{"product_id":"the-study-the-inner-life-of-renaissance-libraries-paperback","title":"The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAndrew Hui\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA study of the study--and what happens when we read too much\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the advent of print in the fifteenth century, Europe's cultural elite assembled personal libraries as refuges from persecutions and pandemics. Andrew Hui tells the remarkable story of the Renaissance studiolo--a \"little studio\"--and reveals how these spaces dedicated to self-cultivation became both a remedy and a poison for the soul. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBlending fresh, insightful readings of literary and visual works with engaging accounts of his life as an insatiable bookworm, Hui traces how humanists from Petrarch to Machiavelli to Montaigne created their own intimate studies. He looks at imaginary libraries in Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Marlowe, and discusses how Renaissance painters depicted the Virgin Mary and St. Jerome as saintly bibliophiles. Yet writers of the period also saw a dark side to solitary reading. It drove Don Quixote to madness, Prospero to exile, and Faustus to perdition. Hui draws parallels with our own age of information surplus and charts the studiolo's influence on bibliographic fabulists like Jorge Luis Borges and Umberto Eco. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBeautifully illustrated, \u003ci\u003eThe Study\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a celebration of bibliophilia and a critique of bibliomania. Incorporating perspectives on Islamic, Mughal, and Chinese book cultures, it offers a timely and eloquent meditation on the ways we read and misread today.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAndrew Hui\u003c\/b\u003e is associate professor of humanities at the National University of Singapore. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eA Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter\u003c\/i\u003e (Princeton) and \u003ci\u003eThe Poetics of Ruins in Renaissance Literature\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 336\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 7.9 x 5.2 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 06, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57221334204721,"sku":"9780691243344","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1004\/9532\/7537\/files\/W1SkL9o9Zy9780691243344.webp?v=1793382682","url":"https:\/\/mitchellofficial.com\/products\/the-study-the-inner-life-of-renaissance-libraries-paperback","provider":"MITCHELL","version":"1.0","type":"link"}