Alexandria, because of its man-made bidirectional port between the mainland and the Pharos island, welcomed trade from the East and West, and soon found itself the international hub for trade, as well as the leading producer of papyrus and, soon enough, books. According to Athenaeus, Philadelphus purchased that collection for a large sum of money, whereas Strabo reported that Aristotle’s books passed on in succession through different hands, until they were later confiscated in 86 bce by Sulla, who carried them away to Rome. However, this version of events is not confirmed in contemporary accounts of Caesar's visit. It was in that atmosphere that the great library and Mouseion saw the light of day in Alexandria. 1995. in Egypt and contains writing in Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian demotic script. One of the major acquisitions for the library was the “books of Aristotle,” concerning which there are two conflicting accounts. The original library branch was located at the royal palace at Alexandria, near the harbor.

King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) is said to have set 500,000 scrolls as an objective for the library.

It formed part of the research institute at Alexandria in Egypt that is known as the Alexandrian Museum (Mouseion, “shrine of the Muses”).

Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. The Library was charged with collecting all the world's knowledge.

After his fall from power in Athens, Demetrius sought refuge at the court of King Ptolemy I Soter (c. 297 bce) and became the king’s adviser. It was founded in Alexandria, Egypt. Athenaeus may be referring to the collection of books that Aristotle had amassed at his school in Athens, which Philadelphus was able to purchase when his former tutor, Straton, was head of the Lyceum. Papyrus scrolls comprised the collection, and although parchment codices were used predominantly as a more advanced writing material after 300 BC. It was founded in Alexandria, Egypt.

Here are 10 things you need to know about the ancient library of Alexandria. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Books acquired in that manner were designated “from the ships.”. The Egyptian books were books about the traditions and history of Ancient Egypt. This page was last changed on 9 March 2015, at 09:06. No other institution illustrates the spirit of Hellenism better than the ancient library of Alexandria, Egypt. As the same text often existed in several different versions, comparative textual criticism was crucial for ensuring their accuracy.

In 391 CE, Roman Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the only legal religion of Rome, and ordered all pagan temples to be destroyed. In 334 BCE, Alexander the Great set out to conquer the world. 3) The books at the library were divided into the following subjects: rhetoric, law, epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, medicine, mathematics, natural science, and miscellaneous. Emeritus Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Alexandria, Egypt.

2) The ancient library of Alexandria was part of an institution of higher learning known as the Alexandrian Museum. A single piece of writing might occupy several scrolls. In ancient Latin, the library was known as the "ALEXANDRINA BYBLIOTHECE" (see image at right). These books were either returned immediately, or confiscated and replaced with a copy made by the library scribes. The ancient Library of Alexandria was a large and significant library of the ancient world. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina was inaugurated in 2002 near the site of the old library. One method to which they reportedly resorted was to search every ship that sailed into the harbour of Alexandria. It did so through an aggressive and well-funded royal mandate involving trips to the book fairs of Rhodes and Athens[4] and a policy of pulling the books off every ship that came into port. The Great Library of Alexandria Reborn? Already famous in the ancient world, the library's collection became even more storied in later years. They kept the original texts and made copies to send back to their owners.

Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Library of Alexandria, the most famous library of Classical antiquity. According to Galen, Ptolemy III requested permission from the Athenians to borrow the original scripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, for which the Athenians demanded the enormous amount of fifteen talents as guarantee. It was built in the third century BC. No index of the library survives, and it is not possible to know with certainty how large and how diverse the collection may have been. [6] Mark Antony supposedly gave Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls (taken from the great Library of Pergamum) for the library as a wedding gift. There is literary evidence of Greek individuals visiting Egypt especially to acquire knowledge: e.g., Herodotus, Plato (particularly in Phaedrus and Timaeus), Theophrastus, and Eudoxus of Cnidus (as detailed by Diogenes Laërtius in the 3rd century ce). We're giving away a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble. Bibliotheca Alexandrina. If a book was found, it was taken to the library for a decision as to whether to return it or to confiscate it and replace it with a copy made on the spot (with an adequate compensation to the owner). Another story (reported by Galen in the writings on Hippocrates) reveals how Ptolemy III managed to obtain the original texts of the great dramatic poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. There, he found refuge at the royal court of King Ptolemy I Soter, who ruled Egypt between 323 and 285 BCE.

