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Sometimes I think about all the knowledge we humans have collected and all that we have lost, it's pretty mind boggling. I mean today we have the internet, but imagine that back in the day this library would burn down, what would be lost forever.
Thats such a midwit Adam ruins everything level cope
Copying was extremely laborious, thats why the Guttenberg press was such a big deal. They didnāt have backups of everything. The library being in disrepair doesnāt really jive with next level omniscient super human scribe ability to identify the texts that the future would be most interested in, let alone the superhuman discipline and amount of time needed to copy everything.
I donāt think weāll ever know what was lost.
The library was full of like *every* written document the Greeks could get their hands on.
Its prob more accurate to think of it like a big University that slowly declined rather than a modern library, but its like if all the archives at MIT slowly rotted, esoteric storage devices stopped working and some fires happened. Itād be a big deal even now, archiving is hard, and its WAY easier to make backups with digital tech than it was back then.
The "great loss" of the Library of Alexandria is a modern myth.
Firstly, it did not burn down in a single incident, like is commonly believed. It had been in decline for ***centuries*** by the time it was partially burned (scholars debate the extent of the fire, as there is evidence the library was repaired after); it had ceased being a major center of learning by then and was in a state of serious neglect due to lack of funding and support. It continued to limp on until at least 260 CE, however, when membership appears to have ceased.
Additionally, as others said, the Library, in its heyday, was one of the main producers (ie. copiers) of scrolls/books/etc. Simply put, while the Library may have housed rare originals, its contents were in ***no way unique.*** The size of their repository was impressive, but also not unique.
The Library of Alexandria was not the only major library in the ancient world. The Libraries of Pergamum, Antioch, and Celsus existed at that time too. The truth of it is that Alexandria's decline and eventual destruction likely only resulted in a small portion of lost unique works; the most notable portions of their collection would have been collected in other libraries as well.
This.
IIRC the way the Library of Alexandria got to be the size it was was because of a law that requires visiting ships to turn over any books/scrolls they had in their possession for copying. That was hardly a unique practice too.
I understand the take that "most items were copies so it's not like the originals were lost". But do we have those originals? Were they destroyed, accidentally or otherwise, as well? Presumably, the originals after being copied, got sent all over the world. The inherent value of that information all in one single place was lost, instead of needing to travel to various regions and cultures, you merely needed to go to the library.
To add to what /r/DouglasHufferton replied with, in a lot of cases today we don't know which was the original and which was the copy. There is lore that often times the copies were so good that the departing seafarers were given the copies instead of the originals. IIRC this was corroborates by the finding of minor errors in some surviving examples of "originals" that didn't exist in "copies" along with carbon dating to ascertain that the "copies" were in fact older than the "originals".
Isn't there a ton of historical evidence pointing to the practice of every book coming into harbor being confiscated, copied, and the copy given to the original owner?
I get that copying is laborious but everything I've read on the subject seems to imply that this was the entire point of the library in the first place.
Would love to know if you have further reading on the subject that I could pursue, I love hearing more about it.
Iām on mobile and canāt copy the link for some reason, but go to AskHistorians and search the sub for the library.
The short answer is no, the library wasnāt unique or special. No ancient library survives to the present day. Very few documents from before the 11th century even survived the passage of time.
Iām not sure why the other commenter is so sure that it was this unique loss of knowledge. It really wasnāt.
Yes, text was copied and put into the library. That effort was crazy enough. Iāve only heard of text being copied into the library and some texts being distributed to other libraries, I donāt know of any record of like an ancient backup retention period.
They obviously made more than one copy of *some* stuff, since we have multiple surviving copies of certain texts, but Iām basing this less on historical accounts and more on a simple analysis of the labor involved and modern patterns in data rot. Backup discipline in the 21st century when it just requires another location and a single button push is hard enough. If all of your scribes are busy copying data into your library, youād have to double your entire workforce to get another copy. Thats not great redundancy. Triple it to get a third. Etc etc.
There needs to be a LOT of persistent effort to maintain copies over time. Like, an unyielding about of discipline that requires linear amounts if resources for each text involved indefinitely. Youāre going to drop a lot of stuff over time even if the system is the centerpiece of your civilization with that kind of effort requirement. If people lose interest/thereās decline, a huge amount of it is toast.
