Ancient libraries

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Library of Celsus in Ephesus

Libraries have been in antiquity since the 6th century BC. Chr. Attested.

Greece

The Greek libraries could belong to royal palaces, private houses, sanctuaries or public buildings (grammar schools, forums or thermal baths ); in some cases they also stood on their own, independent of other institutions.

Whether it was already in the 7th century BC BC libraries existed is controversial. Although the 7th century BC Chr. Intact transmission history of numerous writings (e.g. the epics of Homer ) and the existence of individual scrolls make a conclusion about larger collections plausible and later Hellenistic authors reported from such early libraries, the majority of historians reject the assumption. Carl Wendel on the other hand, based on the geographical and historical works of Hecataeus , assumed, for example, that he must have had a collection of writings in Miletus . There are probably isolated gifts of scrolls to shrines, one of which is for the philosopher Heraclitus in the 5th century BC. Chr. Attested.

The tyrant libraries

Since the 6th century BC The first libraries were built in the tyrannical palaces of Peisistratos and Polycrates . The two palaces were competing centers of Greek culture and science; no remains of the libraries have survived. However, some authors refer to the library of Peisistratos as a legend invented by later Greek authors.

It is true that much later authors from the 2nd century onwards report on the library of the Peisistratos, but one can assume that it was actually located on the Acropolis of Athens, as reported . However, it is less credible that it was accessible to the population and that it served their general education. It is assumed that this first ruling library contained at least works by Homer and other poets as well as Orphic writings. After the death of the popular tyrant, it was probably continued by his heirs. Generally a legend is the story that the Persian King Xerxes I kept the library in 480 BC. And Seleukos Nikator brought them back to Athens.

On the other hand, the library of Polycrates in Samos is only mentioned briefly by an author of the 3rd century .

Libraries in the Classical Era

For Athens at least it is certain that professional production and a brisk trade in scrolls developed in the 5th and 4th centuries and that numerous members of the upper classes had a private collection. In the sources, two extensive private libraries are mentioned by name, that of a Eukleides and a Euthydemos.

It can be assumed that by the 5th century BC at the latest Book scrolls also played a certain role in schools. They were used to teach young men; a clue is a school scene depicted on a bowl. Due to the poor state of preservation, it has not been possible to identify any library rooms in the grammar schools of the classical era. It is believed that there since the 4th century BC. Chr. Book scroll collections for teaching were available. Special medical school libraries opened from the 5th century BC. The medical schools in Knidos and Kos .

Archaeological site of the Platonic Academy

The libraries of the ancient philosophical schools , which began in the 4th century BC, were probably only accessible to a group of scholars . Originated in Athens. The first, probably 387 BC. School of Philosophy, which was founded in BC, probably had its own library during the lifetime of its wealthy founder Plato . The Platonic Academy was located outside the city walls of Athens, and its library probably contained numerous scientific works and most likely also the Platonic Dialogues . It grew to a considerable size under Plato's successors. Around 300 BC According to a later report, it is said to have been made available to non-members of the school for a fee. In 2002 Wolfram Hoepfner tried to identify the excavated foundations of a certain building as the Platonic Academy. He also believed he could identify a library room in the center of the building, book depots next to it, and reading halls with tables around a courtyard.

Aristotle and his after 335 BC must have one of the most important ancient libraries . Founded Peripatos school . Later authors report that Aristotle is said to have been the first systematic book collector. The collection certainly contained innumerable works by the philosophers, but also the poets and probably numerous documents used as research sources, such as 158 constitutions of Greek states. There are numerous contradicting stories from later times about the whereabouts of the library. It is likely that the headmaster Theophrast inherited the library and the next heir Neleus took part of it with him to Skepticism , where it later came into the possession of the writer Apellikon von Teos and back to Athens. After taking Athens, Sulla transferred these holdings to his private library in Rome, where they were processed by Andronikos of Rhodes . What happened to it after Sulla's son Faustus Cornelius Sulla inherited it is unknown. It is unlikely, however, that the Alexandria library bought up Neleus' holdings, although it certainly had a large part of the peripatetic literature. Hoepfner also tried to identify Aristotle's school and its library with found building remains.

