From: Gina Miller (echoz@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun May 02 1999 - 01:26:16 MDT
The Alexandrian Library
The Great Library of Alexandria, so called to distinguish it from the
smaller or "daughter" library in the Serapeum, was a foundation of the first
Ptolemies for the purpose of aiding the maintenance of Greek civilization in
the midst of the conservative Egyptians. If the removal of Demetrius
Phalereus to Alexandria, in 296-295 B.C., was connected with the
organization of the library, at least the plan for this institution must
have been formed under Ptolemaios Soter (died c. 284 B.C.), but the
completion of the work and its connection with the Museum was achievement of
his successor, Ptolemaios Philadelphos. As Strabo does not mention the
library in his description of the buildings upon the harbour, it is clear
that it was not in that part of the city, and its connection with the Museum
points to a location in the Brucheion, or northwestern quarter of the city.
Of the means by which the books were acquired many anecdotes are told. Ships
entering the harbour were forced to give up any manuscripts they had on
board and take copies instead. The official copy of the works of the three
great tragedians belonging to Athens was retained by forfeiting the deposit
of 15 talents that had been pledged for its return. The rivalry between
Alexandria and Pergamon was so keen that to cripple the latter the
exportation of papyrus was prohibited. Necessity led to the perfecting of
the methods of preparing skins to receive writing, the improved material
being known as " charta pergamena ", from which is derived our " parchment".
This rivalry was also the occasion of the composition of many spurious
works, of devices for giving to manuscripts a false appearance of antiquity,
and also of hasty and careless copying.
The number of books thus obtained is variously stated, the discrepancy being
due partly to the fact that the statements refer to various periods.
Demetrius Phalereus is said to have reported that the number of papyrus
rolls was 200,000, but that he hoped to increase it soon to 500,000. In the
time of Callimachos 490,000 rolls are mentioned; later, Aulus Gellius and
Ammianus Marcellinus speak of 700,000 rolls. Orosius, on the other hand,
speaks only of 400,000, while Seneca says that 40,000 rolls were burnt
(probably an error for 400,000).
The first librarian was Zenodotus (234 B.C.). He was succeeded in turn by
Eratosthenes (234-195 B.C.); Aristophanes of Byzantium (195-181 B.C.); and
Aristarchos of Samothrace (181-171 B.C.), all famous names in the history of
scholarship. The inclusion in this list of Callimachos and Apollonios
Rhodios rests on slight authority and seems chronologically impossible. The
work of these men consisted in classifying, cataloguing, and editing the
works of Greek literature and exerted a deep and permanent influence not
only upon the form of the books, their subdivisions, and arrangement, but
also upon the transmission of the texts and all phases of the study of the
history of literature.
After Aristarchos the importance of the library began to wane. In 47 B.C.
Caesar was compelled to set fire to his fleet to prevent its falling into
the hands of the Egyptians. The fire spread to the docks and the naval
arsenal, and destroyed 400,000 rolls. It is most probable from the statement
of Orosius that these were not in the library itself, but had been removed
from it preparatory for shipment to Rome, a view confirmed by the statement
of the author of the "Bellum Alexandrinum " that Alexandria was built in
such a way as to be safe from a great conflagration. Seneca and Gellius also
speak only of the burning of manuscripts, though the latter represents the
destruction as complete. Less carefully, Plutarch and Dio Cassius speak of
the burning of the library, but had this been the case we should find
mention of it in Cicero and Strabo.
The loss of books was partly repaired by Anthony 's gift to Cleopatra, in 41
B.C., of 200,000 volumes from the library of Pergamon. Domitian drew upon
the library for transcripts. Under Aurelian, in A.D. 272, the greater part
of the Brucheion was destroyed, and it is most probable that the library
perished at this time. The small library in the Serapeum is supposed to have
perished when the temple of Serapis was destroyed by Theophilus, but there
is no definite statement to that effect. Up to the time of Gibbon, the
generally accepted version of the destruction of the library was that, on
the capture of the city by the Mahommedans in A.D. 642, John Philoponos,
having formed a friendship with their general Amrou, asked for the gift of
the library. Amrou referred the matter to the Caliph Omar and received the
answer:
If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are
useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious,
and ought to be destroyed.
Accordingly, they were employed in the baths as fuel, and lasted six months.
This story is now generally discredited, chiefly because it rests only on
the authority of Abulpharagius, a writer six centuries later, while earlier
writers, especially Eutychius and Elmacin, make no mention of it. Besides,
the act is contrary to Mohammedan custom; John Philoponos lived about a
century before the capture of the city, and the statement of the time the
rolls lasted as fuel is preposterous. Finally, there is the evidence given
above for the earlier destruction of the library.
SANDYS, A History of Classical Scholarship (Cambridge, 1903); RITSCHL,
Opuscula Philologica, I; SUSEMIHL, Geschichte der gr. Litteratur in der
Alexandrinerzeit (Leipzig, 1891); DZIATZKO, in PAULY-WISSOWA,
Real-Encyclopędie, III, 409-414.
GEORGE MELVILLE BOLLING
Transcribed by Thomas J. Bress
>From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright © 1913 by the Encyclopedia Press,
Inc. Electronic version copyright © 1997 by New Advent, Inc.
Here's a interesting link:
http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~hamwic/spooky/library.html
Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
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