Library of alexandria

1. Library of Alexandria
Nineteenth century artistic rendering
of the Library of Alexandria by the
German artist O. Von Corven, based
partially on the archaeological
evidence available at that time[1]
Country Ptolemaic Kingdom
Type National library
Established Probably during the
reign of Ptolemy II
Philadelphus (285–246
BC)[2][3]
Location Alexandria, Egypt
Collection
Items
collected
Any written works[4][5]
Size Estimates vary;
somewhere between
40,000 and 400,000
scrolls,[6] perhaps
equivalent to roughly
100,000 books[7]
Other information
Staff Estimated to have
Library of Alexandria
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 by Demetrius of
Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to Ptolemy I
Soter, who may have established plans for the Library, but the Library itself
was probably not built until the reign of his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
The Library quickly acquired a large number of papyrus scrolls, due largely
to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring
texts. It is unknown precisely how many such scrolls were housed at any
given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height.
Alexandria came to be regarded as the capital of knowledge and learning, in
part because of the Great Library.[11] Many important and influential
scholars worked at the Library during the third and second centuries BC,
including, among many others: Zenodotus of Ephesus, who worked
towards standardizing the texts of the Homeric poems; Callimachus, who
wrote the Pinakes, sometimes considered to be the world's first library
catalogue; Apollonius of Rhodes, who composed the epic poem the
Argonautica; Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who calculated the circumference of
the earth within a few hundred kilometers of accuracy; Aristophanes of
Byzantium, who invented the system of Greek diacritics and was the first to
divide poetic texts into lines; and Aristarchus of Samothrace, who produced
the definitive texts of the Homeric poems as well as extensive
commentaries on them. During the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes, a
daughter library was established in the Serapeum, a temple to the Greco-
Egyptian god Serapis.
Despite the widespread modern belief that the Library was burned once
and cataclysmically destroyed, the Library actually declined gradually over
the course of several centuries, starting with the purging of intellectuals
from Alexandria in 145 BC during the reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon, which
resulted in Aristarchus of Samothrace, the head librarian, resigning from
his position and exiling himself to Cyprus. Many other scholars, including
Dionysius Thrax and Apollodorus of Athens, fled to other cities, where they
continued teaching and conducting scholarship. The Library, or part of its
collection, was accidentally burned by Julius Caesar during his civil war in
48 BC, but it is unclear how much was actually destroyed and it seems to

2. employed over 100
scholars at its
height[8][9]
have either survived or been rebuilt shortly thereafter; the geographer
Strabo mentions having visited the Mouseion in around 20 BC and the
prodigious scholarly output of Didymus Chalcenterus in Alexandria from
this period indicates that he had access to at least some of the Library's
resources.
The Library dwindled during the Roman Period, due to lack of funding and support. Its membership appears to have
ceased by the 260s AD. Between 270 and 275 AD, the city of Alexandria saw a rebellion and an imperial counterattack
that probably destroyed whatever remained of the Library, if it still existed at that time. The daughter library of the
Serapeum may have survived after the main Library's destruction. The Serapeum was vandalized and demolished in 391
AD under a decree issued by Coptic Christian Pope Theophilus of Alexandria, but it does not seem to have housed books
at the time and was mainly used as a gathering place for Neoplatonist philosophers following the teachings of Iamblichus.
