Nutrimentum Spiritus

Montblanc's "Library Spirit" campaign is in full swing with exciting events in Shanghai and New York, marrying style and intellect with panache and making libraries cool again

- SUFFIAN HAKIM 

IN A LARGE, GILDED FONT above the entrance to Berlin’s Alte Bibliothek or Old Library is the Latin inscription Nutrimentum Spiritus (Food for the Soul). It summarises the power of the written word to nourish the intellect and the emotions, to broaden our perspectives, and is far more meaningful than the words outside the library near my place: “Please put your phones to silent mode when inside the library”.

I’ve been to some of the world’s best libraries: the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the spiritual descendant of the Great Library of Alexandria, where I read the words of Morrocan scholar and explorer Ibn Battuta; the Atatürk Library, where I wandered its halls contemplating Türkiye’s confluence of cultures and ideas as Orhan Pamuk did; the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, where I cried to Neruda; and the National Library of Singapore, where I studied last minute for my O-Level.