Alexandria Library

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The Alexandria Library was the most important ancient library . It originated at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. BC in the Macedonian - Greek city ​​of Alexandria, founded shortly before in Egypt . The time of the end of the library is unclear. The assumptions range from 48 BC. Until the 7th century. It is often said that it fell victim to the destruction of the entire palace district of Alexandria in the 3rd century. No remains of the library have yet been found, but the texts of ancient authors provide some information.

The library had an enormous inventory of scrolls for the time, but is unknown today . It was both literary writings and large amounts of scientific literature from a wide variety of subject areas. It can be assumed that there was a large stock soon after the establishment, which then continued to grow over generations. A smaller subsidiary library in the Serapeion of Alexandria was located in the south-west of the city in a district inhabited by the native Egyptians.

The library was located in the palace district of the city and 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 only used for scientific purposes, but also as a show of power by the Ptolemies. It was founded as part of the large-scale cultural policy of the Macedonian-Greek king Ptolemy I in the residence and capital of his Egyptian empire. The library continued to operate under Roman administration (from 30 BC).

Aside from historical and archaeological research, numerous myths have grown up about the aftermath of the library, which continues to this day . It is considered to be the legendary archetype of a universal library and an ideal store of knowledge. Speculations about the destruction of the library are particularly widespread. That they 48 BC BC fell victim to a spectacular fire, is just as unlikely as the legend of the destruction by the Arabs in 642.

Lore

The sources are extremely poor and reliable statements are hardly possible. In addition, the few ancient sources often report contradicting information, and the Roman evidence of the organization of the library need not reflect the previous Hellenistic conditions.

The earliest source is that in the 2nd or 1st century BC. Aristeas letter , which is primarily about the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. Scattered remarks can be found in works by Greek and Roman authors of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, such as Strabo , Seneca , Plutarch and Suetonius . Further information is provided by two medical writings by the doctor Galenus, who lived in the 2nd century . Additional information comes from the Byzantine scholar Johannes Tzetzes , who worked in the 12th century and whose source of information is unknown to researchers.

Surname

The library is given by different names in the sources. It is often referred to as “the great library” ( ancient Greek ἡ μεγάλη βιβλιοθήκη ), but expressions such as “library of the king”, “library of the Museion”, “library in Alexandria” or “first library” are used.

Location and building

City map of ancient Alexandria. The Museion was in the northeast, the Serapeion in the southwest.

So far, no remains have been found either from the research facility in the Museion or from the library. Based on ancient reports such as Strabo's travelogue, it is assumed that both were in the palace district in the northeast of the ancient city. According to Strabo, the Museion consisted of a colonnade , an exedra for study purposes and a large dining room for the scholars. He does not mention a library as a separate room. The other sources also do not report anything about an independent library building. A stone block found in 1847 was possibly a container for book scrolls . Today it is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna , but it belonged - if at all - to a smaller private collection of scrolls. The head of the excavations in the Alexandrian palace district, Jean-Yves Empereur , considers it unlikely that remains of the library will be found and identified as such in the foreseeable future.

It is quite possible that the library never had its own building, but was located in special rooms of the Museion, initially perhaps only on shelves set up there. As it grew, it could have been housed in several buildings in the palace district. Due to the size of the library, it can be assumed that it had writing and other workshops; There are neither finds nor reports on this either. Cécile Orru suspects that it was between the coast and the Canopian Strait, southeast of the theater.

A subsidiary library was located in the Serapeion of Alexandria , which was built in the second half of the 3rd century BC. Was built. There it was probably opposite the courtyard behind the south portico. Archaeologists suspected the library to be in 19 adjacent rooms. These rooms are 3 × 4 m in size and may have been furnished with shelves. The scrolls were probably read in separate corridors.

Duration

To date, no papyrus fragment that can be assigned to the Alexandria library has been discovered. The Museion and a basic set of literature were probably donated. The enormous amount of scriptures available in the library soon after it was founded covered all areas of knowledge. It comprised works on scientific subjects (especially astronomy), mathematics, medicine and philosophy with detailed commentaries on them. By far the dominant language was Greek, but there were also texts in other languages ​​- including Egyptian and Hebrew - particularly in the case of religious literature on Zoroastrianism and Buddhism , which came from the Persian Empire and India . The fact that the library often had numerous manuscripts of the same works can be concluded from the fact that the scholars employed at the Museion were able to produce text-critical standard editions of these works.

Stock figures

Estimates of the number of scrolls in the library vary widely, mainly due to divergent, not necessarily reliable and differently interpretable reports - there are more than a dozen sources of varying value - and because of the considerable deviations between modern approaches to calculation of the stock. There is talk of at least 54,800 rolls, but 700,000 copies are also mentioned. A stock of 400,000 to 500,000 rolls can be deduced from the information handed down by ancient and medieval authors; some modern authors consider this figure realistic. In any case, the number of stocks fluctuating strongly over the centuries is to be expected, whereby it should be noted that a roll did not correspond exactly to one work by an author, but could contain several works or even only part of an extensive work. On the other hand, several copies of a work were kept, for example for philological studies.

