Jerusalem's Old Past (part 2): the city and its libraries with Merav Mack

In the second episode dedicated to the pre-Ottoman history of Jerusalem, Merav Mack, Jerusalemite and scholar, takes us through the street of medieval Jerusalem, discussing the libraries and the books preserved in the Old City. With Merav we talked how she moved from working on Genoa in the Middle Ages to Jerusalem showing how cities throughout the Mediterranean were connected by merchants, pilgrims, scholars and in a sense by war. Merav had been involved in a very famous exhibition hosted at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, "Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven." From here we moved to discuss libraries and their books in Jerusalem. Libraries are one of the most secret and well protected locations in Jerusalem, they preserved the heritage and history of the communities and families that built them. A city without a library is a city with no history and Merav tells us the history of Jerusalem through its libraries. We talked about access to libraries and their contents, particularly for women; this eventually brought us to discuss the amazing Mar Saba Monastery located just in the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Originally published 11/03/2021

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