Libraries, memory and the space of knowledge

摘要

This paper examines the claim current in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that a library housed in a single space with bookcases arrayed along the walls makes its contents immediately perceptible, as if to a single look of the eyes, and thus provides a general overview of knowledge. This overview was held to function as a memory aid, as were similar overviews, both metaphoric and diagrammatic, in early modern encyclopaedic texts. The argument is supported by close reading of primary source texts on libraries, consideration of encyclopaedic discourses on the nature of learning, and a new understanding of the ancient memory tradition's continuing relevance into the eighteenth century. Linked to order and memory, the display of books was central to the library's functionality not only in promoting retrieval of books but also by guiding scholars in their use.