Calculations by historians are supposed to determine roughly how many authors were known at the time and how many writings they could have created on average. Rudolf Blum and Roger S. Bagnall are critical of the high number of ancient documents . Blum's calculation makes the estimate of 500,000 rolls appear too high; he also considers a library of 50,000 rolls to be enormously large for the circumstances at the time. Bagnall also advocates a low number of roles, assuming that ancient reports and modern researchers alike have exaggerated notions of the size of the library. Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, on the other hand, is of the opinion that, depending on the type of calculation, higher inventory figures can also be considered.

It should be noted that although papyrus is a long-lasting writing material , the humid climate in Alexandria and its use by readers must have put a considerable strain on the scrolls. It is believed that a papyrus roll could last between 100 and 300 years under these circumstances before it became necessary to replace it with a copy. Accordingly, the large holdings from the early Ptolemaic times at the beginning of Roman rule would have been unusable if they were not constantly copied.

Inventory building

The kings who built and operated the library made the enormous increase in scrolls possible at great expense. Judging by the respective interests of the rulers, Ptolemy I probably promoted the area of ​​history in particular, his son Ptolemy II more the natural sciences. The majority of the library's holdings were purchased wherever the opportunity arose. Acquisitions from what were then the largest book markets in Athens and Rhodes have survived . Overall, a poorly targeted collection policy can be assumed; they wanted to acquire as much literature as possible from all areas of knowledge. This should not only support the work of the scientists employed in the Museion. The goal of the largest possible stock was probably connected with the will of the operators to distinguish Alexandria in relation to other educational centers, to increase its fame and to strengthen its cultural and political position internally and externally. There is reports of a competition with the library of Pergamon , which was later founded . The purchases by the libraries are said to have increased the price of old scrolls and resulted in commercial forgery. The purchases of entire libraries of scholars like that of Aristotle are not guaranteed . Historians disagree on the assessment of the corresponding ancient reports; it is unclear whether the library acquired the writings written and owned by Aristotle. For the most part, this is considered to be unlikely.

According to Galen, all ships entering Alexandria were searched and all scrolls found confiscated and copied. The copies were then given to the original owners, while the originals were added to the library with the note “from the ships”. At the same point, Galen reports on another rigorous method for obtaining original writings: Ptolemy III. is said to have borrowed the Athenian state copy of the tragedies of Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides for a not insignificant pledge of 15 talents to make a copy . However, contrary to the agreement, beautifully made copies were returned instead of the original, and Ptolemy let the pledge forfeit. The numerous works written and translated by members of the Museion were added to the holdings acquired through purchase, confiscation or even theft. It is unclear whether the population continued to grow after the first three Ptolemies. Perhaps the 150 / 140s BC brought a break in the expansion policy. When numerous scholars and the library director himself were driven from Alexandria.

Organization and operation

The administrative effort involved in running such a large library must have been considerable, but information in this area is also extremely rare. There is only sporadic information about the organization and work processes. Galen, for example, reported in the 2nd century that the scrolls were temporarily stored in designated storage rooms before they were registered. From there they picked up library assistants (hyperetai) to take them to the library.

use

Who had access to the collected scrolls and was allowed to use them is unsure. The assumption that the library formed an annex to the royal palaces and was primarily available to the learned members of the Museion is undisputed. Few researchers claim that the entire public had access. It should be noted that only a small part of the population was literate and scrolls were precious possessions.

Maintenance providers

The library was run by the Ptolemaic rulers, who certainly maintained it for representational purposes. The library was probably intended to promote a sense of origin and togetherness among the immigrant Greeks towards the native Egyptian population. Poetry and science were already part of the tradition of the ruling Greek upper class. Together with the Museion, the library became the most important research facility in the 3rd century BC. Their size demonstrated superiority. The close and lasting relationship with the ruling house can also be seen in the fact that many of the library directors were entrusted with the education of the heir to the throne at the same time. The establishment of the subsidiary library in the Egyptian district, however, served to integrate the local population.

staff

The size of the library suggests that some staff were required to register, organize, and maintain the scrolls. It is also certain that copyists were employed to copy worn papyri that were borrowed from abroad.

