Name: The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World's Greatest Library
ISBN: 9781982111403

The co-op bookstore for avid readers

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World's Greatest Library

Edward Wilson-Lee

Paperback

Regular price$17.00With free membership trial$8.5050% off your first book+ Free shipping

In Stock– Ships within one business day

Do you recommend this book?

Yes!

Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 8 reviews on

This impeccably researched and "adventure-packed" (The Washington Post) account of the obsessive quest by Christopher Columbus's son to create the greatest library in the world is "the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters" (NPR) and offers a vivid picture of Europe on the verge of becoming modern. At the peak of the Age of Exploration, Hernando Colón sailed with his father Christopher Columbus on his final voyage to the New World, a journey that ended in disaster, bloody mutiny, and shipwreck. After Columbus's death in 1506, eighteen-year-old Hernando sought to continue--and surpass--his father's campaign to explore the boundaries of the known world by building a library that would collect everything ever printed: a vast holding organized by summaries and catalogues; really, the first ever database for the exploding diversity of written matter as the printing press proliferated across Europe. Hernando traveled extensively and obsessively amassed his collection based on the groundbreaking conviction that a library of universal knowledge should include "all books, in all languages and on all subjects," even material often dismissed: ballads, erotica, news pamphlets, almanacs, popular images, romances, fables. The loss of part of his collection to another maritime disaster in 1522, set off the final scramble to complete this sublime project, a race against time to realize a vision of near-impossible perfection. "Magnificent...a thrill on almost every page" (The New York Times Book Review), The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books is a window into sixteenth-century Europe's information revolution, and a reflection of the passion and intrigues that lie beneath our own insatiable desires to bring order to the world today.

Book Details

Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Publish Date: Mar 10th, 2020
Pages: 416
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.40in - 1.20in - 0.75lb
EAN: 9781982111403
Categories: • Historical• Europe - Renaissance• Europe - Spain & Portugal

About the Author

Wilson-Lee, Edward: - Edward Wilson-Lee is a Fellow in English at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he teaches medieval and Renaissance literature. His research focuses on books, libraries, and travel, which during this project has involved journeys to and through Spain, Italy, India, and the Caribbean. He is the author of Shakespeare in Swahililand and The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books.

More books by Edward Wilson-Lee

Book Cover for: Hernando Colon's New World of Books: Toward a Cartography of Knowledge, Jose Maria Perez Fernandez

Book Cover for: Shakespeare in Swahililand: In Search of a Global Poet, Edward Wilson-Lee

What people are saying

Shrewsbury Library, UK

@ShrewslibraryUK

2 years

A fab library in the historical school of Charles Darwin. Follow us for news, events and information, and the odd joke too! Tour: https://t.co/tsrkjkbhxy

A book talk with Edward Wilson-Lee, author of The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library, followed by a conversation with Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. https://t.co/eQTorBHQWf https://t.co/V4Hmj6MBkP

Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering millions of free books, movies & audio files, plus billions of saved web pages in the @waybackmachine.

Did you miss our book talk earlier this week with author @EdwardWilsonLee discussing "The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books"? The session recording & resources shared are now available: https://archive.org/details/book-talk-the-catalogue-of-shipwrecked-books https://t.co/csZMECcROa

Poet, literary agent, Karoo girl. A WHISTLING OF BIRDS @NineArchesPress 22 June, images by @thenetmender. * https://t.co/OM0NRLoHC6 & https://t.co/HQEGZYXoAL Views my own.

Thrilled that @EdwardWilsonLee, author of The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books (& A History of Water out from @WmCollinsBooks this August), has been awarded a #GuggenheimFellowship2022, time & space for the making of his next work. Congratulations to Edward & this year's Fellows! https://twitter.com/GuggFellows/status/1512170331452194818

twitter.com

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"A captivating adventure...For lovers of history, Wilson-Lee offers a thrill on almost every page...The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books is an intellectual biography, but its beating heart is the tangled love of a son for his father...Magnificent." -The New York Times Book Review "Superb...an intriguing glimpse into the Renaissance mind and its rage for order, as well as a beguiling preview of the modern library and, very possibly, what lies beyond." -The Wall Street Journal "Absorbing, adventure-packed." -Washington Post

What people are saying

Shrewsbury Library, UK

@ShrewslibraryUK

2 years

A fab library in the historical school of Charles Darwin. Follow us for news, events and information, and the odd joke too! Tour: https://t.co/tsrkjkbhxy

Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering millions of free books, movies & audio files, plus billions of saved web pages in the @waybackmachine.

twitter.com