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The following introduction has been generously provided by /u/Respectfullyyours, and originates from /r/privatestudyrooms' Subreddit of the Day profile:

The study rooms range from the quaint and utilitarian (like Niccolò Machiavelli's), to the opulent (like Hans Zimmer's), to the utterly sparse (like Du Fu's).

A love of books appears as a common theme (with Nigella Lawson's study as an example,) while others favoured oddities decorating their spaces in order to serve as inspiration (here's Gabriele D'Annunzio's study filled with sculptures and artwork).

Just like the objects in your pockets, your purse, or your wallet can tell a lot about who you are, so too do the items on your desk and in your study give a glimpse into someone's life and life's work (Roald Amundson's study). Not all of us are lucky enough to have an entire room dedicated to the activities we love most, so we often make due with the spaces we have around us (Leo Tolstoy's study). And maybe we dream for the day when we can have a comparable place to Horace Howard Furness' study for ourselves.

The subreddit is really a feast for the eyes, and one that serves as inspiration for those who would build their own private refuge, a place where one is able to work in peace and create their own great works and display their own collections they have invested in throughout their life.

What I find most intriguing looking at these private studies, is that not all of them are immaculate as if they had been ripped out of a page from a decorating magazine (well besides Frank Lloyd Wright's at least). Many of them show opened books (like in Le Corbusier's), unideal conditions to get work done (as in George Plimpton's case,) and the general disarray of a mind at work (like Lucien Simon's). From contemporary to historical, this subreddit functions like /r/roomporn, however its ties to famous individuals throughout history adds an additional level of interest to the photographs.

The contents of my study room can be found on my Facebook page