The Librarian’s Atlas: The Shape of Knowledge in Early Modern Spain

The Librarian’s Atlas: The Shape of Knowledge in Early Modern Spain is the second book published by Seth Kimmel, associate professor of Latin American and Iberian cultures at Columbia University. Kimmel first published the Parables of Coercion: Conversion and Knowledge at the End of Islamic Spain in 2015, exploring the intellectual history of new Christian assimilation in the sixteenth century. Kimmel has also written articles on early modern Spain, including “Interpreting Inaccuracy: The Fiction of Longitude in Early Modern Spain” (2010), “Hushed Ballads: Listening to the Printed Text in Multiconfessional Iberia” (2019), and “Early Modern Iberia, Indexed: Hernando Colón’s Cosmography” (2021).Evidently, Kimmel’s expertise lies in medieval and early modern Iberia, with a focus on the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, as demonstrated by his primary courses taught at Columbia, scholarly articles, and published books. The Librarian’s Atlas focuses primarily on the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, supporting Kimmel’s area of expertise.The central themes of The Librarian’s Atlas include methods of book collecting, representations of knowledge, and knowledge organization (12). These central themes are primarily explored through the libraries of specific individuals. The individuals studied are Hernando Colón in chapters 1 and 2, Juan Páez de Castro for Philip II in chapter 3, and Arias Montano in chapter 4. The final chapters take a sudden shift away from scholarly libraries and focus on how materials in the aforementioned scholars’ libraries had a “lasting impact on the Iberian Peninsula’s Islamic and Jewish history” (11). These final chapters introduce the reader to how libraries or collections of knowledge were subsequently formed and the importance of knowledge gathering.Interestingly, the book does not capture in a contemporary sense what one may interpret The Librarian’s Atlas to signify at first glance of the book’s title. The Librarian’s Atlas itself is a misnomer as a title. However, the choice seems intentional because the term libraries is contested throughout The Librarian’s Atlas. Kimmel notes that there are often differing interpretations of what a library constitutes. A library is not always a “book repository” (1). A library can also be a “metaphor for order or legitimacy” or “a microcosm of the world” (1, 5). On a more meta level, the Old Testament may even be considered a library because it is a collection of books and “contained references to other books that had already been totally or partially lost” (13). Much like modern connotations of the word library, Kimmel indicates, Colón anticipated “the expansion of his library into something like a scientific research center, one that would preserve his books and manuscripts and foster . . . professional collaboration,” and Montano saw them as “sites of memory” (40, 95). These understandings ultimately form the basis of The Librarian’s Atlas to explore early modern understandings of libraries, material culture, and knowledge management.Due to the book’s short nature, the representation of libraries is explored less deeply than it is in The Library Beyond the Book, by Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Matthew Battles (2016). Instead, Kimmel narrows the scope to distinctly focus on four specific individuals in early modern Spain, the knowledge they sought and collected, and their understandings of knowledge and libraries to provide a geographically and culturally specific interpretation and subsequent impact of early libraries in Spain.The Librarian’s Atlas consists of six chapters and an introduction and conclusion, totaling 178 pages of main text. An additional 40 pages of notes, 26 for the bibliography, and 18 as an index brings the total page count to 262. The book includes 20 figures, more than half appearing in the first 100 pages. These figures mainly consist of bibliographic entries and maps illustrating the organization and dissemination of knowledge. However, since the figures are not in English, their value to strictly English-speaking readers may be limited, though the captions provide explanations and additional context.The notes at the end of the book are particularly valuable, offering deeper insights and connections to other scholarly works, thus enriching the reader’s understanding of the main topics. Given the richness of the notes, footnotes or chapter-specific endnotes might have improved accessibility, allowing readers to reference the notes as they read more easily. Nonetheless, the references and research displayed in The Librarian’s Atlas are a rich source of knowledge, as evident in the extensive notes and bibliography covering Spanish and English sources, in addition to sources spanning from the 1500s to 2022.Scholars interested in material culture and knowledge will find The Librarian’s Atlas a valuable resource for their own research. The exploration through the scope of four individuals provides an insightful understanding of early modern interpretations of “libraries” and knowledge, which can be applied more generally to their own understandings. The Librarian’s Atlas should be seen as a relevant starting point for scholarly pursuits into what constitutes a library, as much can be learned from early modern understandings. As Kimmel acknowledges, “The library is a place, but it is also a world, at whatever scale you desire to imagine it.” It is important to note that an understanding of early modern Spain may enhance a reader’s understanding of the central themes in The Librarian’s Atlas.