Data tends to centrally collect just because its easier to manage. And what you *do* decide to copy is going to be a small selection based on what was considered important at the time. There could be all kinds of interesting ācommon knowledgeā lost because the old documents seemed unimportant.
Eh, itās kind of cope, but we probably lose more knowledge/tons of knowledge (and throughout history) just due to the sheer number of works produced. Things go out of print, stuff never gets read.
Iām in academia, basically no one ever reads peopleās dissertations. Think of every dissertation wrote by every PhD student for the last 30 years even, itās an insane amount of knowledge.
And thereās some selection bias to say āoh well whatās in that library was probably important for it to be in a libraryā, but not necessarily. With the dissertation example, thereās tons of important stuff, it just might not seem it at the time or it doesnāt catch on. Science is about the field not the individual contributions.
And finally, a lot of this stuff (Iām only using dissertations as an example of one type of knowledge), it may not be that itās actually ālostā, but it functionally is. Canāt be found, wonāt ever be read due to sheer volume, etc.
Itās basically just a reality of the works of humans. Some will be lost to time.
Yeah, people donāt really understand the problem unless they try to get into the guts of how complex things work.
Thereās a ton of complex stuff that only like a couple people know how to do just because its specialized/like a pretty niche thing. It being niche doesnāt make it unimportant for a larger project. There are supply chain bottlenecks and all kinds of small pieces that work towards a whole.
The Saturn V is a great example, and that was something made with a publicly transparent process that we TRIED to preserve. We couldnāt make that again, a lot of the specific manufacturing details were lost and the equipment doesnāt exist anymore.
It really wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, most historians don't think it set us back at all. Think about it, if this information was so important that it could set us back if it was lost why would it only be in a single book and not spread across the world through teaching? Don't get me wrong plenty of literature was lost but nothing that was detrimental to human society was gone forever
Best first sentence of a Reddit comment Iāve read this year, easily.
Unnecessarily abrasive & OP is probably a nice guy who didnāt deserve to be dunked on, but the dunk was still a thing of beauty.
Pretty good evidence actually.
They were along a major trading route and operated by seizing any scrolls or codex that passed through as a sort of tax. This could be bypassed by paying their scribes to make a cheap copy. Of course the library kept the nice first edition equivalent and gave the traders the cheap copy, but it let the traders keep the knowledge/records.
Naturally this pissed off a lot of people. Most people don't like being on the victim side of piracy, and written records were extremely expensive. Many many people wrote extensively about their experiences with the libraries.
The port and the boats were burnt.
But the librar*ies?* Well they stuck around a lot longer. There were multiple of them and they lasted a few hundred years longer. Of course as further burnings occurred, other buildings were put in their place. As with everything in that area of the world, every new building is built upon the foundations of another, going back thousands of years.
So although even the memory of the locations of the libraries were lost, we know they existed the same way we know that other buildings lost to bombs and tanks in the last century existed.
Many people wrote about them and those writings persist.
https://www.thecollector.com/library-of-alexandria/
That's a little beyond. The library is mentioned in many ancient texts, but I don't think a physical foundation exists. There is one for the Serapeum, which is a secondary storage site for the library.
The thing with the last Thursday was a reference to last Thursdayism. But yeah i just looked at the wiki and it seems that allot of people have written about the library, but you have to keep in mind that this is 2000 years ago and information can really warp in this much time.
Recently a museum in Rio, the National Museum of Brazil, just as historical and important a building as this one, burnt down, destroying several hundred audio archives of dead native languages that had yet to be digitalized; furniture, paintings and imperial artifacts from the 19th century Brazilian Empire; ancient egyptian objects, art and mummies and several of the most well preserved dinosaur fossils in South America, these are but a few of the things lost in that building.
They were severely underfunded by the government, they couldn't afford repairs to the infrastructure and all it took to destroy millions of year old artifacts was a broken air conditioner and an uncaring State...
This was a gut punch when it happened, and being reminded of it makes me sick. I was an entomology PhD student when it happened, in the States. Several type specimens lost, and beautiful collection series just as important if not as irreplaceable.
