Il De Scriptis et Bibliothecis Antediluvianis di Joachim Johann Mader

Joachim Johann Mader's De scriptis et bibliothecis antediluvianis appeared in 1666 as the praefatio of the De bibliothecis atque archivis virorum clarissimorum libelli, the first anthology of treatises on the history of libraries. In his essay, the scholar reconstructs the history of the discovery of the alphabet, writing and the first books. Thanks to the De bibliothecis antediluvianis, Mader completed his anthology with a good piece of news about a mythical period which was not previously well known or studied. Moreover, Mader gave a conceptual framework to the collection.