Quotes from Christopher de Hamel

If Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel could have existed in reality, it would have been something like the Long Room of Trinity College.

The writing, in huge insular majuscule script, is flawless in its regularity and utter control. One can only marvel at the penmanship. It is calligraphic and as exact as printing, and yet it flows and shapes itself into the space available. It sometimes swells and seems to take breath at the ends of lines. The decoration is more extensive and more overwhelming than one could possibly imagine. Virtually every line is embellished with color or ornament.