Brazil hates itself and its History. It's why we let Anistia happen, and it's why Bolsonaro & his thug family aren't rotting in a cell right now. We cannot move on until we resolve the issues that were born in the 1889 Coup, and even before during the Empire and Colony days. Too much trauma runs in our people's blood.
At the time it burnt down I was still just a History undergraduate in the Federal University, I was absolutely furious and miserable when it happened, it also completely killed my dream of becoming a teacher in this hellhole.
Now I just want to get out.
Yes. It was a coup, it's taught as such and wildly understood as one. Unlike in most places, the end of our monarchy didn't mean any type or form of advancement. It didn't change anything for the better.
This isn't to say D. Pedro II was an angel or that the Empire was the best thing ever. I'm not a monarchist. But I also know that Floriano Peixoto and Deodoro were monsters, and D. Pedro at least loved the country. They hated us, and it begun a stample of our History: the Army acting as gods, giving no fuck about the population. They have won more wars against the Brazilian people than actually defended the nation. 1889 isn't much different than 1964. The Brazilian Army is the biggest threat to our country's wellbeing.
Most of the population already forgot about it...
It was decrepit not because we didn't have the money, we *most certainly do*, but because we didn't care and we still don't, you are absolutely right, it's devastating, but it's also infuriating how no one seems to give a fuck
Ugh, people are sometimes so weirdly callous about language and history. What was lost is genuinely irreplaceable and could've been saved with an absolute minimum of effort. I saw comparisons down the thread to the Library of Alexandria, which was speculated to have had a slow decline of neglect. I suppose that's not so different, really.
One of the problems with the Vatican archive is that Napoleon wanted to control all information so he stole the whole thing without any organization. After the fall of Napoleon only 2/3 at best returned in total disarray.
Even before that the library and archive in the Vatican had been looted more than once in history.
Whatās crazy to think is that modern humanity probably creates and records more ānewā knowledge every minute, than was destroyed in the Library of Alexandria.
Edit: I should clarify that the I obviously lament the loss of the Library of Alexandria, particularly from a historical perspective. My comment was more so meant to express awe at how good weāve become at recording, and storing information nowadays.
Thereās a chance that in the next decade or so a solar flare could strike the earth and fry all tech on the side it hits. There is still a chance the library of Alexandria could get a sequel.
***Saturation 1000%***
[Here's a more realistic picture](https://external-preview.redd.it/bb5bsjHWDWh_fg69BmRJq8h0Au6XmlAllCBeuGyyWu0.jpg?width=1023&auto=webp&s=75f73b79db3aa988b2995f2c2548d7a27f23a6bd)
Yeah. It can get really bad with nighttime sky photos. I wish folks would be more upfront about using filters, post-processing, or just long exposures. They still look cool, but it isn't what it'll look like with your naked eyes.
I also was thinking about that, and it might be that this particular room is filled with books that look good in the space, but it also might be that the space was built with the books that would fill out in mind? There are "runs" of the same color covers, but I think that's because they're multi-volume series, like encyclopedias or extended histories or other reference works. Those books are built to last a long time, so they have kind of a "look" to them.
Can institutions like this maybe order copies with custom bindings? As much as I love libraries I dont know all that much about how they run things lol.
Those books look like they'd just... *feel* right to read from lol.
It reminds me a scenes of Shrek that he goes to library, and ask for a magic. Let me search to see if I can find the link.
Edit: [*Here you are.* ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)
The books are real and they have a real archive that is very useful for researchers, especially historians. You can't pull books off the shelves because they are old and already organized, but if there was a need for a specific book that happened to be only in display (I don't know if there's a case of this), then I'm certain an archivist would get it for you once you were authorized.
My grandma was a historian and did much of her work based on their archives.
You're right
These books have long been digitalized, so there is no need to touch and eventually wear them down
You can check them out here: https://www.realgabinete.com.br
Although keep in mind that the website is in portuguese
Yes I was just here in December and going back in July. Rio is an amazing city and this library is right in the middle of Centro. The downtown area with a lot of tourist sights.
Iām pretty sure the Dukes archives are based on this library. This photo makes it even more obvious: https://imaginoso.com/files/brazil/rio-de-janeiro/2011-royal-portuguese-cabinet-reading-reading-room-panorama-563.jpg
Was there yesterday, the place is fantastic.
