In The Study, Andrew Hui offers a uniquely personal account of the life and enduring legacy of the #Renaissance library.
With 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.
Blending 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.
Beautifully illustrated, The Study 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.
Out now: https://hubs.ly/Q02-D7hg0 (28 Jan. UK pub)
評論
"[A] stimulating history. . . . Hui makes a convincing case that personal libraries were intimately bound up with Renaissance conceptions of selfhood. Bibliophiles will find much to ponder." ― Publishers Weekly
"Impressively erudite, Hui has produced a substantial piece of scholarship. No avid and self-respecting bibliophile should be without this book set snugly on one of their study’s many shelves." ― Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Impressively erudite, Hui has produced a substantial piece of scholarship. No avid and self-respecting bibliophile should be without this book set snugly on one of their study’s many shelves." ― Kirkus Reviews, starred review
評論
“With learning and grace, Andrew Hui conducts readers on a virtual tour of sites of reading, from St. Jerome’s wilderness retreat to the sumptuous libraries of Renaissance princes, from Montaigne’s tower to Prospero’s island. Spanning many centuries and cultures, this book about the real and imagined places of splendid scholarly solitude will delight all who love books and who long for a room of their own in which to read them.”—Lorraine Daston, author of Rules: A Short History of What We Live By
“This marvel of a book virtuosically interweaves text and images to tell the story of a magical, mysterious place: the studiolo. From Petrarch to Montaigne, and through to the great mythical figures of Don Quixote, Faust, and Prospero, Andrew Hui recreates the entire universe of humanism and the Renaissance before our eyes with vertiginous erudition. Imbued with verve, humor, and sensitivity, The Study is worthy of a place in every library.”—William Marx, Collège de France
“Whether Hui is taking us to the Ambrosiana in Milan or reading Cervantes in Singapore, his voice shines through in this learned and luminous book about books. At once playful and direct, erudite and curious, this monumental work of scholarship is also a gift of friendship.”—Julia Reinhard Lupton, author of Shakespeare Dwelling: Designs for the Theater of Life
“Andrew Hui has given us a jewel of a book that traces our timeless bond with that magical space that mirrors both the reader and the stormy world beyond the page.”—Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading
“This marvel of a book virtuosically interweaves text and images to tell the story of a magical, mysterious place: the studiolo. From Petrarch to Montaigne, and through to the great mythical figures of Don Quixote, Faust, and Prospero, Andrew Hui recreates the entire universe of humanism and the Renaissance before our eyes with vertiginous erudition. Imbued with verve, humor, and sensitivity, The Study is worthy of a place in every library.”—William Marx, Collège de France
“Whether Hui is taking us to the Ambrosiana in Milan or reading Cervantes in Singapore, his voice shines through in this learned and luminous book about books. At once playful and direct, erudite and curious, this monumental work of scholarship is also a gift of friendship.”—Julia Reinhard Lupton, author of Shakespeare Dwelling: Designs for the Theater of Life
“Andrew Hui has given us a jewel of a book that traces our timeless bond with that magical space that mirrors both the reader and the stormy world beyond the page.”—Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading
Ruey-Shiun Hwang
水滴石穿
台灣鄉下有很多竹屋，並沒有 gutter (屋簷槽) 把雨水引到旁邊流下，久而久之，雨水從屋頂流下，滴到屋前，即使屋前鋪上水泥，也會被雨水滴穿一排小孔，所謂水滴石穿，絕對是真的，這是日積月累的結果。
我職場退休後，回紐約唸了兩個研究所，拿了兩個碩士學位，已經是 76 歲了。有一天，我跟一位教授聊天，問他說，我想繼續唸 Ph.D., 該如何申請？他回答說，「申請很簡單，但唸博士，少則四到六年，有人 (像我) 唸了十年才拿到學位，你要仔細想想。」我知道他指的是我的年齡，十年以後，我將 86 歲，哈，找不到工作了。
今天收到 Duolingo 傳來的 2024 年成績單，哇，我居然連續不斷學了 1,451 天，這是將近四年，好像回到年輕時唸大學一樣，我迴避了老人痴呆，不知不覺就累積出學習成果來。
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