Historical background
Under Ptolemaic patronage
Founding
Early expansion and organization
Early scholarship
Later scholarship and expansion
Peak of literary criticism
Decline
After Ptolemy VIII's expulsions
Burning by Julius Caesar
Roman Period and destruction
Successors to the Mouseion
Serapeum
School of Theon and Hypatia
Later schools and libraries in Alexandria
Collection
Legacy
In antiquity
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
See also
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Contents

3. The Library of Alexandria was not the first library of its
kind.[12][3] A long tradition of libraries existed in both
Greece and in the ancient Near East.[13][3] The earliest
recorded archive of written materials comes from the
ancient Sumerian city-state of Uruk in around 3400
BC, when writing had only just begun to develop.[14]
Scholarly curation of literary texts began in around
2500 BC.[14] The later kingdoms and empires of the
ancient Near East had long traditions of book
collecting.[15][3] The ancient Hittites and Assyrians had
massive archives containing records written in many
different languages.[15] The most famous library of the
ancient Near East was the Library of Ashurbanipal in
Nineveh, founded in the seventh century BC by the
Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (ruled 668–c. 627
BC).[14][3] A large library also existed in Babylon
during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 605–c. 562
BC).[15] In Greece, the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos was
said to have founded the first major public library in the sixth century BC.[16] It was out of this mixed heritage of both
Greek and Near Eastern book collections that the idea for the Library of Alexandria was born.[17][3]
The Macedonian kings who succeeded Alexander the Great as rulers of the Near East wanted to promote Hellenistic
culture and learning throughout the known world.[18] Historian Roy MacLeod calls this "a programme of cultural
imperialism".[4] These rulers therefore had a vested interest to collect and compile information from both the Greeks and
from the far more ancient kingdoms of the Near East.[18] Libraries enhanced a city's prestige, attracted scholars, and
provided practical assistance in matters of ruling and governing the kingdom.[4][19] Eventually, for these reasons, every
major Hellenistic urban center would have a royal library.[4][20] The Library of Alexandria, however, was unprecedented
due to the scope and scale of the Ptolemies' ambitions;[4][21] unlike their predecessors and contemporaries, the Ptolemies
wanted to produce a repository of all knowledge.[4][5]
The Library was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world, but details about it are a mixture of
history and legend.[17] The earliest known surviving source of information on the founding of the Library of Alexandria is
the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas, which was composed between c. 180 and c. 145 BC.[22][23][15] The Letter of
Aristeas claims that the Library was founded during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (c. 323–c. 283 BC) and that it was
initially organized by Demetrius of Phalerum, a student of Aristotle who had been exiled from Athens and taken refuge in
Historical background
A Hellenistic bust depicting
Ptolemy I Soter, 3rd
century BC, the Louvre,
Paris
A Roman copy of an original
3rd century BC Greek bust
depicting Alexander the Great,
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
Copenhagen
Under Ptolemaic patronage
Founding

4. Alexandria within the Ptolemaic court.[23][15][24] Nonetheless, the Letter of Aristeas is very late and it contains
information that is now known to be inaccurate.[23] Other sources claim that the Library was instead created under the
reign of Ptolemy I's son Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283–246 BC).[3]
Modern scholars agree that, while it is possible that Ptolemy I may have laid the groundwork for the Library, it probably
did not come into being as a physical institution until the reign of Ptolemy II.[23] By that time, Demetrius of Phalerum
had fallen out of favor with the Ptolemaic court and could not, therefore, have had any role in establishing the Library as
an institution.[2] Stephen V. Tracy, however, argues that it is highly probable
that Demetrius played an important role in collecting at least some of the
earliest texts that would later become part of the Library's collection.[2] In
around 295 BC or thereabouts, Demetrius may have acquired early texts of
the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus, which he would have been
uniquely positioned to do, since he was a distinguished member of the
