Travel flashback: Tehran

Outside the wonderful Malek Library.

Some interiors

I admit that I do get bored very quickly wandering through historic houses looking at furniture, paintings, knickknacks, furniture, paintings, knickknacks. And much of what you see in Newstead today wasn't there during Byron's time; Thomas Wildman, who had been at Harrow with Byron and bought Newstead from him in 1818, did extensive restorations.

I did enjoy the exhibit on Ada Lovelace—mathematician, computing pioneer, and Byron's daughter—in the library. Ada never knew her father; her parents separated when she was only a month old. Although her mother loathed her father (probably with good reason) Ada doesn't seem to have had negative feelings about him. She named her son Byron, and was buried next to her father in the Byron family vault. And though her mother was a less than ideal parent—in letters, she referred to her daughter as “it”—she did encourage her interest in mathematics as a way of avoiding the insanity she believed Ada might have inherited from her father.

The Library Walk

This is one of the plaques in the sidewalk on East 41st Street, leading to Fifth Avenue and the main branch of the New York Public Library. We're witnessing the dangers of ignorance, and gleeful misinformation, right now.

Miniature books

Every Monday one of the museum staff gives a talk on one of the items in the collection. The talk takes place in the library, yet another beautiful reading room. The day I was there, the talk was on miniature books, including what is supposedly the smallest book in the world.

Except for that book, which was encased in a kind of petri dish and not really visible without a microscope, we could actually touch and look through the books the librarian was discussing.

The stairs

This image, looking up at the spiral staircase you have to climb to get to the upper reading room at the library, is what I always call a “Photography 101” picture, because it's such a cliche. But how could you resist this shot?

Inside the Camera

There's a statue of John Radcliffe near the entrance, under the magnificent dome.

You climb a spiral staircase to reach the Upper Reading Room, which has a mezzanine hugging the outer wall.

My weekend library

The Old Bodleian is closed on weekends, so I spent Saturday afternoon in the upper reading room in the Radcliffe Camera. (Yesterday I went to the Cotswolds, so only had to endure slumming at the Radcliffe for one day.)

The Old Warden's Lodgings

Warden is the name given to the head of the college, so this building was formerly his residence (three women have been warden here, including the current warden, but that's obviously more recent than this building.)

It's now one of the libraries; I haven't gone there yet because the Bodleian is only a ten-minute walk away and I'd rather sit in Duke Humfrey's. There's another library here in Mob Quad that is unfortunately closed for renovations. It is supposed to be haunted by a Royalist who was executed during the English Civil War.

Old glass

You aren't allowed to take photos in the best reading room in the Bodleian, Duke Humfrey's Library, and I've tried to be unobtrusive in taking pictures even in areas where photography is allowed. (Also, I'm trying to focus on working and not gawking when I'm there.)

This is the view through the window in one of the other reading rooms—you can see the top of the Radcliffe Camera. I love the bubbles in the old glass.

Old Schools Quadrangle

The Bodleian entrance is at one side of the Schools Quad. The buildings on the other three sides date from the early 17th century and were originally lecture rooms. The names of the original departments (in Latin) still appear above the doorways.

The Bodleian

I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, nor to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.

That's the oath I had to recite in order to get my reader's card for the Bodleian.

Every college at Oxford has its own library, but the Bodleian is the main research library for all of the colleges. There are three main buildings: the Weston Library, which is new and houses special collections, the Radcliffe Camera, and the Old Bodleian.

This is the entrance to the Old Bodleian. That jolly-looking fellow is the Earl of Pembroke, who was Chancellor of the University of Oxford in the 17th century. Thomas Bodley, who rebuilt the library in the late 16th-early 17th centuries after it had been stripped and abandoned during the Reformation, has to settle for the plaque over the doorway. And of course having the library named for him.

Radcliffe Camera

This is one of the iconic buildings in Oxford, part of the Bodleian Library, and it's a sign of how tired I was yesterday that when I saw it peeking around this building at the end of a narrow street, I just thought, “Oh, there's the Radcliffe Camera,” and couldn't be bothered to walk a block and see the whole thing.

The Library of Celsus

This is the picture-postcard image from Ephesus, and it is even more spectacular in person. So much so that it makes me want to overcome my usual reluctance to post pictures of myself and give myself a little visual pinch. Yes, I was actually there!

The library was built in the second century, and was one of the three great libraries of the ancient world, after Alexandria and Pergamum. The library contents were burned in 262, and the building was destroyed by an earthquake in probably the 11th century. Archaeologists re-erected the facade in the 1970's; the rest of the building is still in ruins.

Urban poetry

 

This is Patience, one of the two lions guarding the New York Public Library building on Fifth Avenue. (His good pal Fortitude, not pictured, is just to his left.)

The lions, like most New Yorkers, have been wearing masks since the spring, but now they're promoting civic engagement along with good pandemic hygiene.

Plus a pigeon.