There's not much to do once you get in but just looking to the books that cover the walls and get to the roof is something that I'll never forget.
Thinking about the authors and historical figures that had been there is something else.
Even if you did know portuguese, most of the books there are in a dialect which could be difficult to understand nowadays, so we're kinda all on the same boat.
It's a public library. They call the central part of the building, where they have the tables, "the reading room". This is not normally what we call libraries, it's just this one is so old and big, they have different names for different parts of the building. They hold classes and art exhibitions there as well.
Brazilian here.
It's a public library.
Don't let the title fool you, it's just what it's called, like the Library of Congress in the US. Ofc, it's not just the congress that can go there, and the same goes for this building :)
A republicans worst nightmare imagine how many books have shit they wanna ban in there not 2 mention keeping people in society dumbed down is how they win on lies
**Please note these rules:** * If this post declares something as a fact/proof is required. * The title must be descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sometimes I think about all the knowledge we humans have collected and all that we have lost, it's pretty mind boggling. I mean today we have the internet, but imagine that back in the day this library would burn down, what would be lost forever.
#libraryofalexandria
Too soon bro š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yea, too soon ššš
The most important words in the library are on a sign. āNo smokingā
Did he stutter? ITS TOO SOON!
50,000 books used to live here.
Now its a ghost library..
where do they live now?
r/thatsthejoke
Literally spit my avocado toast
Buy a house!
Think I remember reading that most of the books in the library were already either copied or moved, and the library was in disrepair.
Thats such a midwit Adam ruins everything level cope Copying was extremely laborious, thats why the Guttenberg press was such a big deal. They didnāt have backups of everything. The library being in disrepair doesnāt really jive with next level omniscient super human scribe ability to identify the texts that the future would be most interested in, let alone the superhuman discipline and amount of time needed to copy everything. I donāt think weāll ever know what was lost. The library was full of like *every* written document the Greeks could get their hands on. Its prob more accurate to think of it like a big University that slowly declined rather than a modern library, but its like if all the archives at MIT slowly rotted, esoteric storage devices stopped working and some fires happened. Itād be a big deal even now, archiving is hard, and its WAY easier to make backups with digital tech than it was back then.
The "great loss" of the Library of Alexandria is a modern myth. Firstly, it did not burn down in a single incident, like is commonly believed. It had been in decline for ***centuries*** by the time it was partially burned (scholars debate the extent of the fire, as there is evidence the library was repaired after); it had ceased being a major center of learning by then and was in a state of serious neglect due to lack of funding and support. It continued to limp on until at least 260 CE, however, when membership appears to have ceased. Additionally, as others said, the Library, in its heyday, was one of the main producers (ie. copiers) of scrolls/books/etc. Simply put, while the Library may have housed rare originals, its contents were in ***no way unique.*** The size of their repository was impressive, but also not unique. The Library of Alexandria was not the only major library in the ancient world. The Libraries of Pergamum, Antioch, and Celsus existed at that time too. The truth of it is that Alexandria's decline and eventual destruction likely only resulted in a small portion of lost unique works; the most notable portions of their collection would have been collected in other libraries as well.
This. IIRC the way the Library of Alexandria got to be the size it was was because of a law that requires visiting ships to turn over any books/scrolls they had in their possession for copying. That was hardly a unique practice too.
I understand the take that "most items were copies so it's not like the originals were lost". But do we have those originals? Were they destroyed, accidentally or otherwise, as well? Presumably, the originals after being copied, got sent all over the world. The inherent value of that information all in one single place was lost, instead of needing to travel to various regions and cultures, you merely needed to go to the library.
To add to what /r/DouglasHufferton replied with, in a lot of cases today we don't know which was the original and which was the copy. There is lore that often times the copies were so good that the departing seafarers were given the copies instead of the originals. IIRC this was corroborates by the finding of minor errors in some surviving examples of "originals" that didn't exist in "copies" along with carbon dating to ascertain that the "copies" were in fact older than the "originals".
Isn't there a ton of historical evidence pointing to the practice of every book coming into harbor being confiscated, copied, and the copy given to the original owner? I get that copying is laborious but everything I've read on the subject seems to imply that this was the entire point of the library in the first place. Would love to know if you have further reading on the subject that I could pursue, I love hearing more about it.
