I will be doing some posts about beautiful libraries, inspired by
this video by Jacob Geller on the Soul of a Library.
To start off we have O Real Gabinete Português de Leitura (The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading) in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Established the 14th of May, 1837, the Cabinet has the largest collection of Portuguese literature outside of portugal (350,000 volumes). Every year, it receives about six thousand titles from Portugal, and there is also an important collection of paintings by José Malhoa, Carlos Reis, Oswaldo Teixeira, Eduardo Malta and Henrique Medina. The four statues on the façade are Pedro Álvares Cabral, Luís de Camões, Infante D. Henrique and Vasco da Gama, respectively. The Royal Cabinet publishes the magazine Convergência Lusíada (semester) and promotes courses on Literature, Portuguese Language, History, Anthropology and Arts, destined mainly for university students.
- Presence - architecture, library