Ancient Libraries and Renaissance Humanism

Winner of the 2018 Josef IJsewijn Prize for Best Book on a Neo-Latin TopicAlthough many humanists, from Petrarch to Fulvio Orsini, had written briefly about library history, the De bibliothecis of Justus Lipsius was the first self-contained monograph on the topic. The De bibliothecis proved to be a seminal achievement, both in redefining the scope of library history and in articulating a vision of a public, secular, research institution for the humanities. It was repeatedly reprinted and translated, plagiarized and epitomized. Through the end of the nineteenth century, scholars turned to it as the ultimate foundation for any discussion of library history. In Ancient Libraries and Renaissance Humanism, Hendrickson presents a critical edition of Lipsius’s work with introductory studies, a Latin text, English translation, and a substantial historical commentary.

“This is a supremely useful book.” - Earle Havens, Johns Hopkins University, in: Renaissance Quarterly, 72:1 (Spring 2019), pp. 253-255 “The translation is lively, faithful to Lipsius’s much discussed, and difficult to characterize, style.” - Kathleen M. Comerford, Georgia Southern University, in: Journal of Jesuit Studies, 5:4 (November 2018), pp. 699-701 “The most important and innovative part of this volume is the generous commentary, which not only provides the reader with abundant material on the ancient libraries discussed by Lipsius, but also on ancient and modern authors who have contributed to the subject.” - in: Neo-Latin News 2017, pp 139-141 “This edition, with a detailed introduction, translation on facing pages, and commentary, is very welcome. The notes are full and well informed. The standard of production is high and the book is well illustrated” - Nigel Wilson, Lincoln College, Oxford, in: Library & Information History, 33:3 (2017), pp. 220-221 “Hendrickson’s translation of De Bibliothecis is judicious and eloquent; his analysis of its sources, Lipsius’s writing style, and the context of its production are excellent. This books offers a perfect model for the reissuing of Renaissance texts and making them available to a wider audience.” - Arthur der Weduwen, University of St Andrews, in: Sixteenth Century Journal, 49:4 (Winter 2018), pp. 1168-1170 “Thomas Hendrickson’s critical and annotated edition of Lipsius’s De bibliothecis syntagma is a work of great erudition and shows the editor’s affinity with both classical and more recent Latin on the one hand, and his familiarity with the history of the book on the other.” - Jeanine De Landtsheer, Leuven University, in: Quaerendo, 49:1 (March 2019), pp. 79-82 “a handsome volume, which provides us with the text in Latin and an English translation of the Renaissance work on libraries of the scholar Justus Lipsius that should be of considerable interest to scholars working in earlier book cultures [...]. Overall, Hendrickson has provided a great service to scholars interested in (ancient) libraries. This is a work that may, and probably will, prompt further study of the ancient materials about book collections and also of the Renaissance context in which book collections were subsequently found. Hendrickson’s volume thus rightly deserves a place in the scholar’s library!” - Yun Lee Too, Cambridge University, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.10.25

Thomas Hendrickson, Ph.D. (2013), UC Berkeley, is a Rome-Prize winner and teaches at Stanford Online High School. He has published on ancient libraries, ancient biography, and the reception of both in the Renaissance world.