The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books - Wilson-Lee, Edward
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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…mehr

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Produktbeschreibung
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.
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Autorenporträt
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.
Rezensionen
'It's a captivating adventure ... For lovers of history, Wilson-Lee offers a thrill on almost every page ... The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books offers a vivid picture of Europe on the verge of becoming modern, but still holding tight to its ancient baggage ... Magnificent.' New York Times

'READ THIS TRANSPORTING BOOK. Take it to the beach, to the countryside wherever - and thank you Edward Wilson-Lee for writing it, and with such a sense of vital grace' Simon Schama

'Perfectly pitched poetic drama - the closest thing documented history can get to magic realism... The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books is a wonderful book ...The true measure of Edward Wilson-Lee's accomplishment, delivered in a simile-studded prose that is seldom less elegant and often quite beautiful, is to make Hernando's epic, measured library shelves, not nautical miles, every bit as thrilling as his father's story' Financial Times

'Wilson-Lee's book - the first modern biography of Hernando written in English - is far more than just a straight account of a life, albeit a rich one... moving... Wilson-Lee does a fine job of capturing the intellectual excitement of a moment in European history' New Statesman

'Edward Wilson-Lee's fascinating and beautifully written account of how Hernando conceived and assembled his library is set within a highly original biography of the compiler. It's a work of imagination restrained by respect for evidence, of brilliance suitably alloyed by erudition, and of scholarship enlivened by sensitivity and acuity' Literary Review

'Hernando Columbus deserves to be as famous as his father, Christopher... Wilson-Lee's greatest strength is the subtlety with which Hernando's public life as a courtier and his private life as a collector are interwoven ... Wilson-Lee leads us almost by stealth to an understanding of his subject's greatest achievement' Spectator

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