Peripatetic school.[25]
The Library was built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) as part of the
Mouseion.[26][a] Its main purpose was to show off the wealth of Egypt, with
research as a lesser goal,[22] but its contents were used to aid the ruler of
Egypt.[28] The exact layout of the library is not known, but ancient sources
describe the Library of Alexandria as comprising a collection of scrolls, Greek
columns, a peripatos walk, a room for shared dining, a reading room,
meeting rooms, gardens, and lecture halls, creating a model for the modern
university campus.[29] A hall contained shelves for the collections of papyrus
scrolls known as bibliothekai (βιβλιοθῆκαι). According to popular
description, an inscription above the shelves read: "The place of the cure of
the soul."[30]
The Ptolemaic rulers intended the Library to be a collection of all
knowledge[28] and they worked to expand the Library's collections through
an aggressive and well-funded policy of book purchasing.[32] They dispatched
royal agents with large amounts of money and ordered them to purchase and collect as many texts as they possibly could,
about any subject and by any author.[32] Older copies of texts were favored over newer ones, since it was assumed that
older copies had undergone less copying and that they were therefore more likely to more closely resemble what the
original author had written.[32] This program involved trips to the book fairs of Rhodes and Athens.[33] According to the
Greek medical writer Galen, under the decree of Ptolemy II, any books found on ships that came into port were taken to
the library, where they were copied by official scribes.[34][3][35][8][19] The original texts were kept in the library, and the
copies delivered to the owners.[34][9][8][19] The Library particularly focused on acquiring manuscripts of the Homeric
poems, which were the foundation of Greek education and revered above all other poems.[36] The Library therefore
acquired many different manuscripts of these poems, tagging each copy with a label to indicate where it had come
from.[36]
Bust excavated at the Villa of the
Papyri depicting Ptolemy II
Philadelphus, who is believed to
have been the one to establish the
Library as an actual institution,
although plans for it may have been
developed by his father Ptolemy I
Soter[2]
Early expansion and organization

5. In addition to collecting works from the past, the
Mouseion which housed the Library also served as home
to a host of international scholars, poets, philosophers,
and researchers, who, according to the first-century BC
Greek geographer Strabo, were provided with a large
salary, free food and lodging, and exemption from
taxes.[37][38][39] They had a large, circular dining hall
with a high domed ceiling in which they ate meals
communally.[39] There were also numerous classrooms,
where the scholars were expected to at least occasionally
teach students.[39] Ptolemy II Philadelphus is said to have
had a keen interest in zoology, so it has been speculated
that the Mouseion may have even had a zoo for exotic
animals.[39] According to classical scholar Lionel Casson,
the idea was that if the scholars were completely freed
from all the burdens of everyday life they would be able to
devote more time to research and intellectual pursuits.[32]
Strabo called the group of scholars who lived at the
Mouseion a σύνοδος (synodos, "community").[39] As early as 283 BC, they may have numbered between thirty and fifty
learned men.[39]
The Library of Alexandria was not affiliated with any particular philosophical school and, consequently, scholars who
studied there had considerable academic freedom.[9] They were, however, subject to the authority of the king.[9] A
probably apocryphal story is told of a poet named Sotades who wrote an obscene epigram making fun of Ptolemy II for
marrying his sister Arsinoe II.[9] Ptolemy II is said to have jailed him and, after he escaped, sealed him in a lead jar and
dropped him into the sea.[9] As a religious center, the Mouseion was directed by a priest of the Muses known as an
epistates, who was appointed by the king in the same manner as the priests who managed the various Egyptian
temples.[40] The Library itself was directed by a scholar who served as head librarian, as well as tutor to the king's
son.[39][41][42][43]
The first recorded head librarian was Zenodotus of Ephesus (lived c. 325–c. 270 BC).[42][43] Zenodotus's main work was
devoted to the establishment of canonical texts for the Homeric poems and the early Greek lyric poets.[42][43] Most of
what is known about him comes from later commentaries that mention his preferred readings of particular passages.[42]
