As a result of the war with Chile (1879-81), much of the Peruvian capital city of Lima was destroyed. The Peruvian National Library lost many manuscripts and other national treasures, including all but 700 of its nearly 60,000 volumes. It was Ricardo Palma (1833-1919), a man known chiefly for his literary contributions who, as the library's director from 1883 to 1912, had the fore-sight to realize the importance to Peru of rebuilding the collection. As well as providing a place for scholarly and literary research it also revived the ideals and progress of the enlightenment for all Peruvians and was, too, an example of successful reconstruction.
BT - Libri IS - 1 LA - English N2 -As a result of the war with Chile (1879-81), much of the Peruvian capital city of Lima was destroyed. The Peruvian National Library lost many manuscripts and other national treasures, including all but 700 of its nearly 60,000 volumes. It was Ricardo Palma (1833-1919), a man known chiefly for his literary contributions who, as the library's director from 1883 to 1912, had the fore-sight to realize the importance to Peru of rebuilding the collection. As well as providing a place for scholarly and literary research it also revived the ideals and progress of the enlightenment for all Peruvians and was, too, an example of successful reconstruction.
PY - 1993 SP - 19 EP - 38 T2 - Libri TI - El Bibliotecario Mendigo: A Bookman's Response to the Sacking of the Peruvian National Library in 1881 VL - 43 ER -