Papyrus by Irene Vallejo

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In her sprawling work, Papyrus, Spanish historian and philologist Irene Vallejo takes us on a journey of how books have shaped the ancient world and ours. She engages with the physicality of books, as well as the imaginative and intellectual journey a reader embarks on when they open up a volume. She starts with the great library of Alexandria, a vanity project dreamed up by Alexander the Great, and then moves on to Constantin Cavafy, a bureaucrat of Greek origin in the early 20th century, and Lawrence Durrell in the Alexandria Quartet. Read full article here

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