BAT LIBRARIANS KEEP BOOKS BEAUTIFUL
When fire swept through the Brazil National Museum on September 2nd, 200 years of historic national treasure was obliterated. While fire and theft are of chief concerns to all museums and libraries, buildings that hold book collections have a unique threat -- bugs! Several species of insects specialize in eating books. An infestation can prove catastrophic.
Bats to the rescue! Two libraries in Portugal employ bats to keep the bugs in check by eating them!
Biblioteca Joanina, the library at the University of Coimbra, and the Mafra Palace Library each house massive colonies of bats that patrol the buildings at night, devouring critters before they get a chance to devour the books.
With bugs and bats flying about, you might envision a giant ugly mess… but these libraries are among the most beautiful in the world. Built in the 18th century, in the Baroque style, they are opulent, ornate architectural wonders.
These libraries house collections of incredible beauty, knowledge, history and irreplaceable value. The rare ancient books, with their exquisite handmade printings and bindings, are fragile and vulnerable.
Two different species of bats feed on "nicobium castaneum" or Library Beetle larvae, which can bore through and destroy complete book collections, including parchments, leather bindings and covers. They bats also gobble up silverfish, little wingless silvery insects that eat through book glue and centuries-old paper.
During the day, the bats,which are only an inch or two long, sleep in the elaborate crevices that adorn the libraries’ high ceilings. At night, they descend to hunt for bugs, each bat feeding on about 500 bugs per day. That results in a lot guano. To mitigate the mess, each night, library staff covers the antique tables and most precious books with animal hides to protect them from the droppings, and each morning, they clean up the droppings wherever they’ve landed.
Built by King Joao V on top of a medieval prison, the Biblioteca Joanina, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, containing 60,000 priceless leather-bound volumes dating back to the 16th century.
The library houses rarities such as a first edition of "Os Lusiadas," an epic tale written by Luís de Camões. Another shelf contains a Hebrew Bible edited in the late 15th century, one of only 20 existing copies in the world. The "48 line Latin Bible," printed in 1462 by two Gutemberg associates, is considered one of the four most beautifully printed early Bible editions.
Newspapers, magazines, special manuscripts, maps, and ancient musical scores, dating back to the 16th-18th centuries, round out the collection.
The University now supplements the bats brigade by regularly subjecting books to time in a six cubic meter (212 cubic feet) anoxia chamber which uses an inert gas (nitrogen) to kill book-eating insects by asphyxia and dehydration.
If you love beautiful libraries and want to see more, check out "The Library: A World History," a beautiful book about libraries by architectural historian James Campbell and photographer Will Pryce. Published by University of Chicago Press.
Read more about Beautiful Books in Wild Wonderful Wales, Beautiful Last Lines, Find Beauty in The Lost Words, and Epic New Photography Books: Sally Mann & Sally Gall.
And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.
Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Contest. We run a new creative contest every week!
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Photo by Will Pryce. Biblioteca Joanina, University of Coimbra. Lisbon, Portugal. From "The Library: A World History.” Book by James W. P. Campbell. Courtesy of University of Chicago Press.
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Photo by Will Pryce. Mafra Palace Library. Lisbon, Portugal. From "The Library: A World History.” Book by James W. P. Campbell. Courtesy of University of Chicago Press.
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Photo: Natalus stramineus. Courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library.
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Photo by Andrew King. “Indiana Bat (Myotis sodalis).” Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Photo by Patrick Donovan. “Coimbra, Portugal.” Coimbra University Library. Portugal.
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Photo by Josep Renalias. “Universitat de Coïmbra - Biblioteca.” Portugal.
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Photo by Will Pryce. "The Library: A World History.” Book by James W. P. Campbell. Courtesy of University of Chicago Press.
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Photo by Alvesgaspar. “Building of the old library (Biblioteca Joanina) of the University of Coimbra, Portugal.”
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Photo by Kotomi Creations. “Library, Convent - Palácio Nacional de Mafra.” Lisbon, Portugal.
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Photo by Rosino. “Biblioteca do convento de Mafra, Portugal.” Lisbon, Portugal.
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Photo by William Warby. “Lyle's Flying Fox.” Lagos, Portugal.
