Circular space as an intellectual model

Prequisites: Previous lessons on the theatre as a box and the theatre as a circular amphitheatre.
Objectives: To study spatial models of knowledge and the positioning of hypermedia in the history of conceptual spaces.
Description: A study of the idea of 'encyclopaedia' and its visual equivalent in the form of libraries.

Questions
PLACES AND SPACES OF LEARNING, FROM RECTANGULAR TO CIRCULAR
The layout of libraries, museums, botanical gardens, reflects the classification of knowledge. Such buildings can serve as models of knowledge and thought in the same way as the theatre serves as a model of vision.

 

  • Libraries and museums as symbolic spaces

Libraries were usually arranged in bookcases and shelves according to the subject division of the period: the classification of libraries

  • Circular libraries

Some libraries were also built as circles

THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA

The Encyclopedia: the history of the notion shows that the sense of 'circle' was present in the early uses.

see the Oxford English Dictionary (University subscription) under 'encyclopaedia'

 
  • The structure of the encyclopaedia

An encyclopaedia has a dual structure

  • Cross-references and hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are the present-day version of cross-references

Table of contents