The library was usually headed by an outstanding scholar, in contrast to the Museion, which was run by a priest. The post was coveted and the kings reserved the right to fill it. Some of the leaders are known from a list of names on a papyrus from the 2nd century and from Tzetzes and the Suda , a Byzantine encyclopedia from the 9th century. However, a saved list cannot be created from these sources. Demetrios of Phaleron and Callimachus of Cyrene were closely associated with the library and will have taken on important functions, but both presumably never officially held the leadership. On the other hand, the grammarian Zenodotos of Ephesus , the writer and literary theorist Apollonios of Rhodes , the polymath Eratosthenes of Cyrene , the philologist and grammarian Aristophanes of Byzantium , Apollonius Eidograph and the text critic Aristarchus of Samothrace are named, among others . During a domestic political crisis under Ptolemy VIII , numerous scholars were expelled and an officer named Kydas “of the spearmen” was appointed to head the library. Only otherwise completely unknown people are named after him. From 116 B.C. The ladder can no longer be determined. An exception is Onasander von Paphos, whose function as library director from 88 BC. An inscription found in Cyprus proves it.

A papyrus from the 2nd century contains a contract for the sale of a boat. One of the participants was an otherwise unknown Valerius Diodoros, who is described as a former librarian and a member of the Museion.

The scientific work at the library

The library was used by the scholars employed at the Museion who dealt with all contemporary sciences. When their life's work is judged by classical studies, not only their scientific research, their writings and comments but also the editions of the works of well-known authors they have created are recognized as significant achievements. They sifted through the various copies that were available to them and tried, through critical comparison, to create a text version that was as close to the author as possible. The from the 2nd century. v. Recognizable standardization of the classic texts is due to the work of the Alexandrian philologists, which was of great importance for the development of the text versions available today. In addition to the philological preparation of standard editions and their comments, important foreign-language texts were translated into Greek and historical works and other scientific works were written using foreign-language sources. Famous is the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew known as the Septuagint .

The scholars came from far and wide to study and work in Alexandria. Their activities were financed by the king. Many of them lived in the Museion, which also had a dining room. In addition to the aforementioned library directors, the physician Herophilos of Chalcedon , the engineer and mathematician Heron of Alexandria , the mechanic Ktesibios , the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos and the important mathematicians Archimedes and Euclid were connected with Alexandria . Many works by these scholars could not have been written at this level or not at all without such an extensive library.

Cataloging

The dimensions of the library described in the ancient sources made systems of order necessary that made it possible to choose a desired work from the masses or to find the available literature on a particular topic. This was the purpose of cataloging the holdings that went up to the 3rd century BC. Can be traced back.

The news about library catalogs is extremely sparse, but at least information about the activities of the scholar and great poet Callimachus of Cyrene has been preserved. He wrote the pinakes (directories), a non-preserved script, which in library history literature was often referred to as the first attested library catalog. In fact, it was not a catalog, but a separate, bibliographical work, possibly based on the library catalog. The pinakes are said to have been large in size and consisted of 120 rolls. They assigned each of the then known authors to one of ten categories, either rhetoric, law, epic, tragedy, poetry, history, medicine, mathematics or natural science. If an author could not be clearly assigned to one of these subject areas, he came into the category "Miscellaneous". The authors, initially roughly classified, were sorted alphabetically within these thematic classification groups and each presented with a short biography. Within the author's entries, their works were listed together with a "review" above. Since the ancient writings mostly had no fixed, clearly fixed titles, but started directly with the text and the authorship was often unclear, the first words of the text were used for identification during cataloging . It is not known whether the arrangement of the scrolls spatially followed this system. A papyrus from the 3rd century BC. Is instructive for a knowledge of the method introduced by Callimachus.

According to the sources, the newly arriving scrolls were registered in the following way before they were placed in the library: To distinguish between different copies of the same work, the place where the copy was acquired was recorded, the name of the previous owner, the author of the font, if applicable also commentators, publishers, or proofreaders and whether the scroll was mixed or not; The last thing that followed was the indication of how many lines the role comprised.

The daughter library in the Serapeion

Remains of the Serapeion
Theophilos stands triumphantly on the Serapeion (late antique book illustration)

A smaller library, later also called "daughter", was probably built by Ptolemy III. founded. It was housed - in the tradition of Egyptian temple libraries - in the Temple of Serapis , which was located on a hill above the city. The temple and library were in the Egyptian district of Rakotis. For this reason, research assigns the subsidiary library to the tradition of the Egyptian temple libraries. It probably served the cultural integration of the locals living there. According to an ancient report, it was equipped with 42,800 scrolls. In part, it may have been duplicates that had been removed from the parent library. The library in the Serapeion was probably open to the educated public, at least at times. The Serapeion has been excavated since the 1940s; an attempt was made to identify the library rooms, but this is not guaranteed.

