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ALEXANDRIA (Ancient city) EGYPT
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, 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.
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 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 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 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.
George Melville Bolling, ed.
Transcribed by: Thomas J. Bress
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
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