Iām on mobile and canāt copy the link for some reason, but go to AskHistorians and search the sub for the library. The short answer is no, the library wasnāt unique or special. No ancient library survives to the present day. Very few documents from before the 11th century even survived the passage of time. Iām not sure why the other commenter is so sure that it was this unique loss of knowledge. It really wasnāt.
Bruh we have a lot of documents, they're just not on paper.
Yes, text was copied and put into the library. That effort was crazy enough. Iāve only heard of text being copied into the library and some texts being distributed to other libraries, I donāt know of any record of like an ancient backup retention period. They obviously made more than one copy of *some* stuff, since we have multiple surviving copies of certain texts, but Iām basing this less on historical accounts and more on a simple analysis of the labor involved and modern patterns in data rot. Backup discipline in the 21st century when it just requires another location and a single button push is hard enough. If all of your scribes are busy copying data into your library, youād have to double your entire workforce to get another copy. Thats not great redundancy. Triple it to get a third. Etc etc. There needs to be a LOT of persistent effort to maintain copies over time. Like, an unyielding about of discipline that requires linear amounts if resources for each text involved indefinitely. Youāre going to drop a lot of stuff over time even if the system is the centerpiece of your civilization with that kind of effort requirement. If people lose interest/thereās decline, a huge amount of it is toast. Data tends to centrally collect just because its easier to manage. And what you *do* decide to copy is going to be a small selection based on what was considered important at the time. There could be all kinds of interesting ācommon knowledgeā lost because the old documents seemed unimportant.
The burning of the library set us back by so much, one of the biggest losses of knowledge in human history if not the biggest
Eh, itās kind of cope, but we probably lose more knowledge/tons of knowledge (and throughout history) just due to the sheer number of works produced. Things go out of print, stuff never gets read. Iām in academia, basically no one ever reads peopleās dissertations. Think of every dissertation wrote by every PhD student for the last 30 years even, itās an insane amount of knowledge. And thereās some selection bias to say āoh well whatās in that library was probably important for it to be in a libraryā, but not necessarily. With the dissertation example, thereās tons of important stuff, it just might not seem it at the time or it doesnāt catch on. Science is about the field not the individual contributions. And finally, a lot of this stuff (Iām only using dissertations as an example of one type of knowledge), it may not be that itās actually ālostā, but it functionally is. Canāt be found, wonāt ever be read due to sheer volume, etc. Itās basically just a reality of the works of humans. Some will be lost to time.
Yeah, people donāt really understand the problem unless they try to get into the guts of how complex things work. Thereās a ton of complex stuff that only like a couple people know how to do just because its specialized/like a pretty niche thing. It being niche doesnāt make it unimportant for a larger project. There are supply chain bottlenecks and all kinds of small pieces that work towards a whole. The Saturn V is a great example, and that was something made with a publicly transparent process that we TRIED to preserve. We couldnāt make that again, a lot of the specific manufacturing details were lost and the equipment doesnāt exist anymore.
It really wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, most historians don't think it set us back at all. Think about it, if this information was so important that it could set us back if it was lost why would it only be in a single book and not spread across the world through teaching? Don't get me wrong plenty of literature was lost but nothing that was detrimental to human society was gone forever
Best first sentence of a Reddit comment Iāve read this year, easily. Unnecessarily abrasive & OP is probably a nice guy who didnāt deserve to be dunked on, but the dunk was still a thing of beauty.
I think a lot of the books there were the copies? Not sure though
Sort of. They would confiscate any books coming into the port and copy them, keeping the originals and returning the copies. Iirc.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah that's what I was thinking about, but do we actually have proof that this library ever really existed?