The temple and library were completely destroyed in 391. This happened in the context of the violent conflicts in which the Christian empire, in this case Emperor Theodosius I , as well as the state and church authorities of Alexandria faced the pagan part of the population. In 391 the then Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilos , ordered the destruction of the Serapeion, which had become a center of pagan cults and scholarship. The previous conflict and probably also the destruction itself were accompanied by bloody riots and looting. Theophilos had a Christian church built on the site of the temple.

history

Among the Ptolemies

Ptolemy I , early 3rd century BC BC, today in the Louvre

After the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great , Alexandria was founded as a Macedonian-Greek foundation from 331 BC. Was built as a planned city . The former general Ptolemy I took over rule of Egypt soon after the death of Alexander (323 BC). As a result, he endeavored to take foreign and domestic political measures to strengthen his legitimacy. The establishment of the Museion and the collection of the first writings, if not the construction of the library, probably took place during his reign, possibly between 290 and 282 BC. This view has prevailed in modern research, although numerous sources report that the library was only founded by his successor Ptolemy II.

Ancient reports suggest that the Museion and the library were in the tradition of the Athens philosophical schools of Plato and especially Aristotle , which were also dedicated to the Muses and had libraries. Strabon's assertion that Aristotle himself instructed the “kings of Egypt” regarding library regulations is incorrect, if only for reasons of time, since Aristotle as early as 322 BC. BC, a year after Alexander the great, died, but there was an indirect influence through the politician and philosopher Demetrios of Phaleron , who had belonged to the school of Aristotle in Athens . According to numerous ancient testimonies, Demetrios played a decisive role in the development of the Alexandrian library. However, for political reasons he was banished from Alexandria soon after the death of Ptolemy I.

It is possible that the Museion drew not only on the philosophy schools of Athens, but also on the traditions of Egyptian temples. As at temples, a cultic-religious and at the same time scientifically oriented community was employed in the Museion, which was supposed to serve deities (the Muses), headed by a priest and whose members were exempt from tax.

For the time after Ptolemy III. Little information is available. Above all, it is unclear whether the library's holdings continued to increase after the death of this ruler. Around 145 BC After his accession to the throne, Ptolemy VIII is said to have expelled the scholars, including the prince tutor and head of the library Aristarchus of Samothrace, from Museion and the library as well as from Alexandria. Historians suggest that in the 2nd century BC Domestic and foreign political conflicts displaced interest in the sciences and the library. The heyday of the library and the museion could therefore be from the beginning of the 3rd to the middle of the 2nd century BC. Begin.

The assumption that the library was in 48 BC Burned down in the course of the Alexandrian War is probably wrong. It has been proven that it existed later, and above all, for a number of reasons, it is unlikely that the fire that Caesar started in the harbor also reached the library. Neither in the writings of Caesar nor in Strabo or Cicero is mentioned anything corresponding. It is probably a legend that first emerged in the 1st century AD, because the first authors to mention a fire in the library are Seneca († 65) and Plutarch († around 125). Seneca, however, speaks of a fire of only 40,000 scrolls, and Plutarch's claim that the fire caused by Caesar reached the library is hardly credible. Only Aulus Gellius claims in the 2nd century that 700,000 scrolls were burned. An essential factor is the likely great distance - possibly about half a kilometer - between the port where the fire was set for military-tactical reasons and the library. If the fire had actually spread that far, a large part of the city with important monuments would also have been on fire, of which nothing is reported. If scrolls were burnt at all at that time, it was probably those that were not in the library, but were temporarily stored as merchandise at the port.

Occasionally, however, there are different judgments in recent research. According to a meteorological analysis, William J. Cherf sees potential for the start of a major fire in the city during the time of Caesar's military action, and Heinz-Günther Nesselrath does not want to rule out that at least part of the library was damaged. Mostafa El-Abbadi and, in a joint publication, Monica Berti and Virgilio Costa advocate destruction.

Under the Romans

Inscription of Tiberius Claudius Balbillus , head of the library under Emperor Claudius, from Ephesus

Even for the time after the Romans came to power in Egypt in 30 BC. When Alexandria came under Roman rule, the tradition is poor. What is certain is that the library and Museion continued to exist for a long time and that Alexandria remained an important center of science in Roman times.

According to Suetonius, a Roman historian of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, Emperor Claudius had the Museion expanded so that his own works could be accommodated and recited there. However, since the older holdings were already exposed to decay and large amounts of scrolls had to be copied, but nothing certain about a fixed budget of the same size has come down to us, it is to be expected that a slow decline of the library had already begun.

In contrast to the Hellenistic period, in which the Museion was a combination of scientific-literary and religious-cultic activity, the business was probably secularized under Roman rule. The teaching activity at the Museion developed more in the sense of a university-like teaching operation. The sources report a few trivialities, such as the fact that under Emperor Domitian, after earlier fire in Rome's libraries, scribes were sent to Alexandria to copy books for Rome. Legend has it that Mark Antony gave away 200,000 scrolls from the Pergamon library to Cleopatra VII and the Alexandrian library.