Zenodotus is known to have written a glossary of rare and unusual words, which was organized in alphabetical order,
making him the first person known to have employed alphabetical order as a method of organization.[43] Since the
collection at the Library of Alexandria seems to have been organized in alphabetical order by the first letter of the author's
name from very early, Casson concludes that it is highly probable that Zenodotus was the one who organized it in this
way.[43] Zenodotus's system of alphabetization, however, only used the first letter of the word[43] and it was not until the
second century AD that anyone is known to have applied the same method of alphabetization to the remaining letters of
the word.[43]
Map of ancient Alexandria. The Mouseion was located in
the royal Broucheion quarter (listed on this map as
"Bruchium") in the central part of the city near the Great
Harbor ("Portus Magnus" on the map).[31]
Early scholarship

6. Meanwhile, the scholar and poet Callimachus compiled the Pinakes, a 120-book catalogue of various authors and all their
known works.[42][41][9] The Pinakes has not survived, but enough references to it and fragments of it have survived to
allow scholars to reconstruct its basic structure.[44] The Pinakes was divided into multiple sections, each containing
entries for writers of a particular genre of literature.[9][44] The most basic division was between writers of poetry and
prose, with each section divided into smaller subsections.[44] Each section listed authors in alphabetical order.[45] Each
entry included the author's name, father's name, place of birth, and other brief biographical information, sometimes
including nicknames by which that author was known, followed by a complete list of all that author's known works.[45]
The entries for prolific authors such as Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Theophrastus must have been extremely
long, spanning multiple columns of text.[45] Although Callimachus did his most famous work at the Library of Alexandria,
he never held the position of head librarian there.[41][9] Callimachus's pupil Hermippus of Smyrna wrote biographies,
Philostephanus of Cyrene studied geography, and Istros (who may have also been from Cyrene) studied Attic
antiquities.[46] In addition to the Great Library, many other smaller libraries also began to spring up all around the city of
Alexandria.[9]
After Zenodotus either died or retired, Ptolemy II Philadelphus appointed
Apollonius of Rhodes (lived c. 295–c. 215 BC), a native of Alexandria and a
student of Callimachus, as the second head librarian of the Library of
Alexandria.[42][46][47] Philadelphus also appointed Apollonius of Rhodes as the
tutor to his son, the future Ptolemy III Euergetes.[46] Apollonius of Rhodes is
best known as the author of the Argonautica, an epic poem about the voyages of
Jason and the Argonauts, which has survived to the present in its complete
form.[48][47] The Argonautica displays Apollonius's vast knowledge of history
and literature and makes allusions to a vast array of events and texts, while
simultaneously imitating the style of the Homeric poems.[48] Some fragments of
his scholarly writings have also survived, but he is generally more famous today
as a poet than as a scholar.[42]
According to legend, during the librarianship of Apollonius, the mathematician
and inventor Archimedes (lived c. 287 –c. 212 BC) came to visit the Library of
Alexandria.[47] During his time in Egypt, Archimedes is said to have observed the rise and fall of the Nile, leading him to
invent the Archimedes' screw, which can be used to transport water from low-lying bodies into irrigation ditches.[47]
Archimedes later returned to Syracuse, where he continued making new inventions.[47]
According to two late and largely unreliable biographies, Apollonius was forced to resign from his position as head
librarian and moved to the island of Rhodes (after which he takes his name) on account of the hostile reception he
received in Alexandria to the first draft of his Argonautica.[49] It is more likely that Apollonius's resignation was on
account of Ptolemy III Euergetes's ascension to the throne in 246 BC.[48]
The third head librarian, Eratosthenes of Cyrene (lived c. 280–c. 194 BC), is best known today for his scientific works, but
he was also a literary scholar.[41][50][47] Eratosthenes's most important work was his treatise Geographika, which was
originally in three volumes.[51] The work itself has not survived, but many fragments of it are preserved through quotation
in the writings of the later geographer Strabo.[51] Eratosthenes was the first scholar to apply mathematics to geography
