Introduction: The Domestic Library -- Ancient and Classical Architectures -- The Ur-Libraries: Sumer and Babylon -- Type One Libraries: Egypt and Classical Greece -- Type Two Libraries: Hellenistic Greece and the Roman Republic -- Type Three Libraries: The Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages -- The Middle Ages and the Middle Kingdom -- High and Late Medieval Libraries: Private Reading in Monastery and Palace -- The Renaissance: Experiments Rich and Strange -- Private Libraries in the East -- The English Country House and Its Library -- The Seventeenth-Century Scholar's Library -- The Eighteenth-Century Family Library -- The Nineteenth-Century Social Library -- Parallel Developments -- The Twentieth Century, and the Twenty-First -- Contemporary Private Libraries -- The Future of the Private Library -- Appendix A: The Time Line of the Private Library -- Appendix B: The Library Room Itself -- Appendix C: The Architectural Details of the Library -- Appendix D: Traditional Amenities and Charming Anachronisms.