Emperor Hadrian visited the Museion personally and appointed several new members over time. It is possible that his successors Antoninus Pius and Mark Aurel also acted similarly. The massacre that the Emperor Caracalla , who was present in Alexandria for a few months in 215/216, caused a turning point among the city's population. In addition, he is said to have deprived the Museion and its members of some privileges due to Aristotelian tendencies.

On the basis of finds in the palace district, Jean-Yves Empereur believes that the district including the library was destroyed in the second half of the 3rd century. In addition, reports from the 4th century suggest this and, above all, that Alexandria experienced several wars, sieges and conquests in the 3rd century. The Roman emperors Caracalla, Aurelian and Diocletian , each of whom caused significant damage to the city of Alexandria, can be considered responsible for the destruction of the library .

Some researchers put the end of the library in 272, although the Museion and the library in the Serapeion continued to exist after that. According to this, the city walls were razed in the year 272 and most of the palace district called Bruchion , including the Museion, was destroyed when the Romans under Emperor Aurelian recaptured the city, which had been ruled by the Palmyrenes for about two years . The fact that Alexandria remained an important educational center in late antiquity has been cited against destruction in the 3rd century . The last scientist at the Museion is the astronomer and mathematician Theon of Alexandria, who died in 405 .

Roger Bagnall is considering a prolonged decline of the library. Instead of spectacular destruction, the rulers would have lost interest in maintaining a large and widely known library, in line with a new zeitgeist. Above all, the effort involved in copying large quantities of old and already decaying writings over and over again could have resulted in the holdings in the library being left to their fate. According to another assumption, after the Romans came to power, the former private library of the Ptolemaic rulers became a public institution of the Roman province.

Among the Arabs

In the course of the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642, the city of Alexandria was also taken. Generally referred to the realm of legend is the tradition that the Arabs destroyed the library in the process. A tendentious legend, probably invented late, says that the Arab general ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs , who conquered Egypt, asked the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab how to proceed with regard to the library, whereupon the latter ordered its destruction. The caliph justified this by stating that those books whose content complies with the Koran are superfluous and those that contradict the Koran are undesirable. The manuscripts were then used to heat public baths. This story has been controversial since the 18th century at the latest; modern research assumes that legends were formed in the early 13th century.

It is possible that Arab scholars had access to some of the books in the former great library or the library in the Serapeion, which had survived the turmoil. The works of well-known Greek authors could, however, have become known to the Islamic scholars through private or other collections of writings.

reception

Classical Studies

Despite the small amount of reliable information about the library, it has always been admired by countless researchers, writers and artists as an ideal-typical place of comprehensive knowledge and viewed as a symbol of its transience. In the course of this, the ancient reports about the library were often decorated, open questions were answered with speculative assumptions.

The reputation of a huge library already arose in antiquity, which resulted in euphoric reports such as those of Aulus Gellius and Athenaios as early as the 2nd century . In the age of Renaissance humanism , this image was adopted for modern times. From 1776 to 1789, the historian Edward Gibbon published his monumental work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , in which he addressed the subject and spoke out against destruction by the Arabs. Modern academic research into the library began in 1823 with a publication by Gerhard Dedel and has since produced numerous books and essays. The main unanswered questions have always been exactly where the library should be located and whether it was destroyed by the fire set during the Alexandrian War.

In 1952, the American Edward Alexander Parsons wrote an extensive monograph. In 1986 Luciano Canfora's bestseller on the ancient library appeared. The main part of the book consists of literary fictions mixed with facts. In a second part, the philologist Canfora goes into the ancient sources and the state of research. The work has been reprinted many times and translated into a number of languages. Four years later, the Egyptian historian Mostafa El-Abbadi wrote another extensive work. Since then, essays have mainly appeared on the subject.

In 2002 the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina was opened, which, according to its self-image and mission, is to tie in with the ancient library of Alexandria.

Fiction, film and other references

Apart from research, the fate of the library is addressed in numerous works of fiction, for example by Steve Berry , Clive Cussler , Denis Guedj and Jean-Pierre Luminet .

In the American monumental film Cleopatra , produced in 1963, the fire in the library allegedly caused by Caesar is shown on film. In the following scene Cleopatra accuses Caesar of behaving like a barbarian. The film Agora - Die Säulen des Himmels , produced in 2009, is largely set against the backdrop of the Serapeion, and the destruction of the subsidiary library there is also shown.

The manufacturer chose Alexa as the activation word for the Amazon Echo digital assistant - in homage to the Alexandria library.