According to Diogenes Laertios, the private schools of the philosophers Epicurus and Zeno of Kition also had libraries.

The rulers of the 4th century BC. BC were centers of cultural and scientific life and had collections of scrolls. The libraries of Clearchus in Herakleia Pontike , of Nicocles in Salamis and collections of the Macedonian kings are mentioned.

In addition to the ancient archives in which various documents were kept, state collections of scrolls are also accepted. So probably in the 4th century BC. Such a collection in Athens. From the state copy with tragedies of Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides it is reported that Ptolemy III. to make a copy for the Alexandria library and, contrary to the agreement, sent the copy back instead of the original.

Libraries in Hellenism

The period known as Hellenism from the 4th to the 1st century BC BC can be described as the heyday of the history of Greek libraries. The libraries at the courts of the Hellenistic kings were of outstanding importance.

The Alexandria Library was the most important ancient library. It was made at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Founded by the Macedonian-Greek King Ptolemy I in the residence and capital of his Egyptian empire. The library was located in the palace district of the city and had an enormous inventory of scrolls for the time. It was closely related to an important scientific institution, the Museion of Alexandria, where numerous famous scholars worked and the Alexandrian School developed. Probably the main function of the library was that of a school and research library of the Museion. These two institutions, financed by the Ptolemaic rulers, played a major role in bringing Alexandria to life in the 3rd century BC. Chr. Athens replaced as the center of Greek science. The library was not used for purely scientific purposes, but also as a show of power by the Ptolemies. The remains of the library could not be found; it is believed that it was destroyed in the course of armed conflict in 272.

Remains of the building, considered the Library of Pergamon, before excavation in the 1880s

The library of Pergamon was, if its location is correctly determined, in the Athena sanctuary on the city's castle hill. The Pergamene library was younger than the Alexandrian one. It was also very famous, but never reached the importance of the Alexandria Library. The competition between the two libraries was blamed for the occurrence of forged books. The dispute over prestige between the two libraries was seen as the reason why Egypt stopped delivering papyrus to Pergamon. As a result, parchment is said to have been invented in Pergamon , but this cannot be confirmed. That Mark Antony of Cleopatra from the collections of the Library of Pergamon 200,000 scrolls have given, was indeed circulated only as a slander, but reveals what idea prevailed on the size of Pergamon library. It is not known whether the Pergamon library was open to the public - as seems to emerge from a casual comment by the Roman architectural writer Vitruvius .

There is also evidence of a Macedonian royal library of Perseus in Pella , whose books Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus 168 BC. Brought to Rome . The library of Mithradates VI. was probably in Sinope (today's Sinop ) and was around 70 BC. Brought to Italy by Lucullus . A room with prints of papyri was also found in the palace of Ai Khanoum , which is interpreted as a library. Antiochus III. founded in the 3rd or 2nd century BC A palace library in Antioch on the Orontes , which a century later was possibly transferred to the local library of the "Museion". It is said to have been freely accessible, one of its leaders was the poet Euphorion von Chalkis .

A number of grammar school libraries from the Hellenistic period have been proven not by literary tradition but by finds of inscriptions . They were used in high schools (public sports and educational institutions) to teach young men (Ephebe). The holdings of these libraries, which were certainly not comparable with those of the royal libraries, were often created through foundations. For a high school in Athens, for example, each age group had to donate 100 scrolls at the end of their training. In individual cases, inscribed lists of books have been found in grammar schools, for example a list of works by Greek historians in the plasterwork of a portico in the grammar school of Tauromenion ( Taormina in Sicily).

Vitruvius mentions in the 1st century BC The library as part of a more elaborate Greek private house. Further news about civil private libraries are not known.

