Tea at Trianon: University Libraries Around the World

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, April 13, 2023

University Libraries Around the World

From Architectural Digest:

Since Oxford University was established in 1096, the esteemed English institution has seemingly added libraries to its campus every few years. One of the most beautiful is the Queen’s College Library, which was built between 1692 and 1695 by an unknown architect—although research indicates that credit should go to Henry Aldrich, then-dean of Christ Church, who designed other buildings in Oxford, or Timothy Halton, the provost of the Queen’s College at the time the library was built. Two of the library’s earliest benefactors include Bishop Thomas Barlow, who served as provost of the college from 1658 to 1677, and, later, Queen Caroline of Ansbach. As a token of gratitude, the university built a statue of the royal over the gateway. (Read more.)