According to legend, the
Syracusan inventor Archimedes
invented the Archimedes' screw,
a pump for transporting water,
while studying at the Library of
Alexandria.[47]
Later scholarship and expansion

7. and map-making[52] and, in his treatise Concerning the Measurement of the Earth, he calculated the circumference of the
earth and was only off by less than a few hundred kilometers.[52][47][53] Eratosthenes also produced a map of the entire
known world, which incorporated information taken from sources held in the Library, including accounts of Alexander
the Great's campaigns in India and reports written by members of Ptolemaic elephant-hunting expeditions along the coast
of East Africa.[53]
Eratosthenes was the first person to advance geography
towards becoming a scientific discipline.[54] Eratosthenes
believed that the setting of the Homeric poems was purely
imaginary and argued that the purpose of poetry was "to
capture the soul", rather than to give a historically accurate
account of actual events.[51] Strabo quotes him as having
sarcastically commented, "a man might find the places of
Odysseus's wanderings if the day were to come when he would
find the leatherworker who stitched the goatskin of the
winds."[51] Meanwhile, other scholars at the Library of
Alexandria also displayed interest in scientific subjects.[55][56]
Bacchius of Tanagra, a contemporary of Eratosthenes, edited
and commented on the medical writings of the Hippocratic
Corpus.[55] The doctors Herophilus (lived c. 335–c. 280 BC)
and Erasistratus (c. 304–c. 250 BC) studied human anatomy,
but their studies were hindered by protests against the
dissection of human corpses, which was seen as immoral.[57]
According to Galen, around this time, Ptolemy III requested permission from the Athenians to borrow the original
manuscripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, for which the Athenians demanded the enormous amount of fifteen
talents (1,000 lb, 450 kg) of a precious metal as guarantee that he would return them.[58][39][5][59] Ptolemy III had
expensive copies of the plays made on the highest quality papyrus and sent the Athenians the copies, keeping the original
manuscripts for the library and telling the Athenians they could keep the talents.[58][39][5][59] This story may also be
construed erroneously to show the power of Alexandria over Athens during the Ptolemaic dynasty. This detail arises from
the fact that Alexandria was a man-made bidirectional port between the mainland and the Pharos island, welcoming trade
from the East and West, and soon found itself to be an international hub for trade, the leading producer of papyrus and,
soon enough, books.[60] As the Library expanded, it ran out of space to house the scrolls in its collection, so, during the
reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes, it opened a satellite collection in the Serapeum of Alexandria, a temple to the Greco-
Egyptian god Serapis located near the royal palace.[9][32][8]
Aristophanes of Byzantium (lived c. 257–c. 180 BC) became the fourth head librarian sometime around 200 BC.[61]
According to a legend recorded by the Roman writer Vitruvius, Aristophanes was one of seven judges appointed for a
poetry competition hosted by Ptolemy III Euergetes.[61][62] All six of the other judges favored one competitor, but
Aristophanes favored the one whom the audience had liked the least.[61][63] Aristophanes declared that all of the poets
Illustration showing a portion of the globe showing
a part of the African continent. The sunbeams
shown as two rays hitting the ground at Syene and
Alexandria. Angle of sunbeam and the gnomons
(vertical pole) is shown at Alexandria, which
allowed Eratosthenes' estimates of radius and
circumference of Earth.
Peak of literary criticism

8. except for the one he had chosen had committed plagiarism and were therefore disqualified.[61][63] The king demanded
that he prove this, so he retrieved the texts that the authors had plagiarized from the Library, locating them by
memory.[61][63] On account of his impressive memory and diligence, Ptolemy III appointed him as head librarian.[63]
The librarianship of Aristophanes of Byzantium is widely considered to have opened a more mature phase of the Library
of Alexandria's history.[42][64][57] During this phase of the Library's history, literary criticism reached its peak[42][64] and
came to dominate the Library's scholarly output.[65]
Aristophanes of Byzantium edited poetic texts and introduced
the division of poems into separate lines on the page, since they
had previously been written out just like prose.[66] He also
invented the system of Greek diacritics,[67][57] wrote important
