Architecture of Bibliophilia

Yavuz Sezer received his Ph.D. at the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art Group at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 2016. From 2013 until 2021, he taught urban, cultural, and architectural history at the Faculty of Architecture, Bilgi University and inspired thousands of students. Sezer’s interests spanned a broad range of subjects, primarily architectural, intellectual, and urban history and history of the book. His untimely passing on March 24, 2021, was a huge loss for his family, friends, colleagues, and students as well as for the field of Ottoman history. The present work is a revised and expanded version of his Ph.D. dissertation completed in 2016.

• List of FiguresEditors' AcknowledgementsAuthors' AcknowledgementsNote on TransliterationPrologue by Kristel SmentekIntroduction 1. The Emergence of the Library as a Building Type Where ‘Knowledge asCapital Found Currency’2. Libraries in Mansions and Palaces: Disengagement from Treasuries3. Pilgrimage to the Library: The Bayt al-Maʿmûr/Kaaba Analogy in Ottoman LibrariesExcursus: Repositories of Polymath Erudition4. Architectural Quests during the Height of the Age of Libraries5. Perceptivity of Mind, Illumination of Eyes and Other Rewards of LibrariesConclusionEpilogue by Çiğdem KafescioğluAppendix: Map of Libraries Built in Istanbul between the 1670s and 1850BibliographyIndex

This book brings a novel approach to architectural and cultural history by systematically examining a greatly understudied phenomenon. It brings together architectural history with the history of material culture, intellectual history with prosopography, and cultural history with the history of mentalities. This work will prove to be a unique and invaluable contribution to the fields it so masterfully brings together, and the late author will be remembered as a trendsetter in the field.