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Jul 25, 2023 · The Library of Alexandria was established under the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt (323-30 BCE) and flourished under the patronage of the early kings to become the most famous library of the ancient world, attracting scholars from around the Mediterranean, and making Alexandria the preeminent intellectual center of its time until its decline after ...
- Joshua J. Mark
- The Library of Alexandria was a universal library established during the reign of Ptolemy I of Egypt to house all the books ever written and create...
- The Library of Alexandria was established during the reign of Ptolemy I of Egypt (323-282 BCE) and was built by Ptolemy II (282-246 BCE).
- The Library of Alexandria flourished between 323-145 BCE when it was funded by the rulers of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. It began to decline after Ptole...
- The Library of Alexandria declined through lack of patronage by the later kings of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and uneven patronage by the emperors of Ro...
Oct 31, 2023 · Islam Issa’s Alexandria: The City That Changed The World – our book of the month for November 2023 – is a wide-ranging and sweeping biography of this ancient and iconic city, taking readers on a journey across millennia. Situated on the cusp of Africa, Europe and Asia, together, Greeks and Egyptians, Romans and Jews created a global ...
- Amy Irvine
The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. [10] The idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed ...
- Overview
- The hunt for books
Library of Alexandria, the most famous library of Classical antiquity. It formed part of the research institute at Alexandria in Egypt that is known as the Alexandrian Museum (Mouseion, “shrine of the Muses”).
Libraries and archives were known to many ancient civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece, but the earliest such institutions were of a local and regional nature, primarily concerned with the conservation of their own particular traditions and heritage. The idea of a universal library, like that of Alexandria, arose only after the Greek mind had begun to envisage and encompass a larger worldview. The Greeks were impressed by the achievements of their neighbours, and many Greek intellectuals sought to explore the resources of their knowledge. 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).
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. His aim throughout had not been restricted to conquering lands as far from Macedonia as India but had been to also explore them. He required his companions, generals, and scholars to report to him in detail on regions previously unmapped and uncharted. His campaigns resulted in a “considerable addition of empirical knowledge of geography,” as Eratosthenes remarked (as reported by Greek geographer Strabo). 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 time was pregnant with a new spirit that engendered a renaissance of human culture. It was in that atmosphere that the great library and Mouseion saw the light of day in Alexandria.
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. 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. Ptolemy soon took advantage of Demetrius’s wide and versatile knowledge and, about 295 bce, charged him with the task of founding the library and the Mouseion.
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Fabulous stories circulated about the lengths to which the Ptolemies would go in their avid hunt for books. One method to which they reportedly resorted was to search every ship that sailed into the harbour of Alexandria. 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). Books acquired in that manner were designated “from the ships.”
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. The precious texts were safeguarded in the Athenian state archives and were not allowed to be lent out. The king, however, persuaded the governors of Athens to permit him to borrow them in order to have them copied. The enormous sum of 15 talents of silver was deposited in Athens as a pledge for their safe restitution. The king thereupon kept the originals and sent back copies, willingly forfeiting the pledge.
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. Occasionally, the library’s collectors bought different versions of the same work—for example, in the Homeric texts that came “from Chios,” “from Sinope,” and “from Massilia.”
Of languages other than Greek, Egyptian had the largest section. Ptolemy I is said to have encouraged Egyptian priests to accumulate records of their past tradition and heritage and to render them available for use by Greek scholars and men of letters whom he had invited to live in Egypt. Best-known examples from each group were the Egyptian priest Manetho, who had good command of Greek, and the Greek author Hecataeus of Abdera.
- Mostafa El-Abbadi
The history of Alexandria dates back to the city's founding, by Alexander the Great, in 331 BC. [1] Yet, before that, there were some big port cities just east of Alexandria, at the western edge of what is now Abu Qir Bay. The Canopic (westernmost) branch of the Nile Delta still existed at that time, and was widely used for shipping.
The fate of the Library of Alexandria. The fate of that great wealth of books remains provocative and controversial. For centuries the main point of contention was whether or not the library (or libraries—as two sites existed) survived until the Arab conquest of Alexandria in the 7th century. In the 21st century, however, the topic has cooled ...
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The loss of the ancient world's single greatest archive of knowledge, the Library of Alexandria, has been lamented for ages. But how and why it was lost is still a mystery. The mystery exists not for lack of suspects but from an excess of them. Alexandria was founded in Egypt by Alexander the Great. However, it was his successor as Pharaoh ...
