St. Paul's Cathedral Library

On Monday, we visited St. Paul's Cathedral library. Mr. Joseph Wisdom, the St. Paul's Librarian, gave us our tour. The current St. Paul' Cathedral is the fourth building and replaced Old St. Paul's which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned in 1668 to design the new cathedral which was completed in 1710, 13 years before Wren's death.
The library is located above the main level of St. Paul's at the triforium level. (Fun fact for all you Harry Potter fans: to get to the library you climb the Dean's Stair, which was used in the Harry Potter films).
There are two rooms on either side of a hallway that were originally designed to be library spaces. One of those rooms has never been used as a library space, although today it holds some of Wren's design sketches and watercolors, as well as the model of his second design.
The main library is an amazing space -- it looks and feels and smells the way a library should. It's two levels with a vaulted ceiling and open space in the middle full of tables and desks covered in books and manuscripts. There are huge windows on the south wall, and carved plaster columns covered in books, flowers, fruit, and some interesting carvings of things like a skull and hour glass. Mr. Wisdom said that no one has fully studied the decorative sculputures in the library or in any part of St. Pauls, which I found interesting. There's a research project for an art history student! I also thought Mr. Wisdom posed an intersting theory related to the vaulted ceiling: the tent-like, airiness of the ceiling he said "allows your ideas to go up and float a bit." In other words, allows for some mental space, unlike a library with low ceilings and harsh light, for example. His question (for all you psychologists out there): does the architecture and design of a library have a direct affect on the product of that library?
Although the core of the collection is works of theology, there are also liturgies, Bibles, biographies, Latin and Greek classics, civil history, journals of the House of Commons and House of Lords, civil and canon laws as well as a small number of books about medicine, botany, and the arts. Mr. Wisdom explained that although the library is a religious library, the clergy collected books on non-religious subjects to keep abreast of what was happening in the world around them. The only books added to the collection today are alumni material, books about Christopher Wren, and books related to the history of the church in London. The books are shelved according to size and outfitted with shelf marks for locating items.
Of course one of the best things about the St. Paul's Library are the wonderful items in the collection. The two that Mr. Wisdom said he would grab as he ran out of the burning building are Tyndale's 1526 New Testament -- one of three copies -- and a Psalter from the late 12th or early 13th century, which is the oldest book in the library. Of course, this best feature of the library also lends itself to a lot of preservation issues; the philosophy of the St. Paul's library is to do the best thing for the book, only as much as is necessary, and only actions that are reversable. This is different from restoration, Mr. Wisom explained, in that restoration is "tarting up a book to look pretty."

More history on St. Paul's and the library can be found at:
www.stpauls.co.uk