The reports that Alexander had acquired survived after his death, and they motivated an unprecedented movement of scientific research and study of the Earth, its natural physical qualities, and its inhabitants. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina houses the world’s largest digital collection of historical manuscripts as well as the largest repository of French books on the African continent. Get Ready to Visit 15 of the Oldest Libraries in the World. 5) One category of acquired books was called “from the ships.” Whenever a ship arrived at the harbor in Alexandria, government officials went aboard, searching for books. [8], From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Of languages other than Greek, Egyptian had the largest section. It was the first known library to gather a serious collection of books from beyond its country's borders.

The library was also home to a host of international scholars. Social Studies for Kids - The Great Library of Alexandria, Ancient Origins - The destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, The Catholic Encyclopedia - The Alexandrian Library, Alexandria, Egypt, Library of Alexandria - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Library of Alexandria - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Ptolemy happily paid the fee but kept the original scripts for the library. The library was intended as a resource for the scholars who did research at the Museum. Source: Wikipedia. They brought the books they found to the library for inspection. Fine Art Images/Heritage-Images/age fotostock

The Library flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship. The “Letter of Aristeas” of the 2nd century bce reveals that the institution was conceived as a universal library: Demetrius…had at his disposal a large budget in order to collect, if possible, all the books in the world;…to the best of his ability, he carried out the king’s objective. There, he found refuge at the royal court of King Ptolemy I Soter, who ruled Egypt between 323 and 285 BCE. The Library flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship. The two accounts perhaps deal with two different things. 6) Books at the ancient library of Alexandria were mainly written in two languages—Greek and Egyptian, a now extinct Afro-Asian language. The Rosetta Stone, created in 196 B.C.E. His campaigns resulted in a “considerable addition of empirical knowledge of geography,” as Eratosthenes remarked (as reported by Greek geographer Strabo). Various authors explicitly blame certain individuals or groups for h… 4) Book were acquired for the library through purchases at Athens and Rhodes, the two main book markets in the Ancient Mediterranean; through copying; and through confiscation. After his untimely death in 323 BCE, Alexander’s conquests helped usher in a new era in Ancient history named Hellenism. Interior of Bibliotecha Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt. The editors at the Library of Alexandria are especially well known for their work on Homeric texts. It was built in the third century BC. 9) The second branch of the library was located inside a temple dedicated to the god Serapis. In fact, judging from the scholarly work produced in Alexandria, it seems likely that the whole corpus of Greek literature was amassed in the library. The library filled its stacks with new works in mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural history and other subjects. Against that background of avid hunger for knowledge among the Greeks, Alexander launched his global enterprise in 334 bce, which he accomplished with meteoric speed until his untimely death in 323 bce. On his conquests, Alexander brought with him historians and geographers to document and spread the word about the different societies and cultures they encountered as they fought their way from Macedonia and Greece in the west to India in the east. To this day, the Septuagint remains a crucial text in critical Bible studies. The king, however, persuaded the governors of Athens to permit him to borrow them in order to have them copied. In support of the latter understanding is Plutarch’s remark that “the Peripatetics no longer possess the original texts of Aristotle and Theophrastus, because they had fallen into idle and base hands.”, Fabulous stories circulated about the lengths to which the Ptolemies would go in their avid hunt for books. Author of. Illustration of the ancient Library of Alexandria, Egypt. Official scribes then swiftly copied these writings, some copies proving so precise that the originals were put into the library, and the copies delivered to the unsuspecting owners. Carl Sagan, in his series Cosmos, states that the library contained nearly one million scrolls, though other experts have estimated a smaller number. Those irregular methods of collection were supplemented by the purchase of books from different places, especially from Athens and Rhodes, which sustained the largest book markets of the time. His aim throughout had not been restricted to conquering lands as far from Macedonia as India but had been to also explore them. By the modern era the library had come to symbolize the entirety of knowledge in the ancient world. A perhaps exaggerated story concerns how the library's collection grew so large. Erksine, Andrew. The precious texts were safeguarded in the Athenian state archives and were not allowed to be lent out. When Julius Caesar intervened in the civil war between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII, Caesar set fire to the ships in the harbor. The founding of the library and the Mouseion is unquestionably connected with the name of Demetrius of Phaleron, a member of the Peripatetic school and a former Athenian politician. It was at the Library of Alexandria that the scientific method was first conceived and put into practice, and its empirical standards applied in serious textual criticism.

The hall contained shelves for the collections of scrolls (as the books were at this time on papyrus scrolls), known as bibliothekai (βιβλιοθῆκαι).