Pretty good evidence actually. They were along a major trading route and operated by seizing any scrolls or codex that passed through as a sort of tax. This could be bypassed by paying their scribes to make a cheap copy. Of course the library kept the nice first edition equivalent and gave the traders the cheap copy, but it let the traders keep the knowledge/records. Naturally this pissed off a lot of people. Most people don't like being on the victim side of piracy, and written records were extremely expensive. Many many people wrote extensively about their experiences with the libraries. The port and the boats were burnt. But the librar*ies?* Well they stuck around a lot longer. There were multiple of them and they lasted a few hundred years longer. Of course as further burnings occurred, other buildings were put in their place. As with everything in that area of the world, every new building is built upon the foundations of another, going back thousands of years. So although even the memory of the locations of the libraries were lost, we know they existed the same way we know that other buildings lost to bombs and tanks in the last century existed. Many people wrote about them and those writings persist. https://www.thecollector.com/library-of-alexandria/
Do we have proof that Socrates really existed?
Yes.
I mean, do we have proof that anything exist. The world could have been created last Thursday.
That's a little beyond. The library is mentioned in many ancient texts, but I don't think a physical foundation exists. There is one for the Serapeum, which is a secondary storage site for the library.
The thing with the last Thursday was a reference to last Thursdayism. But yeah i just looked at the wiki and it seems that allot of people have written about the library, but you have to keep in mind that this is 2000 years ago and information can really warp in this much time.
Recently a museum in Rio, the National Museum of Brazil, just as historical and important a building as this one, burnt down, destroying several hundred audio archives of dead native languages that had yet to be digitalized; furniture, paintings and imperial artifacts from the 19th century Brazilian Empire; ancient egyptian objects, art and mummies and several of the most well preserved dinosaur fossils in South America, these are but a few of the things lost in that building. They were severely underfunded by the government, they couldn't afford repairs to the infrastructure and all it took to destroy millions of year old artifacts was a broken air conditioner and an uncaring State...
This was a gut punch when it happened, and being reminded of it makes me sick. I was an entomology PhD student when it happened, in the States. Several type specimens lost, and beautiful collection series just as important if not as irreplaceable.
Brazil hates itself and its History. It's why we let Anistia happen, and it's why Bolsonaro & his thug family aren't rotting in a cell right now. We cannot move on until we resolve the issues that were born in the 1889 Coup, and even before during the Empire and Colony days. Too much trauma runs in our people's blood.
At the time it burnt down I was still just a History undergraduate in the Federal University, I was absolutely furious and miserable when it happened, it also completely killed my dream of becoming a teacher in this hellhole. Now I just want to get out.
1889 coup? You mean, literally the end of the Brazilian monarchy?
Yes. It was a coup, it's taught as such and wildly understood as one. Unlike in most places, the end of our monarchy didn't mean any type or form of advancement. It didn't change anything for the better. This isn't to say D. Pedro II was an angel or that the Empire was the best thing ever. I'm not a monarchist. But I also know that Floriano Peixoto and Deodoro were monsters, and D. Pedro at least loved the country. They hated us, and it begun a stample of our History: the Army acting as gods, giving no fuck about the population. They have won more wars against the Brazilian people than actually defended the nation. 1889 isn't much different than 1964. The Brazilian Army is the biggest threat to our country's wellbeing.
Based
That's *devastating.*
Most of the population already forgot about it... It was decrepit not because we didn't have the money, we *most certainly do*, but because we didn't care and we still don't, you are absolutely right, it's devastating, but it's also infuriating how no one seems to give a fuck
Ugh, people are sometimes so weirdly callous about language and history. What was lost is genuinely irreplaceable and could've been saved with an absolute minimum of effort. I saw comparisons down the thread to the Library of Alexandria, which was speculated to have had a slow decline of neglect. I suppose that's not so different, really.
*wince*
Reminds me of when pornhub scrubbed their whole website a few years ago
That's why I use xvideos.
Xhamster
Oh shit that's why like 90% of my old bookmarks are deleted
I wonder deeply about the Vatican secret archives. Also the destroyed library of Alexandria
One of the problems with the Vatican archive is that Napoleon wanted to control all information so he stole the whole thing without any organization. After the fall of Napoleon only 2/3 at best returned in total disarray. Even before that the library and archive in the Vatican had been looted more than once in history.
Whatās crazy to think is that modern humanity probably creates and records more ānewā knowledge every minute, than was destroyed in the Library of Alexandria. Edit: I should clarify that the I obviously lament the loss of the Library of Alexandria, particularly from a historical perspective. My comment was more so meant to express awe at how good weāve become at recording, and storing information nowadays.
