NationMaster - Encyclopedia: King's Library

The King’s Library was the original name applied both to the British Royal Collection of over 60,000 books and to the room in the British Museum that housed them. The library had been formed by King George III and was given to the nation in 1823 by his son George IV. The collection was originally located in Montagu House, the original location of the British Museum after its foundation in 1753, however, it soon became apparent that there was insufficient room. So a new building was begun on the same site by the architect Sir Robert Smirke, much of which can be seen today. Image File history File links Information. ... This page is about computer text editing. ... Image File history File links BM;_'MF'_RM1_-_The_King's_Library,_Enlightenment_1_'Discovering_the_world_in_the_18th_Century_~_View_South. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() â€“ on the European continent() â€“ in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Government Constitutional monarchy - Monarch Queen Elizabeth II... Robert Smirke (1752 - January 5, 1845), English painter, was born at Wigton near Carlisle. ... See also: 1822 in architecture, other events of 1823, 1824 in architecture and the architecture timeline. ... See also: 1826 in architecture, other events of 1827 1828 in architecture and the architecture timeline. ... The neoclassical movement that produced Neoclassical architecture began in the mid-18th century, both as a reaction against the Rococo style of anti-tectonic naturalistic ornament, and an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738 â€“ 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... George IV (George Augustus Frederick) (12 August 1762 â€“ 26 June 1830) was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death. ... The entrance front of Montagu House Montagu House (sometimes spelled Montague) was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London which became the first home of the British Museum. ... Robert Smirke (1752 - January 5, 1845), English painter, was born at Wigton near Carlisle. ...

The books were transferred to the new British Library in 1998, and the room has now been restored to its original glory as one of London's finest and most beautiful neo-Classical interiors. British Library main building, London The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom. ...

Impressive as it is, the King’s Library, with its magnificent interior and fascinating objects, combine to make a scene of sheer beauty, stimulating to the imagination as well as to the senses.

History

The King’s Library is considered one of the most significant collections of the Enlightenment, containing books printed mainly in Britain, Europe and North America from the mid-15th to the early-19th centuries. The collection was especially rich in classical literature, British and European history, English and Italian literature, religious texts and in examples of early printing, which include include a copy of the Gutenberg Bible and Caxton's first edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. A copy of the Gutenberg Bible, this version owned by the U.S. Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, and as the Mazarin Bible) is a print of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz... The printers device of William Caxton, 1478. ... Geoffrey Chaucer (c. ... Canterbury Tales Woodcut 1484 The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). ...

At the death of George III in 1820, the royal collection passed to his son George IV, Prince Regent since 1811 with the Library comprising around 65,000 volumes of printed books, with a further 19,000 pamphlets. After some negotiation with the government, the new king offered the King’s Library as a gift to the British nation in 1823. It was decided that the gift should be placed in the British Museum, on the understanding that it would keep its separate identity. After a temporary sojourn in Kensington Palace, in 1828 the books (with the exception of a few choice items withheld by the King and today at the Royal Library at Windsor) were moved to the new King's Library Gallery, designed in Greek Revival style especially for the collection by Sir Robert Smirke. The arrival of the King's Library doubled the size of the British Museum's printed book collections. Download high resolution version (1353x822, 375 KB)Interior of the British Library designed by Colin St. ... Download high resolution version (1353x822, 375 KB)Interior of the British Library designed by Colin St. ... George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738–29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... British Library main building, London The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom. ... The south facade of the main block of Kensington Palace, seen through Jean Tijous wrought iron gates. ... This office, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of books and manuscripts owned by the Sovereign in an official capacity - as distinct from those owned privately and displayed at... Windsor (IPA: usually , but also ) is a suburban town and tourist destination in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. ...

For the next 145 years, King's Library volumes were regularly consulted by readers in the British Museum's reading rooms. The most significant event to affect the collection during this long period was the aerial bombardment of the Museum during the Second World War. On 23 September 1940 a small bomb fell on the Gallery. 124 volumes were completely destroyed, a further 304 were damaged beyond repair, and many others required substantial restoration. As a result the collection was moved to the Bodleian Library at Oxford for the remainder of the war. In the following decades, attempts were made to replace the lost works, but even today there are a few gaps. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Entrance to the Library, with the coats-of-arms of several Oxford colleges The Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ...

In 1973 the British Library was established, and responsibility for the King's Library transferred to the new UK national library. The books however stayed where they were until 1998, when they were moved to the British Library's new St Pancras building. British Library main building, London The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom. ... St Pancras is the name of a place in London. ...

Gallery Construction & Redevelopment

When the books, which gave the King’s Library Room at the British Museum its raison d’être, were transferred to their new home in the new British Library, the room was left without a function. Between 2000 and 2003 the original room was carefully restored to the previous glory of the 1820s. The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ...