Rome

The beginnings: private libraries of the late republic

Roman reading in a scroll

Roman library history begins in the late period of the Republic with the private libraries of Roman noble families, whose lifestyle was increasingly influenced by Greek art and culture. First, Greek libraries (since the 2nd century BC) came into the possession of Roman noble families as spoils of war (see above). In the 1st century BC The educated Roman usually owned a library. From Cicero we know that he for a larger sum Greek books about his friend Atticus acquired in Athens; a library that was given to him also contained Latin scripts. It became common to have both a Greek and a Latin library in the house. This equipment became an indispensable prestige object of the rich Roman house in the early imperial era . Even uneducated upstarts like Trimalchio in Petron's Satyricon boasted of such sophisticated book ownership.

The poet Persius owned 700 scrolls when he died in AD 62 at the age of 28. In the 3rd century AD, the philologist Marcus Mettius Epaphroditus is said to have bequeathed the Emperor Gordian II a library of 62,000 scrolls, which he himself had already inherited. The discovery of the Herculaneum papyri in a villa near Herculaneum , which bears the name Villa dei Papiri after the numerous scrolls found there, is unique . The villa, which was buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD, was built and used as early as the late Republican period. The charred papyrus rolls of a Greek library lay in a 3 by 3 meter room. They were stored on shelves in the center of the room and along the walls. The book collection - apparently a special library - contained works by Epicurus and his pupils as well as numerous writings by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemos of Gadara (1st century BC). It has been assumed that it is the personal library of Philodemos, who is known to have stayed in the region. Since younger Greek and some Latin papyri were found in other rooms of the villa, it can be assumed that the large, richly furnished villa also had the usual Greek and Latin library.

Public libraries in Rome

As Suetonius reports, Caesar planned to set up a large Greek and Latin library in Rome for general use. As a result of the dictator's assassination in 44 BC The plan was not carried out. A little later, but at least after 39 BC. BC, Gaius Asinius Pollio founded the city's first public library in the Atrium Libertatis . It was customary to use the booty of victorious campaigns to finance public institutions. Following this custom, Pollio used the proceeds from the booty of a war in the northern Balkans for the foundation of the library. The library room was decorated with three-dimensional portraits of the authors: among them - the only one still alive - the great scholar Varro .

The second public library in Rome was opened by Emperor Augustus in the twenties of the last century BC. Near the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill . It too had a Greek and a Latin section and was adorned with portraits of great spirits. The emperor had entrusted the establishment of the library to Gnaeus Pompeius Macer , an otherwise little-known writer. It was later directed by the scholar Gaius Iulius Hyginus . Since the Palatine library was near his residence, Augustus also had senate meetings held there when he was old . Under Nero (54–68) or Titus (79–81) the library was destroyed by fire, and under Domitian (81–96) it was rebuilt. The drawing in an ancient city map of Rome and excavated remains of the library convey an idea of ​​the new building: of two adjoining halls (20 by 30 meters) one probably contained the Greek library, the other the Latin library. The house of Augustus, which was excavated on the Palatine Hill in the 1960s, also apparently had two separate, mirror-image library rooms. The typical dichotomy for Greek and Latin literature also featured another public library, which Augustus set up in Rome in Porticus Octaviae . This library also had to be renewed by Domitian. The remains of the Porticus Octaviae that can be seen today date from the 3rd century AD; Library halls cannot be identified.

Later emperors also founded libraries in Rome. A description of the regions of Rome from the 4th century AD names a number of 28 libraries, among which there may also be dependent institutions (e.g. in thermal baths ). The Greek and Latin libraries, which Emperor Trajan (98–117) had set up on the Trajan's Forum that he created, were of outstanding importance . On the opposite side of a courtyard, on which the Trajan Column still stood, there were two library halls , each measuring 17 by 27 meters, the remains of which have been preserved up to two meters high. The cabinet niches are 2 meters wide and 65 cm deep. On one floor there were two rows with 18 cupboard niches on top of each other. The institution was officially called Bibliothecae Divi Traiani ("Libraries of the deified Trajan"), but also appears as Bibliotheca templi Traiani ("Library of the Temple of Trajan") or with the emperor's family name as Bibliotheca Ulpia . The library must have been in operation in the 5th century AD. At that time, a portrait of the writer and politician Sidonius Apollinaris , who later became Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, was added to the portraits shown here .