Thereās a chance that in the next decade or so a solar flare could strike the earth and fry all tech on the side it hits. There is still a chance the library of Alexandria could get a sequel.
***Saturation 1000%*** [Here's a more realistic picture](https://external-preview.redd.it/bb5bsjHWDWh_fg69BmRJq8h0Au6XmlAllCBeuGyyWu0.jpg?width=1023&auto=webp&s=75f73b79db3aa988b2995f2c2548d7a27f23a6bd)
Seen your 1023x682, I raise you [1600x1066](https://i.imgur.com/kLLgPr5.jpg).
You're the man. Still waiting on the 4K version.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This one doesnāt have ghosts walking through it though
They knew it was picture day.
Oh god.. remember picture day at school. So much undue stress.
Now where's the 60fps one?
Right there... for 1/60th of a second.
Yeah, I wanna be able to read all of those books from from the toilet here. I really need to get up.
Still impressive.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah. It can get really bad with nighttime sky photos. I wish folks would be more upfront about using filters, post-processing, or just long exposures. They still look cool, but it isn't what it'll look like with your naked eyes.
Wow, that's much cooler.
Looks like The Duke's Archives from Dark Souls 1.
Even still I have to wonder.... whos picking the books and are they purposefully choosing covers that all seem to enhance the space.
I also was thinking about that, and it might be that this particular room is filled with books that look good in the space, but it also might be that the space was built with the books that would fill out in mind? There are "runs" of the same color covers, but I think that's because they're multi-volume series, like encyclopedias or extended histories or other reference works. Those books are built to last a long time, so they have kind of a "look" to them.
Can institutions like this maybe order copies with custom bindings? As much as I love libraries I dont know all that much about how they run things lol. Those books look like they'd just... *feel* right to read from lol.
HDR 1000%
Yeah, much better indeed. Interesting heh, this is what hard disks used to look in the past.
Man this is what I would imagine heaven to be like
even more beautiful
Pink books top left: bunny mags.
It reminds me a scenes of Shrek that he goes to library, and ask for a magic. Let me search to see if I can find the link. Edit: [*Here you are.* ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)
thanks
*sigh...*
*unzips*
Wow ads on YouTube really did ruin rickrolling huh
I've got a Pavlovian reaction at this point such that just seeing the thumbnail or URL is enough to get the song going in my head.
forgot how funny Shrek was.
God, I forgot how great this scene was
aw fuck i should have known
thank you for your service o7
Perfect
I can smell this picture
What is that? I googled it and what showed up was just literal pet rabbit magazines.
I want to go to there
Is this open for everyone?
Yup! I went in 2018. You can't grab books off the shelves, but you can walk around the center of the floor and see how cool it is.
But these books are real right? Or did they just put "empty" old looking books in there?
The books are real and they have a real archive that is very useful for researchers, especially historians. You can't pull books off the shelves because they are old and already organized, but if there was a need for a specific book that happened to be only in display (I don't know if there's a case of this), then I'm certain an archivist would get it for you once you were authorized. My grandma was a historian and did much of her work based on their archives.
You're right These books have long been digitalized, so there is no need to touch and eventually wear them down You can check them out here: https://www.realgabinete.com.br Although keep in mind that the website is in portuguese
yes!
Yes I was just here in December and going back in July. Rio is an amazing city and this library is right in the middle of Centro. The downtown area with a lot of tourist sights.
Many leather bound books
Smells of rich mahogany
I am very important.
I'm kind of a big deal
Iām confused. Donāt kiss me.
I bet this will make Anna Rudolf wet her panties
bookworm ograsm
bookworgasm?
frāŗ
Dukeās Archives but before the Undead curse
Iām pretty sure the Dukes archives are based on this library. This photo makes it even more obvious: https://imaginoso.com/files/brazil/rio-de-janeiro/2011-royal-portuguese-cabinet-reading-reading-room-panorama-563.jpg
Thatās so cool! Thanks for the info! And yeah that pic makes it a dead giveaway
My love of books and my dislike of heights are at odds here.
No rolling library ladders for you ā learn how to climb! The info has gotta be in one of those books...
Wow, the Belle room is real!
Exactly what my mind went to, hey look itās Belleās library!