Built by Sir Robert Smirke between 1823 and 1827, the ‘King’s Library’ was the first completed part of his grand design for the new building of the British Museum, and his finest interior. It was on a grand scale: 300 feet long, 41 feet high and 30 feet wide, with a central section 58 feet wide giving a gross internal area of 1,143 sq m. Its great size called for the pioneering use of cast iron beams to support the ceiling. Robert Smirke (1752 - January 5, 1845), English painter, was born at Wigton near Carlisle. ...

The conversion of the library to now house a new permanent exhibition of the Enlightenment is brilliant both in conception and in execution, and allows for the first time for the story of the museum and its early collections to be told. Seven themes, corresponding to the seven compartments of Smirke’s interior, are illustrated by objects from the diverse collections that made up the original museum, including geological specimens, stuffed birds and the wonders of nature (which later led to the establishment of the Geological and Natural History Museums), as well as the emerging evidence of early civilisations through archaeological excavations, astronomical and scientific instruments, and much else. The Age of Enlightenment (French: ; German: ) was an eighteenth century movement in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the Age of Reason. ... The Geological Museum (originally The Museum of Practical Geology, started in 1835 and therefore one of the oldest single science museums in the world) transferred from Jermyn Street to Exhibition Road, South Kensington in 1935. ... For other similarly-named museums see Museum of Natural History. ...

3,000 objects are displayed, as well as enough leather-bound volumes from the House of Commons Library to convey an adequate sense that this is a library, increasing the Museum’s total of objects on display by a staggering 10%. The House of Commons Library is the library and information resource of the lower house of the British Parliament. ...

These are displayed in the original bookcases, which were glazed in the 1850s, and in surviving and replica freestanding display cases. The cases are supplemented by pieces of marble sculpture and vases, carefully placed on new pedestals, reflecting the passion for classical antiquity, and the character of a gentleman’s study, that would have been familiar to the early collectors.

Hundreds of square metres of plaster were cleaned and repaired; the ceiling glows once again with its original stone paint and golden yellow roundels; a sun burst of gilding announces the very centre. The balcony, previously thought to be of burnished brass, glitters once more with new gilding. Weeks of painstaking repair and cleaning revealed the warmth of the oak and mahogany floor, reinforcing the sense of space and order. Panels of sienna yellow scagliola, columns of Aberdeen granite, capitals of Derbyshire alabaster, pilasters and architraves of white marble once again offer their engaging polychromy: two centuries of use and London grime have been washed away.

The ornate plasterwork of the coffered ceiling has been painstakingly repaired, the granite, alabaster, marble and scagliola wall surfaces cleaned by conservators, and cleaning of the floors carried out with hand- rather than machine-sanding in order to retain the patina of age and use. The original decorative scheme has been carefully researched, later gilding over painted, and a rather surprising primrose yellow painted on the circular and oval compartments of the ceiling to restore its original appearance. The whole room has been invisibly serviced and beautifully lit, employing great ingenuity in using the hidden voids behind the bookcases and within Smirke’s innovative fireproof cast iron floor construction to run mechanical and electrical systems.

In order to display objects in the bookcases, 200 kilometres of wiring including fibre optics cabling has enabled a subtle lighting scheme to be introduced with the backs of the cases painted a suitably recessive dark red. The lighting has been carefully judged to allow all the objects to be clearly seen without it being apparent from a distance that they have been lit at all.

Enlightenment Exhibition

Enlightenment is a rich new permanent exhibition using thousands of objects from the Museum's collection to show how people understood their world in the Age of Enlightenment. Their view was different from ours, but our knowledge has been built on the foundations they laid.

The new display explores a period which saw the development of a systematic approach to the way that people understood the world of nature and human achievement, a period which saw the founding of the British Museum itself. The new gallery also provides an introduction to the Museum and its collections, and highlights the way that our understanding of much of the natural and human world has changed. A central exhibit is the Piranesi Vase. The Piranesi Vase The Piranesi Vase or Boyd Vase is a reconstructed colossal ancient Roman krater on 3 legs and a triangular base, with a relief around the sides of the vase. ...