The Roman librarianship must therefore have outlasted the 4th century. The much-cited complaint of Ammianus Marcellinus , who died around 395 , that the libraries, like the funerary monuments, are closed forever, does not refer to the public libraries, but to the disappearance of private book collections, which historians see as a sign of the (supposedly) generally lower level of education.

Libraries in the Roman Empire

During the imperial period there are numerous libraries outside of Rome - not only in Italy , but also in the more distant parts of the empire. In cities and sanctuaries, they were mostly created as private and often as imperial foundations. For example, Pliny the Younger (62 – approx. 114) built and set up a library in his hometown of Comum ( Como ) for a million sesterces, for whose operation he made another 100,000 sesterces available. Hellenistic court libraries are continued in the Greek cultural area. The tradition of high school libraries also seems to have endured. In addition, independent libraries were set up during the imperial era. Gaius Stertinius Xenophon , the former personal physician of Emperor Claudius (41–54), founded a library on the island of Kos after his death . In Dyrrhachion (Durazzo or today Durres in Albania) an officer of Trajan provided 170,000 sesterces for the same purpose. In Athens, the Pantainos Library was set up as a private foundation under Trajan at the Agora . A little later, Emperor Hadrian (117-138) founded the large Hadrian's library named after him not far from there . The remains of the magnificent architecture are completely exposed today, the column facade of the peristyle is largely upright.

The Celsus Library in Ephesus also dates from the time of Trajan and its two-story column facade was rebuilt by Austrian archaeologists. The library was dedicated to the memory of Tiberius Iulius Celsus Polemaeanus , who was buried inside the library in a stone sarcophagus. The son of the honored and donor of the library left a sum of 25,000 denarii for running the facility. Also in the Trajan period, the orator Dion Chrysostom wanted to have a tomb for his wife and son built in the peristyle of a library he had donated in Prusa (Asia Minor); this led to a legal battle of which we are informed through Pliny the Younger .

The Imperial Library of Constantinople was equipped by Emperor Constantius II (337–361) with a scriptorium that was supposed to copy all accessible Greek literature in order to save it from ruin. In 372, Emperor Valens hired four Greek and three Latin calligraphers . It has been suggested that at this time in Constantinople the papyrus scrolls were rewritten on parchment codes, as is attested for the theological library of Caesarea in Judea. The library of Constantinople burned down in 473 with an inventory of 120,000 books.

First Christian Libraries

As during Hellenism, many libraries in the Greek-speaking half of the Roman Empire were only open to an elite and were primarily used for "internal" book production. Examples are the library of Didascaleion mentioned by Origen or the library of Jerusalem founded by Bishop Alexander in 212 AD . The Vivarium library founded by Cassiodorus also has the same characteristics. The first Christian library in Rome was built by Pope Hilary (461–468) in the Lateran . Since the Liber Pontificalis (a collection of early papal biographies) speaks of “two libraries in the same place”, the tradition of the Greco-Latin double library was apparently continued here as well.

Plant, establishment and operation

Little is known about the architecture of Greek libraries. In general, it can be assumed that libraries were part of larger building complexes. In Pergamon a group of rooms on the upper floor of a portico of the Athena shrine has been identified with the library. There is no agreement on the use of the individual rooms. The identification as a library has, however, been denied in principle. In the palace of Ai Khanoum the scrolls were stored in a magazine on the peristyle. Roman private libraries, too, were usually kept in unrepresentative rooms that were not intended for reading. The room in the hillside house VI 17.41 in Pompeii, which is interpreted as a library, is an exception ; In the room with a representative pillar veranda and a distant view to the west there is a bookcase niche and the painted portraits of two unidentified writers as a mural. Vitruvius recommends laying out the house library so that it faces east; this location ensures that morning light is favorable for use and protects the scrolls from mold and bookworms.

It was not until the public libraries of the imperial era that characteristic designs developed, although these were not uniform. Libraries continued to be mostly part of higher-level building complexes ( forum , sanctuary, thermal baths). The Library of Celsus this is not true in Ephesus. It is a free-standing facility that was designed as a monument. Libraries in the city of Rome often have two adjoining halls dedicated to Greek and Latin literature, respectively. The type of floor plan is not specified; it can, for example, have the shape of a semicircular or rectangular exedra (a hall that opens wide on one side). One feature by which library rooms can be recognized are wall niches arranged in rows for the bookcases. A wall structure with columns on a podium is typical. The Museo della Civiltà Romana in Rome shows a natural-scale model reconstruction of the library in Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli (near Rome) .

Lockable bookcase; Mosaic in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia

A box or chest or a bucket-like leather container (Latin: capsa ) was sufficient for storing a small number of scrolls . An open shelf with scrolls is depicted on an imperial relief from Neumagen on the Moselle, which is lost today. In the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna , a late antique mosaic shows a lockable cabinet with codices of the four Gospels . It can be assumed that there were lavish bookcases in the public libraries of the Roman Empire. The bookcases in the Pergamon library have been reconstructed and rebuilt; whether the ancient form has been taken remains uncertain.

The library holdings must have been cataloged. In addition to the Pinakes of Callimachus for Alexandria, there were such in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD in the theological library of Caesarea. Book directories ( indices ), which were structured according to literary genre, were also available in larger private Roman libraries. Nothing is known about any signature systems. In the Bibliotheca Ulpia in Rome the bookcases were evidently numbered; The anonymous author of the Historia Augusta (a partly very unreliable imperial story) allegedly found the source scripts he was looking for in bookcase no. 6. Labels attached to the scrolls are mentioned on various occasions (Greek: sillyboi ); It is not known whether they bore signatures or only information about the author and work.

In Athens, a fragment of an inscribed usage order for the Pantainos library has been preserved. It shows that the library was open for the first six hours of the day. The staff was sworn not to borrow a book. The public libraries of Rome also seem to have been reference libraries. The books were given to the user by employed library slaves. Because of the bilingualism of the Roman book culture, library slaves who knew Greek were also required: a grave inscription expressly names the head slave of the Greek department of a thermal bath library. Little is known about the earnings of library staff. Hyginus, a freedman of the emperor Augustus, remained in need of support as head of the Palatine library and died in poverty. Later there were highly paid imperial officials who, with the rank of procurator, oversaw several Rome libraries. A procurator "of the libraries of all emperors from Tiberius to Claudius" and a procurator of the two libraries of the Trajansforum have been handed down.