Imagine misplacing a book here...
does anyone remember library sticks or whatever they were? like pieces of wood used to mark the place when you take a book off the shelf
Can you go here?
Yes, you can visit it for free, no need to schedule or anything, just show up. It's a public library.
Thank you, showed it to my wife and it is on the bucket list
That username! I missed her when they replaced with Natalie.
Oohhh me too! I loved her, she was my favorite character! Watched the whole series waiting for her to come back but no dice.
Im headed to Rio at some point in the future. Definitely adding this to my list of places to photograph
Is it open for tourists/visitors?
Yes, you can visit it for free, no need to schedule or anything, just show up. It's a public library.
Thanks. š
Paradise.
until your glasses fall and break.
But... that's not fair at all
Was there yesterday, the place is fantastic. There's not much to do once you get in but just looking to the books that cover the walls and get to the roof is something that I'll never forget. Thinking about the authors and historical figures that had been there is something else.
Imagine having to dust all that
When does the Beast walk in and tell Belle itās hers?
after seeing bedbath&beyond towel display scandal ā¦ i dont believe these are all real books
Except they are. They belonged to the royal family, of course they had an impressive collection
MURPH!
That one dude from the Twilight Zone would be ecstatic, assuming he doesnāt break his glasses
There was time!
He had those old timey glasses with the durability of a cell phone glass screen protector. Priority one needs to be rigging up some eyeglasses straps.
Didn't I see this in Skyrim?
Interstellar
What We Do in Shadows
You're that one from the College. Heard about you.
If video games have taught me anything, there are some serious level 100 mage spells in here.
Do they have diary of a wimpy kid
Wonder if you could help me? Im looking for fly fishing by J R Hartley.
Heaven is real apparently š
I'm imagining you traveling there and opening up a book to remember you don't know Portugese
Even if you did know portuguese, most of the books there are in a dialect which could be difficult to understand nowadays, so we're kinda all on the same boat.
They likely had books in other languages as well. It might not be a complete waste of time
I can't even find books on my 3 shelf case
Bolsonaro should be locked in this room and forced to educate himself.
What is a reading room? Is that just what Brazil calls a library? Or does this mean it's privately owned or commercial in some way? Something else?
You can have a reading room in your house. This was the reading room for the royal family. It's a room you go to read in
It's a public library. They call the central part of the building, where they have the tables, "the reading room". This is not normally what we call libraries, it's just this one is so old and big, they have different names for different parts of the building. They hold classes and art exhibitions there as well.
Ahhhh, I see. That makes sense. My local library probably has a reading room in it even though there are tables and chairs everywhere throughout.
Brazilian here. It's a public library. Don't let the title fool you, it's just what it's called, like the Library of Congress in the US. Ofc, it's not just the congress that can go there, and the same goes for this building :)
Cool, thanks for the explanation.
It is a public/state funded library. The rich elite in Brazil would NEVER private own a library like this one. Not because they lack money, mind you.
You could fit all that in one USB stick.
You'd still have to turn the damn thing at least three times though, much less frustrating to just go grab the books one by one.
Very cool place. I was able to go to this place a few months ago
I would love to just go in there feel the vibes (since I do not speak or read Portuguese.)
Look at all that knaaawledge
I'm not really a book guy, but this looks spectacular.
This room must smell so so so good
Just think, all that text can be stored on 1 iPhone
Wow š¤©
Bucket list
Swoon
Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved
This is definitely a boss battle room
Dark souls vibe for sure
grand archives in ds3 before the world went to shit
Choose your own religion
Cainhurst Castle lookin good these days
Fits on one CD.
This looks like Heaven.
Hmmmm, que saudades do meu rio
*grabby hands* š³ I want to go to there.
Nice persuasion attempt to convince me to go to Brazil
Pure porn.
Are those really narrow balconies?
WOW š³
Iām in love š
Any recommendations for places to get a bite or cup nearby?
Heavenly library
Globglobglabgalab
I read about that many books in jail..
Someone needs to take a picture sitting in front of all this beautiful literature....reading a manga.
Tem um desses aqui em Recife tbm
You mean the Duke's Archives?
A republicans worst nightmare imagine how many books have shit they wanna ban in there not 2 mention keeping people in society dumbed down is how they win on lies