Sculpture from the exhbition

External link

Categories: Copied and pasted articles and sections | British Museum The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... View of the Great Court. ... The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2560x1920, 1073 KB) Improved version of Image:British_Museum_from_NE.JPG File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): The British Museum Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... Chinese stoneware statue of a judgment figure, 16th century, Ming Dynasty. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The British Museum in London, England is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ... The Discobolus of Myron (discus thrower Greek Î”Î¹ÏƒÎºÎ¿Î²ÏŒÎ»Î¿Ï‚ Ï„Î¿Ï… ÎœÏÏÏ‰Î½Î±) is a famous Roman marble copy of a lost Greek bronze original, completed during the zenith of the classical period between 460-450 BC. A discus thrower is depicted about to release his throw. ... Metope from the Elgin marbles depicting a Centaur and a Lapith fighting. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. ... The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Babylonia and is among the earliest known literary works. ... The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC) is a black limestone Neo-Assyrian bas-relief sculpture from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), in northern Iraq. ... One of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries of all times, credited to Austen Henry Layard. ... The Cyrus Cylinder. ... The Standard of Ur (Peace panel) the War panel Peace, detail showing lyrist. ... The Royal Game of Ur refers to two game boards found in Royal Tombs of Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. ... Hoa Hakananaia on display in the British Museums Wellcome Trust Gallery Hoa Hakananaia is a moai (Easter Island statue) housed in the British Museum in London. ... E. A. Wallis Budge in his office at the British Museum around the turn of the century. ... Sir John James Burnet (1857 - 1938) , son of the architect John Burnet was born in Glasgow. ... Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 â€“ 12 January 1976), mainly known as Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. ... Portrait of Robert Cotton, commissioned 1626 and attributed to Cornelius Johnson (or Janssen), (1593-1661). ... Joseph Duveen (1869 – 1939), later made Baron Duveen of Millbank, was one of the most influential art dealers of all time. ... Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (July 20, 1766 - November 14, 1841) was a British nobleman and diplomat, known for the removal of marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens -- popularly known as the Elgin Marbles. ... Sir Charles Fellows (August, 1799 - 8 November 1860) was a British archaeologist. ... The restored Reichstag in Berlin, housing the German parliament. ... Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (March 20, 1826 - May 21, 1897), English antiquary, was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. ... Thomas Grenville (1755-1846), was a British politician and bibliophile. ... Dr Henry Reginald Holland Hall MBE, FBA, FSA (30th September 1873 â€” 13th October 1930) was an English Egyptologist and historian. ... William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859) British antiquarian and traveller, son of Rev. ... David George Hogarth (born May 23, 1862 in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire; died November 6, 1927 in Oxford) was an English archaeologist and scholar, associated with T. E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans. ... George II (George Augustus; 10 November 1683 â€“ 25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-LÃ¼neburg (Hanover) and Archtreasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death. ... George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738 â€“ 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... // T. E. Lawrence in the white silk robes of the Sherifs of Mecca. ... The Right Honourable Sir Austen Henry Layard (5 March 1817â€“5 July 1894) was a British author and diplomatist, best known as the excavator of Nineveh. ... Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (6 May 1904 â€“ 19 August 1978) was a prominent archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history, and was also (despite his Roman Catholicism) the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie, who was 14 years his senior. ... Sir Charles Thomas Newton (September 16, 1816â€“November 28, 1894) was a British archaeologist. ... Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi (1797 - 1879), better known as Anthony Panizzi, was a British librarian of Italian birth. ... The Jefferson Memorial, built 1939 â€” 1943 John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 â€“ August 27, 1937) was an architect most known for his designs of the Jefferson Memorial (completed in 1943) and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art (completed in 1941) in Washington, DC. Pope was born in... Claudius James Rich (March 28, 1787 - October 5, 1821), English traveller and scholar, was born near Dijon. ... Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the House of Commons, caricatured in Vanity Fair, 1889. ... Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910) was an Assyriologist and traveller, born at Mosul of Christian parents. ... Henry Salt (June 14, 1780 – October 30, 1827) was an English artist, traveler, diplomat, and Egyptologist. ... Hans Sloane. ... Sir Robert Smirke (1781-18 April 1867) was a leading 19th century British architect. ... Sydney Smirke (born 1798; died 1877) was a British architect during the 19th century. ... Image:AurelStein. ... Sir John Taylor KCB FRIBA (15 November 1833 â€“ 30 April 1912) was a British architect. ... Much of the following text is taken from the public domain Encyclopedia Britannica 1911, as such it may contain errors and inaccuracies Charles Towneley (1737-1805), English archaeologist and collector of marbles, was born at Towneley, the family seat, near Burnley in Lancashire, on the ist of October 1737. ... Sir Richard Westmacott, Jr. ... John Turtle Wood was a British architect and engineer. ... Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880â€“20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist, best known for his excavations at Ur in Sumerancient Mesopotamia. ... The site of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in Turkey. ... A fanciful interpretation of the Mausoleum of Maussollos, from a 1572 engraving by Martin Heemskerck (1498â€“1574), who based his reconstruction on descriptions The Tomb of Maussollos, Mausoleum of Maussollos, or Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (Ancient Greek: ), was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC at Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey... , For other uses, see Nineveh (disambiguation). ... Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. ... The Parthenon east faÃ§ade The Parthenon from the south. ... Phigalia, or Phigaleia (Greek Î¦Î¹Î³Î±Î»ÎµÎ¯Î± or Î¦Î¹Î³Î¬Î»ÎµÎ¹Î±) is an ancient Greek city in the south-west angle of Arcadia. ... Ramesseum from the air - showing pylons and secondary buildings The Ramesseum is the memorial temple (or mortuary temple) of Pharaoh Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great, also spelt Ramses and Rameses). It is located in the Theban necropolis in Upper Egypt, across the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor. ... In Greek mythology, Xanthos (yellow) was an alternate spelling for Xanthus. ...

Contents

History GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Gallery Construction & Redevelopment

Enlightenment Exhibition

Sculpture from the exhbition

External link

History