Well then I hope the books of omen are those closed books in the glass cage; not those open pages laying around on the desks next to the brightly-shining candles.

wow, that glass case looks extremely shatter-able.

Chekov's Doom Books

I'm very concerned about the many, many unguarded burning candles next to priceless books and papers.

I'm honestly curious as to how many of these invited scholars succumbed to Magic Madness between being invited and arriving at the library, and how many succumbed weeks, months or even years before they were invited.

Worse than Elder Scrolls ?

So...Elder Scrolls?

“Where I study…”
“To we scholars without the sight…”
So this is where he, himself specifically, studies a thing that he can’t look at or he’ll go magically insane?

So the Elder Scrolls, kinda.

I don't know if he has glasses or big eyes, but in either case he looks crazy enough already.

Wanna bet one of his guests is gonna go "Pfft, yeah, whatever, you're just, like, saying that because you want to keep the secrets all for yourself" followed by taking a long, good, hard look into the pages of those doom books and subsequently going absolutely batshit insane?

@K

He says he studies -The Omens of Magic- and not to look at -The Books of Omen-. Not the same things.

I assume those loose papers on the table are excerpts of the books, transcribed by those with The Sight.

The Elder Scrolls only render people blind; not mad.

Please tell me he doesn't just study pages of the go insane book and leave them out in the open... right? Not even some "I'm not doing this right now, let's cover it up" going on?

@someone

According to lore, elder scrolls do often make people mad, depending on content (after all, they offer a glimpse of divine knowledge). They always make them blind with repeated use (or even with first reading, if untrained).

Don;t worry people. Most books between classical and preindustrial eras were made of vellum, a processed form of animal skin, and thus mildly fire resistant. :3