References to the legendary library are also made in the film series The Quest by telling that "The Library" is based on the Alexandrian library.

literature

reference books

Monographs and edited volumes

  • Monica Berti, Virgilio Costa: La Biblioteca di Alessandria. Storia di un paradiso perduto . (= Ricerche di filologia, letteratura e storia. Vol. 10). Edizioni Tored, Rome 2010, ISBN 978-88-88617-34-3 .
  • Luciano Canfora : The missing library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Rotbuch, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-88022-026-3 .
  • Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. UNESCO , Paris 1990, ISBN 92-3-102632-1 .
  • Mostafa El-Abbadi, Omnia Mounir Fathallah (Ed.): What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? Brill, Leiden 2008, ISBN 978-90-04-16545-8 .
  • Edward A. Parsons: The Alexandrian Library. Cleaver-Hume Press, London 1952.

Essays

  • Roger S. Bagnall : Alexandria. Library of Dreams. In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 146, No. 4, 2002, pp. 348-362 ( PDF; 1.2 MB ).
  • Robert Barnes: Cloistered Bookworms in the Chicken-Coop of the Muses. The Ancient Library of Alexandria. In: Roy MacLeod (Ed.): The Library of Alexandria. Center of Learning in the Ancient World. Tauris, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-85043-594-5 , pp. 61-78.
  • Monica Berti, Virgilio Costa: The Ancient Library of Alexandria. A Model for Classical Scholarship in the Age of Million Book Libraries. In: Orbis Terrarum. Essays in Scholarship and Technology. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Scaife Digital Library. Lexington, Kentucky, March 13, 2009 (in press) ( preprint; PDF; 223 kB ).
  • Heinz-Günther Nesselrath : The Museion and the Great Library of Alexandria. In: Tobias Georges u. a. (Ed.): Alexandria (= Civitatum Orbis Mediterranei Studia. Vol. 1). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-16-151673-3 , pp. 65–90.
  • Cécile Orru: A Flame Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Hrsg.): Ancient libraries. Von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2846-X , pp. 31-38.
  • Heather Phillips: The Great Library of Alexandria? In: Library Philosophy and Practice. 2010, ISSN  1522-0222 ( online ).
  • Angelika Zdiarsky: Librarian considerations on the library of Alexandria. In: Elke Blumenthal , Wolfgang Schmitz (Hrsg.): Libraries in antiquity. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-447-06406-4 , pp. 161-172.