works on lexicography,[42] and introduced a series of signs for
textual criticism.[68] He wrote introductions to many plays, some
of which have survived in partially rewritten forms.[42] The fifth
head librarian was an obscure individual named Apollonius, who
is known by the epithet Greek: ὁ εἰδογράφος ("the classifier of
forms").[42][69] One late lexicographical source explains this
epithet as referring to the classification of poetry on the basis of
musical forms.[69]
During the early second century BC, several scholars at the
Library of Alexandria studied works on medicine.[55] Zeuxis the
Empiricist is credited with having written commentaries on the
Hippocratic Corpus[55] and he actively worked to procure
medical writings for the Library's collection.[55] A scholar named Ptolemy Epithetes wrote a treatise on wounds in the
Homeric poems, a subject straddling the line between traditional philology and medicine.[55] However, it was also during
the early second century BC that the political power of Ptolemaic Egypt began to decline.[70] After the Battle of Raphia in
217 BC, Ptolemaic power became increasingly unstable.[70] There were uprisings among segments of the Egyptian
population and, in the first half of the second century BC, connection with Upper Egypt became largely disrupted.[70]
Ptolemaic rulers also began to emphasize the Egyptian aspect of their nation over the Greek aspect.[70] Consequently,
many Greek scholars began to leave Alexandria for safer countries with more generous patronages.[42][70]
Aristarchus of Samothrace (lived c. 216–c. 145 BC) was the sixth head librarian.[42] He earned a reputation as the greatest
of all ancient scholars and produced not only texts of classic poems and works of prose, but full hypomnemata, or long,
free-standing commentaries, on them.[42] These commentaries would typically cite a passage of a classical text, explain its
meaning, define any unusual words used in it, and comment on whether the words in the passage were really those used
by the original author or if they were later interpolations added by scribes.[71] He made many contributions to a variety of
studies, but particularly the study of the Homeric poems,[42] and his editorial opinions are widely quoted by ancient
authors as authoritative.[42] A portion of one of Aristarchus's commentaries on the Histories of Herodotus has survived in
a papyrus fragment.[42][71] In 145 BC, however, Aristarchus became caught up in a dynastic struggle in which he
supported Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator as the ruler of Egypt.[72] Ptolemy VII was murdered and succeeded by Ptolemy
VIII Physcon, who immediately set about punishing all those who had supported his predecessor, forcing Aristarchus to
flee Egypt and take refuge on the island of Cyprus, where he died shortly thereafter.[72][42] Ptolemy VIII expelled all
foreign scholars from Alexandria, forcing them to disperse across the Eastern Mediterranean.[42][70]
Present-day ruins of the Serapeum of Alexandria,
where the Library of Alexandria moved part of its
collection after it ran out of storage space in the
main building[9]

9. Ptolemy VIII Physcon's expulsion of the scholars from Alexandria brought about a shift in the history of Hellenistic
scholarship.[73] The scholars who had studied at the Library of Alexandria and their students continued to conduct
research and write treatises, but most of them no longer did so in association with the Library.[73] A diaspora of
Alexandrian scholarship occurred, in which scholars dispersed first throughout the eastern Mediterranean and later
throughout the western Mediterranean as well.[73] Aristarchus's student Dionysius Thrax (c. 170–c. 90 BC) established a
school on the Greek island of Rhodes.[74][75] Dionysius Thrax wrote the first book on Greek grammar, a succinct guide to
speaking and writing clearly and effectively.[75] This book remained the primary grammar textbook for Greek schoolboys
until as late as the twelfth century AD.[75] The Romans based their grammatical writings on it, and its basic format
remains the basis for grammar guides in many languages even today.[75] Another one of Aristarchus's pupils, Apollodorus
of Athens (c. 180–c. 110 BC), went to Alexandria's greatest rival, Pergamum, where he taught and conducted research.[74]
This diaspora prompted the historian Menecles of Barce to sarcastically comment that Alexandria had become the teacher
of all Greeks and barbarians alike.[76]
Meanwhile, in Alexandria, from the middle of the second century BC onwards, Ptolemaic rule in Egypt grew less stable
than it had been previously.[77] Confronted with growing social unrest and other major political and economic problems,
