‘Do I dare Disturb the Universe?’ Reflections on the Library at Ciudámuerta

Abstract

The library at Ciudámuerta may never have existed, but it certainly appears to have had pretensions to be a ‘universal library’. Its custodians seem rarely to have been disturbed — until one day a brash young librarian arrived and tried to put the library into order. But in reality, Miguel de Unamuno's story, ‘La revolución de la biblioteca de Ciud´muerta’, has to be seen as a political fable of its time.