Borges’s Library of Babel
Posted by Anne Healey in book design on December 16, 2009
Back in April I posted about these beautiful novels published by Les éditions du Panama. The Paris-based publishing house went out of business in July. It’s a shame—they put out a lot of lovely books, including some children’s books that you can still buy at Little Fashion Gallery.
In 2006 Panama began publishing French translations of “The Library of Babel,” a 30-volume series of fantastic stories by well-known authors selected and introduced by Jorge Luis Borges. The series is named after his story of the same name in which the universe is an unknowably vast library. The project was originally proposed to Borges in the 1970s by the Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci and published in Italian as “La Biblioteca di Babele.” The books look beautiful and strange, like they came from an alternate universe—just like they’re from a Borges story.
Panama put out eight volumes, keeping the original cover designs. Here they are:
In the ’80s the Spanish publisher Ediciones Siruela reissued the series in Spanish (as “La Biblioteca de Babel”), also retaining the same design.
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