the later Ptolemies did not devote as much attention towards the Library and the Mouseion as their predecessors had.[77]
The status of both the Library and the head librarian diminished.[77] Several of the later Ptolemies used the position of
head librarian as a mere political plum to reward their most devoted supporters.[77] Ptolemy VIII appointed a man named
Cydas, one of his palace guards, as head librarian[78][77] and Ptolemy IX Soter II (ruled 88–81 BC) is said to have given
the position to a political supporter.[77] Eventually, the position of head librarian lost so much of its former prestige that
even contemporary authors ceased to take interest in recording the terms of office for individual head librarians.[78]
A shift in Greek scholarship at large occurred around the beginning of the first century BC.[74][79] By this time, all major
classical poetic texts had finally been standardized and extensive commentaries had already been produced on the
writings of all the major literary authors of the Greek Classical Era.[74] Consequently, there was little original work left for
scholars to do with these texts.[74] Many scholars began producing syntheses and reworkings of the commentaries of the
Alexandrian scholars of previous centuries, at the expense of their own originalities.[74][79][b] Other scholars branched
out and began writing commentaries on the poetic works of postclassical authors, including Alexandrian poets such as
Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes.[74] Meanwhile, Alexandrian scholarship was probably introduced to Rome in the
first century BC by Tyrannion of Amisus (c. 100–c. 25 BC), a student of Dionysius Thrax.[74]
In 48 BC, during Caesar's Civil War, Julius Caesar was besieged at Alexandria. His soldiers set fire to his own ships while
trying to clear the wharves to block the fleet belonging to Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy XIV.[80][81][57][8] This fire spread
to the parts of the city nearest to the docks, causing considerable devastation.[81][78][8] The first-century AD Roman
playwright and Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger quotes Livy's Ab Urbe Condita Libri, which was written between 63
and 14 BC, as saying that the fire started by Caesar destroyed 40,000 scrolls from the Library of Alexandria.[57][78][8][82]
The Greek Middle Platonist Plutarch (c. 46–120 AD) writes in his Life of Caesar that, "[W]hen the enemy endeavored to
Decline
After Ptolemy VIII's expulsions
Burning by Julius Caesar

10. cut off his communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships, which, after burning
the docks, thence spread on and destroyed the great library."[83][84][8] The Roman historian Cassius Dio (c. 155 –c. 235
AD), however, writes: "Many places were set on fire, with the result that, along with other buildings, the dockyards and
storehouses of grain and books, said to be great in number and of the finest, were burned."[84][78][8] However, Florus and
Lucan only mention that the flames burned the fleet itself and some "houses near the sea".[85]
Scholars have interpreted Cassius Dio's wording to indicate that the fire did not actually destroy the entire Library itself,
but rather only a warehouse located near the docks being used by the Library
to house scrolls.[84][78][8][86] Whatever devastation Caesar's fire may have
caused, the Library was evidently not completely destroyed.[84][78][8][86] The
geographer Strabo (c. 63 BC–c. 24 AD) mentions visiting the Mouseion, the
larger research institution to which the Library was attached, in around 20
BC, several decades after Caesar's fire, indicating that it either survived the
fire or was rebuilt soon afterwards.[84][8] Nonetheless, Strabo's manner of
talking about the Mouseion shows that it was nowhere near as prestigious as
it had been a few centuries prior.[8] Despite mentioning the Mouseion, Strabo
does not mention the Library separately, perhaps indicating that it had been
so drastically reduced in stature and significance that Strabo felt it did not
warrant separate mention.[8] It is unclear what happened to the Mouseion
after Strabo's mention of it.[57]
Furthermore, Plutarch records in his Life of Marc Antony that, in the years
leading up to the Battle of Actium in 33 BC, Mark Antony was rumored to
have given Cleopatra all 200,000 scrolls in the Library of Pergamum.[84][78]
Plutarch himself notes that his source for this anecdote was sometimes
unreliable and it is possible that the story may be nothing more than
propaganda intended to show that Mark Antony was loyal to Cleopatra and
Egypt rather than to Rome.[84] Casson, however, argues that, even if the story
