Great European Libraries: Photographs by Massimo Listri January 7, 2011

In 1902, when Pierpont Morgan commissioned Charles Follen McKim to design a library to house his growing collection of books and manuscripts, the architect conceived an Italianate marble villa that paid homage to the High Renaissance. On the occasion of the most extensive restoration of the McKim building's interiors in over one hundred years, The Morgan Library & Museum presents an exhibition of photographs by Massimo Listri documenting iconic European libraries that similarly use fine wood, marble, and other precious materials to create an opulent setting for books. The large-format photographs, almost five feet in width and four feet in height, dramatically capture the beauty of the libraries, which were built from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries.