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A Temple to Books
 
Luís de Camões, our Shakespeare, our Dante, our Homer

The interior of Real Gabinete Português de Leitura (Royal Portuguese Reading Room)

is four stories tall, capped with a stained-glass cupola and illuminated by an elaborate chandelier. It's worth stepping inside just to see the room.

 

Created in 1837 by the culture-starved (so they said) Portuguese, the reading room contains over 350,000 volumes, many of them from the 17th and 18th centuries.

 

(from Frommers.com)

Yesterday (October 1st) Brazil finally signed the "Ortographic Agreement of Portuguese Language", with the intent of creating a single common ortography for Portuguese - language spoken

(with some variations)  by around 240 million people in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique,

Cape Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe, Guinea Bissau, East Timor, the Chinese S.A.R. of Macau

and the Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu. 

By the way, Portuguese is the 6th worlds's most widely spoken language (after Mandarin, Spanish, English, Arabic and Hindi).

 

We will have to learn new rules and accept as correct some words that appear clearly wrong, but it's part of the effort to unify the language.

 

 

So, this tabblo is dedicated to my dear Portuguese friends Edite (EMA) and Afonso (Tavar),

 who will have to deal with many more changes than I.

 
"Real Gabinete Português de Leitura", Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
COMMENTS
Moabjeeper said at 8:42 p.m. on Oct 2, 2008:
Wonderful reading room.
Mjpileggi said at 8:53 p.m. on Oct 2, 2008:
Amazing!! I would love to see it in person!
Jigs said at 10:37 p.m. on Oct 2, 2008:
What a magnificent library! And what a grand and outstanding example of neo-classical architecture! I don't mind being locked inside there one night amidst all these great books and the wonderful otherworldly atmosphere within! I am now reading up on the Neo-Manueline architectural style, a term I've only heard of now. So interesting...
Clydo said at 11:17 p.m. on Oct 2, 2008:
Awsome library and wonderful details!
Abking said at 12:15 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
Beautiful building, and your title, A Temple to Books, describes it perfectly.
AliDar said at 1:27 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
I was thinking about the poor books needing restoration, now I'm thinking about how they are trying to unify the language, how the masters and poets of the past will appear sometime in the future to be grammatically incorrect... And about how the spoken word in the different regions will resist the change for a very long time. ... Beautiful building and the reading room is very well represented in your photos, but I'd rather pay my respects to a good book, with my feet up, and a cup of coffee sitting next to me.
Sirnicolay said at 3:02 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
WOW! If only I have a private library like this. This is fantastic! There's something about old books which really interest me. Probably it's the fact that they exist to connect us with the distant past. THe way they make us feel part of the history of the world. Thank you for sharing, Edu!
Chilla said at 3:10 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
What a wonderful tabblo, linking the past with the future! I love your pictures of the inside of the building and the wonderful shelves of books. Interesting to hear that the Portuguese language is to be unified in this way, possible on paper but the spoken language will always have a life of its own!
Shenresi said at 4:38 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
wow, what a wonderful bibliotheque and wonderful building, Eduardo!!! Thx for the tour!!!
Eduardo.affonso said at 7:38 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
It's so nice when the comments go beyond the pics' qualities (or defects...). Thank you all, ROBERT, MONICA, JIGS, CLYDO, ALLAN, DAR, JAMES, CELIA, ANGELA.

JIGS: You are not the only one who never heard of Manueline and Neo-Manueline style. It's typically Portuguese, and can be found only in the countries which were part of the former Portuguese Empire. It's our Gothic, so to speak. I prefer the Baroque style, anyway.

DAR: Portuguese has been changing a lot lately, and the way my Grandpa wrote now appears Jurassic to me. Our best writer, Machado de Assis, died only 100 years ago, and his books have been "updated" a couple of times since then - and now will be updated again!

JAMES: Books connect us not only with the past, but also with the future. That's the way the voices of dead poets, writers, phylosophers, can be heard by us. That's the way some of us will "talk" to people who aren't born yet.

CELIA: Nobody can control the spoken language, that's true. We Brazilians can read Portuguese books, but need subtitles for Portuguese movies (and it's so hard to understand what people say on Portuguese TV shows, or understand the lyrics when a Portuguese sings). The unification is possible only on paper, as you said.
Soniacal said at 7:41 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
ai, o Rio e seus tesouros...lindo e querido Brasil...
Wildthing said at 10:05 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
Terrific photographs. Who said that libraries weren't interesting?
Marranei said at 10:07 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
Que lindo! E boa homenagem à mudança da ortografia! Os livros me parecem meio puidos... uma pena!
Eduardo.affonso said at 10:28 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
SONIA: O Rio tem mesmo muitos tesouros escondidos. Este é um que pouca gente conhece (ou conhece só de ouvir falar).

