The great libraries: from antiquity to the Renaissance (3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600)

The peoples of Mesopotamia : The Sumerians ; The age of Hammurabi ; Assurbanipal's library

Egypt : From the pharaohs to the Ptolemies

The Hellenic World : From the pre-Socratics to the end of the Classical period

The Hellenistic period the Great Library of Alexandria : The foundation of the museum ; The Library ; The directors of the Library ; The Library's stock of books ; The destruction of the Library ; A chronicle of the Library's history ; Postscript

Other libraries in the Hellenistic period : Pergamum ; Ai Khanoum

Libraries in the Roman world : The world of Latium ; Public libraries ; Architecture

Libraries in the Roman provinces : The library of Pantaenus ; Hadrian as a patron of art and learning

The early Christian world : The first Christian libraries ; Architecture

Byzantium : From Constantinople to early Byzantine humanism ; Byzantine humanism in the ninth century ; From Constantine VII to the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders ; The Empire of Nicaea

The last Byzantine renaissance, from 1261 to 1453

Architecture

The Middle Ages : The dark ages ; The Carolingian renaissance ; Books and libraries at the universities

The Renaissance : Humanism ; The achievements of the early printers ; Architecture

The library of the Oecumenical Patriarchate

The library of the Monastery of St. John on Patmos

The Vatican Library

The Biblioteca Malatestiana at Cesena

The Biblioteca Marciana

The Biblioteca Laurenziana

The St. Gall Library

The Library of Beatus Rhenanus at Sélestat

The Herzog August Library at Wolfenbüttel

The Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris

The Nationalbibliothek in Vienna

The Corvinian Library

The Library of Strahov Abbey

The Bodleian Library.