrait like a person of consequence. The effect across the volume is cumulative and quietly moving; civilisation, whatever else it is, turns out to be a long series of decisions to build a beautiful room for books.