Web links

Commons : Library of Alexandria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, p. 78; Angelika Zdiarsky: Librarian considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, pp. 162 and 166.
  2. ^ Galenus , In Hippocratis epidemiarum librum tertium commentarius and Commentarius in Hippocratis librum De natura hominis .
  3. ↑ In the Prolegomena to his Scholien zu Aristophanes , which are available in different text versions. See also Rudolf Blum: Callimachos. The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography. University of Wisconsin Press, 1991, pp. 104-105.
  4. ^ Robert Barnes: Cloistered Bookworms in the Chicken-Coop of the Muses. The Ancient Library of Alexandria. 2010, p. 64; Luciano Canfora: The missing library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Rotbuch, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-88022-456-0 , p. 177 f.
  5. ^ Uwe Jochum: Small library history. 2007, p. 34.
  6. ↑ Strabo, Geographica 17,1,8.
  7. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 353.
  8. ^ Jean-Yves Empereur: The Destruction of the Library of Alexandria. At the Archaeological Viewpoint. In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 75–88, here: pp. 77–80 and 88.
  9. ↑ See for example Luciano Canfora: The Disappeared Library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. , Berlin 1998, pp. 83-86 and 134-138; Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: The Museion and the Great Library of Alexandria. 2013, p. 76.
  10. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 166 f.
  11. ↑ Cécile Orru: A Flames Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 35.
  12. ↑ Inge Nielsen u. a .: library. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 634-647, here: 634.
  13. ^ Robert Barnes: Cloistered Bookworms in the Chicken-Coop of the Muses. The Ancient Library of Alexandria. 2010, p. 68.
  14. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 169.
  15. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 167.
  16. ↑ Cécile Orru: A Flames Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 31; Angelika Zdiarsky: Librarian considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 168 f.
  17. ↑ Cécile Orru: A Flames Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 32.
  18. ↑ Seneca's number of 40,000 scrolls only relates to 47 BC. Stocks burned; Seneca, De tranquillitate animi 9.5.
  19. ↑ ZB Uwe Jochum: Small library history. 2007, pp. 26-28; Horst Blanck : The book in antiquity. Beck, Munich 1992, p. 140; Robert Barnes: Cloistered Bookworms in the Chicken-Coop of the Muses. The Ancient Library of Alexandria. 2010, p. 64 f .; Michael Lapidge: The Anglo-Saxon Library. Oxford 2005, p. 8.
  20. ↑ Uwe Jochum: Small Library History (=  Reclams Universal Library . No. 17667 ). 4th edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-15-017667-2 , pp. 26 .
  21. ↑ Rudolf Blum: Callimachos. The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography. University of Wisconsin Press, 1991, pp. 107 and 120 (note 53).
  22. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, pp. 353-356.
  23. ↑ Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: The Museion and the great library of Alexandria. 2013, p. 77.
  24. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 358 f.
  25. ↑ Cécile Orru: A Flames Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 31.
  26. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 167 f.
  27. ↑ 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.
  28. ^ Galenos, In Hippocratis epidemiarum librum tertium commentarius 2,4 (= Edition Kühn 17,1, p. 606).
  29. ^ Galenos, In Hippocratis epidemiarum librum tertium commentarius 2,4 (= Edition Kühn 17,1, p. 607).
  30. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 168.
  31. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 353 f.
  32. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 167.
  33. ^ Galenos, In Hippocratis epidemiarum librum tertium commentarius 2,4 (= Edition Kühn 17,1, p. 606 f.)
  34. ↑ a b c d Cécile Orru: A robbery of the flames? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 33.
  35. ↑ Günther Burkard u. a .: library. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Col. 639 ff .; Cécile Orru: A Flame Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 34.
  36. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 164 f.
  37. ↑ Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1241.
  38. ↑ Cécile Orru: A Flames Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 33.
  39. ↑ Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae 172; z. B. in: Wilhelm Dittenberger (Ed.): Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae . 2 volumes, Leipzig 1903–1905 (reprint Hildesheim 1986).
  40. ↑ Papyrus Merton 19.
  41. ↑ Luciano Canfora: The Vanished Library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Rotbuch, Berlin 1998, p. 186.
  42. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 360; Angelika Zdiarsky: Librarian considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 172.
  43. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 34.
  44. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 360 f.
  45. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 356.
  46. ↑ Papyrus Vindobonensis G 40611.
  47. ↑ ZB Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 171.
  48. ↑ Cécile Orru: A Flames Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, p. 33; Angelika Zdiarsky: Librarian considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 170.
  49. ^ Epiphanios , De mensuris et ponderibus 11.
  50. ↑ See for example Robert Barnes: Cloistered Bookworms in the Chicken-Coop of the Muses. The Ancient Library of Alexandria. 2010, p. 68; Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, p. 91.
  51. ↑ Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, p. 74 f.
  52. ↑ Johannes Tzetzes in the Prolegomena on his Scholien zu Aristophanes, which are available in different text versions. See also Rudolf Blum: Callimachos. The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography. University of Wisconsin Press, 1991, pp. 104-105.
  53. ↑ Angelika Zdiarsky: Library considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 165; Konrad Vössing : library. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 641.
  54. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 358; Michael Sabottka: The Serapeum in Alexandria. Studies on the architecture and building history of the sanctuary from the early Ptolemaic period to the destruction in AD 391. Cairo 2008, ISBN 978-2-7247-0471-6 .
  55. ↑ Mostafa A. El-Abbadi: Demise of the Daughter Library. In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 89–94, here: pp. 89 and 93.
  56. ↑ Plutarch, Apophthegmata regum et imperatorum 189 D; Eusebius , Historia Ecclesiastica 5,8,11.
  57. ↑ Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 5,203e; Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 5,8,11; Epiphanios, De mensuris et ponderibus 9; 10; see Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, pp. 79-82; Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, pp. 349-351; Angelika Zdiarsky: Librarian considerations on the library of Alexandria. 2011, p. 163.
  58. ↑ Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, p. 84 f .; Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: The Museion and the Great Library of Alexandria. 2013, p. 67 f.
  59. ^ Strabo, Geographica 13,608.
  60. ↑ Pseudo-Aristeas in Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 8,2,350a; 8,3,422; Flavius ​​Josephus , Antiquitates Judaicae 12:12; Tertullian , Apologeticum 18.5; Epiphanios, De mensuris et ponderibus 9; Claudius Aelianus , Varia historia 3.17.
  61. ^ Monica Berti, Virgilio Costa: The Ancient Library of Alexandria. A Model for Classical Scholarship in the Age of Million Book Libraries. 2009, p. 6 f.
  62. ^ Fayza M. Haikal: Private Collections and Temple Libraries in Ancient Egypt. In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 39–54, here: pp. 52–54.
  63. ^ Cf. Monica Berti, Virgilio Costa: The Ancient Library of Alexandria. A Model for Classical Scholarship in the Age of Million Book Libraries. 2009, p. 3.
  64. ↑ Book system. In: Hatto H. Schmitt , Ernst Vogt : Lexicon of Hellenism. Wiesbaden 2005, Col. 212-217, here: Col. 215.
  65. ^ Robert Barnes: Cloistered Bookworms in the Chicken-Coop of the Muses. The Ancient Library of Alexandria. 2010, p. 63.
  66. ↑ Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: The Museion and the great library of Alexandria. 2013, p. 79.
  67. ↑ Luciano Canfora: The Vanished Library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Berlin 1998, pp. 77 f., 88 and 138-140; Jean-Yves Empereur: The Destruction of the Library of Alexandria. At the Archaeological Viewpoint. In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 75–88, here: p. 76.
  68. ↑ Seneca, De tranquilitate 9.5.
  69. ↑ Plutarch: Life of Caesar 49.
  70. ↑ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 7, 17.
  71. ↑ Cécile Orru: A Flames Rape? The Royal Library of Alexandria. 2002, pp. 34-37.
  72. ↑ William J. Cherf: Earth, Wind, and Fire: The Alexandrian Fire-storm of 48 BC In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 55–74, here: pp. 72 f.
  73. ↑ Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: The Museion and the great library of Alexandria. 2013, p. 85.
  74. ↑ Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, pp. 146-154.
  75. ^ Monica Berti, Virgilio Costa: La Biblioteca di Alessandria. Storia di un paradiso perduto. 2010, p. 183 f.
  76. ↑ See for example Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 357 f.
  77. ^ Suetonius, Claudius 42.
  78. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 359.
  79. ↑ Both Zdiarsky (p. 164) and Haikal (Fayza M. Haikal: Private Collections and Temple Libraries in Ancient Egypt. In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 39–54, here: pp. 52 f. ) adopt this view from Peter M. Fraser : Ptolemaic Alexandria. Vol. 1, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1972, p. 313. See also Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, p. 88 f.
  80. ↑ Suetonius, Domitian 20; Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 357.
  81. ^ Plutarch, Marcus Antonius 58.
  82. ↑ Cassius Dio , Roman History 78,7,3; Heinz-Günther Nesselrath: The Museion and the Great Library of Alexandria. 2013, pp. 86-88.
  83. ^ Jean-Yves Empereur: The Destruction of the Library of Alexandria. At the Archaeological Viewpoint. In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 75-88, here: pp. 86-88.
  84. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 356 f.
  85. ↑ Günther Burkard u. a .: library. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 639 ff ..; Uwe Jochum: Short library history. 2007, p. 37; Robert Barnes: Cloistered Bookworms in the Chicken-Coop of the Muses. The Ancient Library of Alexandria. 2010, p. 73; Luciano Canfora: The missing library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Rotbuch, Berlin 1998, p. 186.
  86. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus , Res gestae 22, 16, 15; Hieronymus , chronicum Ol. 262 (= 272 AD)
  87. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 359 f.
  88. ↑ Luciano Canfora: The Vanished Library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Rotbuch, Berlin 1998, p. 82.
  89. ^ Jean-Yves Empereur: The Destruction of the Library of Alexandria. At the Archaeological Viewpoint. In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 75–88, here: p. 75.
  90. ^ Bernard Lewis : The Vanished Library. In: The New York Review of Books. Volume 37, Issue 14, 1990 ( online ); Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, pp. 167-178.
  91. ↑ Bojana Mojsov: Alexandria Lost. From the Advent of Christianity to the Arab Conquest. London 2010, p. 116 f. Mostafa El-Abbadi reports in detail on the Arab history of Alexandria in this context: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990, pp. 179-189.
  92. ^ Monica Berti, Virgilio Costa: The Ancient Library of Alexandria. A Model for Classical Scholarship in the Age of Million Book Libraries. 2009, p. 1 f.
  93. ^ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 7, 17, 3.
  94. ↑ Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 5,203e.
  95. ^ Roger S. Bagnall: Alexandria. Library of Dreams. 2002, p. 361.
  96. ↑ Luciano Canfora: The Vanished Library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. , Berlin 1998, pp. 113-117.
  97. ^ Gerhard Dedel: Historia critica bibliothecae Alexandrinae. Leiden 1823.
  98. ↑ William J. Cherf: Earth, Wind, and Fire: The Alexandrian Fire-storm of 48 BC In: What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? 2008, pp. 55–74, here: pp. 55 f.
  99. ^ Edward A. Parsons: The Alexandrian Library. London 1952.
  100. ↑ Luciano Canfora: La biblioteca scomparsa. Palermo 1986.
  101. ↑ Mostafa El-Abbadi: The life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 1990.
  102. ^ About the Library. Overview , library homepage, accessed April 20, 2014.
  103. ↑ Steve Berry: The Alexandria link: a novel. New York 2007.
  104. ↑ Clive Cussler: Treasure: a novel. New York 1988.
  105. ↑ Denis Guedj: Les Cheveux de Bérénice. Paris 2003.
  106. ^ Jean-Pierre Luminet: Le Bâton d'Euclide: le roman de la bibliothèque d'Alexandrie. Paris 2002.
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