See also

literature

Overview representations
Monographs and edited volumes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Werner Müller: Greek book collections and libraries . In: Elke Blumenthal, Wolfgang Schmitz (Eds.): Libraries in Antiquity , 2011, pp. 101–122, here: pp. 101–106.
  2. ^ Carl Werner Müller: Greek book collections and libraries . In: Elke Blumenthal, Wolfgang Schmitz (eds.): Libraries in the ancient world , 2011, pp. 101-122, here: p. 107. He refers to Carl Wendel: The Greek book system under Babylonian influence . In: Small writings on ancient books and libraries , Greven, Cologne 1974, p. 201 f.
  3. ^ Diogenes Laertios, Life and Teaching of the Philosophers 9.6.
  4. ↑ Julia Wilker: Early book collections of the Greeks . In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Ed.): Antike Bibliotheken , 2002, pp. 19–23, here: pp. 19 f.
  5. ↑ Luciano Canfora: The Vanished Library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Rotbuch, Berlin 1998, p. 174 f.
  6. ↑ Gellius , Noctes atticae 7, 17, 1. Isidore of Seville , Etymologiae 6,3,3.
  7. ^ Carl Werner Müller: Greek book collections and libraries . In: Elke Blumenthal, Wolfgang Schmitz (Ed.): Libraries in Antiquity , 2011, pp. 101–122, here: p. 113.
  8. ↑ Gellius, Noctae Atticae 7,17,1-2.
  9. ↑ Julia Wilker: Early book collections of the Greeks . In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Ed.): Antike Bibliotheken , 2002, pp. 19–23, here: p. 20.
  10. ↑ a b Athenaios , Deipnosophistae 1,3a.
  11. ↑ Xenophanes, Memorabilia 4,2,8.
  12. ^ Carl Werner Müller: Greek book collections and libraries. In: Elke Blumenthal, Wolfgang Schmitz (Hrsg.): Libraries in antiquity. 2011, pp. 101–122, here: p. 117.
  13. ^ Günther Burkard, Inge Nielsen, Stefan Maul, Konrad Vössing: Library. In: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester (eds.): Der Neue Pauly. Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997.
  14. ↑ Wolfram Hoepfner: Pergamon, Rhodos, Nysa, Athens. Libraries in high schools and other teaching and research facilities. In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Hrsg.): Ancient libraries. Zabern, Mainz 2002, pp. 67–80, here: p. 67.
  15. ^ Carl Werner Müller: Greek book collections and libraries. In: Elke Blumenthal, Wolfgang Schmitz (Hrsg.): Libraries in antiquity. 2011, pp. 101–122, here: p. 114.
  16. ^ Diogenes Laertios, 3.66.
  17. ^ Carl Werner Müller: Greek book collections and libraries. In: Elke Blumenthal, Wolfgang Schmitz (Hrsg.): Libraries in antiquity. 2011, pp. 101–122, here: p. 118.
  18. ^ Wolfram Hoepfner: Platon's Academy. In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Hrsg.): Ancient libraries. Zabern, Mainz 2002, pp. 56–62, here: pp. 59–61. Hoepfner's results are questioned by Konrad Vössing: Review of: Hoepfner, Wolfram (Hrsg.): Antike Bibliotheken. Mainz am Rhein 2002. In: H-Soz-u-Kult, February 17, 2003, accessed on March 3, 2014 ( online ).
  19. ^ Strabo, Geographica. 13,1,54. Athenaios, Deipnosophistae 1,3a and 5,214de. Plutarch, Sulla 26.
  20. ↑ Julia Wilker: Errwege an antique book collection. The library of Aristotle . In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Hrsg.): Ancient libraries. 2002, pp. 24-29.
  21. ↑ Julia Wilker: Errwege an antique book collection. The library of Aristotle. In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Hrsg.): Ancient libraries. 2002, pp. 24–29, here: pp. 26 f.
  22. ^ Wolfram Hoepfner: Platon's Academy. In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Hrsg.): Ancient libraries. 2002, pp. 56–62, here: p. 62.
  23. ^ A b Günther Burkard, Inge Nielsen, Stefan Maul, Konrad Vössing: Library. In: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester (eds.): Der Neue Pauly. Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997.
  24. ↑ Julia Wilker: Early book collections of the Greeks. In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Hrsg.): Ancient libraries. 2002, pp. 19–23, here: p. 23.
  25. ^ Galenus: In Hippocratis epidemiarum librum tertium commentarius. 2.4.
  26. ^ Carl Werner Müller: Greek book collections and libraries. In: Elke Blumenthal, Wolfgang Schmitz (Hrsg.): Libraries in antiquity. 2011, pp. 101–122, here: p. 116.
  27. ↑ Plutarch, Aemilius Paullus 28.6.