When I walked through the carved double doors into the Baroque library of St Gallen, Switzerland I noticed an oval shield above the polished wooden threshold. What a perfect introduction to a library. A place where you can go and bathe your mind in the warm, gentle light of ideas. A place to exercise and heal your brain. It is all celestial blue ceilings, gilded carvings, cherubs and complicated paintings representing church gatherings from long ago.
More than years worth of manuscripts and rare books are stored here. The oldest date from the 7th century. This is a treasure trove of information. As a present day visitor to the library I gaze up at this spectacular building and feel insignificant in the general scheme of things. The silence reigns supreme. Some researchers will spend a lifetime working on a small number of manuscripts, seeking to decode and understand their contents. A place to immerse myself in books, ideas and thoughts.
I like going into a library and picking a book off the shelf and seeing where it leads me. Unfortunately that is not allowed in the Library of St Gallen. The books are too rare and valuable. However, I did recently select a book, at random, from a shelf in the Gladstone Library in Wales and found myself discovering a 19th century record of the Greek Islands and their ports.
There were hand-written notes in the margin, recording the likely welcome a Royal Navy ship would receive in each place! Gladstone was British Prime Minister four times during the reign of Queen Victoria, a scholarly character and a man of principle. In old age he left his personal library of several thousand books, to the local community. The story goes that he and his valet moved the collection from his home at Hawarden Castle down to the local village by wheel-barrow.
What were their motives and concerns when putting pen to paper. If you take a character like Casanova, the famous Venetian socialite and womaniser the answer is simple. He wrote his memoirs because he wanted to be remembered.