MIKE: The great Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges said "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library". This one would fit perfectly, uh?

AGNES: Parte dos livros está mesmo carecendo de um trato, mas isso faz parte do charme do prédio. Ratos de bilbioteca não proliferam entre livros cheirando a novo, não?
Chaitiamma said at 11:42 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
What an amazing sight for book lovers !!!
AliDar said at 12:06 p.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
Hey, what can I say Edu? Your photos are allways so technically perfect and so with a subject like this your eye just goes past the surface of the shot, and straight to it.
Lifequest22 said at 3:12 p.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
A bibliophile's paradise. Wonderful images, Eduardo. I imagine they have to keep the temperature just right to perserve the books.
Eduardo.affonso said at 3:39 p.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
DAVID: That's exactly what I am - a book lover!

DAR: I still have a lot to improve in terms of technique, but I balance it with a lot of passion.

LINDA: It's hard to keep "the temperature just right" in a city like Rio (hot & humid). I don't think there's much control in this old library (the doors were wide open), but the most precious books weren't exposed.
Welshchick said at 8:39 p.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
My book worm son,Micah, was drooling over this tabblo when I showed it to him. I love old books...my father in Anacortes just gave me some of his collection ~ poetry books from the early 1900's...but these ones here are exquisite relics~~
Rita.Mandarino said at 8:39 p.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
Edu! que bom te ver de novo por aqui, sempre belas fotos, é um prazer e um lazer ver seu trabalho. adorei as fotos, Como vc conseguiu fotografar o real Gabinete? já tentei umas duas vezes e ninguém deixou...ficou ótimo o tabblo
Liliana said at 10:10 p.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
¡¡¡Edu, me sentí navegando por Oxford, Chartres, Notre Damme... no por Río!!! Magnificencia pura. Camoes, feliz. Excelente, "pra se guardar / debaixo de sete chaves", glorioso. Sobre todo, las tomas cercanas de los libros (¡hay diccionarios!) me llegaron más al corazón. Papel, palabra, edificio, una maravilla. YA quiero leer esa reforma (¿mejoraré así "meu Portuguêz"? Escribo con Z como en el edificio, rs, rs...). Me fascinó.
Snooway said at 11:29 p.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
Beautiful, I love libraries and this reading room is amazing!! Wish I could visit.
Maz2001 said at 9:19 p.m. on Oct 4, 2008:
Wonderful building full of life.
Curriehouse said at 8:56 a.m. on Oct 5, 2008:
Does anyone ever read in this room or do they just sit and admire the beauty of it all. This is such a captivating tabblo and I have enjoyed it very much. Thanks, Eduardo!
EMA said at 2:15 p.m. on Oct 5, 2008:
Eduardo, obrigada pela sua lembrança. Claro que adorei ver o seu tabblo e a sua dedicatória. Eu adoro livros desde que era muito pequenina e estas bibliotecas antigas fascinam-me. Quanto ao acordo ortográfico não estou assim muito de acordo. A língua é a Portuguesa mas os modos de falar e mesmo de escrever, continuam diferentes e vão continuar a mudar. Detesto pensar que vou ter que escrever "erros" que tantas vezes tive que corrigir! Um abraço para você!
Pkeener said at 5:32 p.m. on Oct 6, 2008:
i am completely blown away by the fact that the language must change! this is a wonderful tabblo, edu! i love the building, the books, the old old covers on them, the grandeur and beauty. the light fixture is so beautiful
21-gramm said at 10:27 a.m. on Oct 7, 2008:
Красота, Eduardo!
Exellent POVs!
the old library is similar to that Umberto Eco described in the novel "The Name of the Rose"..
Leftofcenter said at 11:17 a.m. on Oct 7, 2008:
well this is what happens when you don't send out invitations!! i missed this tab, of all people MOI the linguist/bookworm!! i LOVE the shots of the books, what an impressive sight those floors of book shelves!! next to religion, i think the "language issue" also divides people, its not Dutch its Flemish, its not German its Schwyzerdütsch, its not Spanish its Catalan and of course its not French its Québécois, my favorite one... ;)
Ebucar said at 6:45 p.m. on Oct 8, 2008:
De certa forma, sorte para o João, que ano que vem já vai aprender português sem ter que esquecer o que já sabia. Ainda não consegui avaliar o impacto desta mudança. Que lugar interessante.
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