was made up, it would not have been believable unless the Library still
existed.[84] Edward J. Watts argues that Mark Antony's gift may have been
intended to replenish the Library's collection after the damage to it caused by
Caesar's fire roughly a decade and a half prior.[78]
Further evidence for the Library's survival after 48 BC comes from the fact
that the most notable producer of composite commentaries during the late
first century BC and early first century AD was a scholar who worked in Alexandria named Didymus Chalcenterus, whose
epithet Χαλκέντερος (Chalkénteros) means "bronze guts".[87][84] Didymus is said to have produced somewhere between
3,500 and 4,000 books, making him the most prolific known writer in all of antiquity.[87][79] He was also given the
nickname βιβλιολάθης (Biblioláthēs), meaning "book-forgetter" because it was said that even he could not remember all
the books he had written.[87][88] Parts of some of Didymus's commentaries have been preserved in the forms of later
extracts and these remains are modern scholars' most important sources of information about the critical works of the
earlier scholars at the Library of Alexandria.[87] Lionel Casson states that Didymus's prodigious output "would have been
impossible without at least a good part of the resources of the library at his disposal."[84]
The Roman general Julius Caesar
was forced to set fire to his own
ships during the Siege of Alexandria
in 48 BC.[8] Many ancient writers
report that the fire spread and
destroyed at least part of the Library
of Alexandria's collections;[8]
however, the Library seems to have
either at least partially survived or
been quickly rebuilt.[8]

11. Very little is known about the Library of Alexandria during the time of the
Roman Principate (27 BC–284 AD).[78] The emperor Claudius (ruled 41–54
AD) is recorded to have built an addition onto the Library,[89] but it seems
that the Library of Alexandria's general fortunes followed those of the city of
Alexandria itself.[90] After Alexandria came under Roman rule, the city's
status and, consequently that of its famous Library, gradually diminished.[90]
While the Mouseion still existed, membership was granted not on the basis of
scholarly achievement, but rather on the basis of distinction in government,
the military, or even in athletics.[77]
The same was evidently the case even for the position of head librarian;[77]
the only known head librarian from the Roman Period was a man named
Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, who lived in the middle of the first century AD
and was a politician, administrator, and military officer with no record of
substantial scholarly achievements.[77] Members of the Mouseion were no
longer required to teach, conduct research, or even live in Alexandria.[91] The
Greek writer Philostratus records that the emperor Hadrian (ruled 117–138
AD) appointed the ethnographer Dionysius of Miletus and the sophist
Polemon of Laodicea as members of the Mouseion, even though neither of
these men are known to have ever spent any significant amount of time in Alexandria.[91]
Meanwhile, as the reputation of Alexandrian scholarship declined, the reputations of other libraries across the
Mediterranean world improved, diminishing the Library of Alexandria's former status as the most prominent.[90] Other
libraries also sprang up within the city of Alexandria itself[78] and the scrolls from the Great Library may have been used
to stock some of these smaller libraries.[78] The Caesareum and the Claudianum in Alexandria are both known to have
had major libraries by the end of the first century AD.[78] The Serapeum, originally the "daughter library" of the Great
Library, probably expanded during this period as well, according to classical historian Edward J. Watts.[92]
By the second century AD, the Roman Empire grew less dependent on grain from Alexandria and the city's prominence
declined further.[90] The Romans during this period also had less interest in Alexandrian scholarship, causing the
Library's reputation to continue to decline as well.[90] The scholars who worked and studied at the Library of Alexandria
during the time of the Roman Empire were less well known than the ones who had studied there during the Ptolemaic
Period.[90] Eventually, the word "Alexandrian" itself came to be synonymous with the editing of texts, correction of
textual errors, and writing of commentaries synthesized from those of earlier scholars—in other words, taking on
connotations of pedantry, monotony, and lack of originality.[90] Mention of both the Great Library of Alexandria and the
Mouseion that housed it disappear after the middle of the third century AD.[93] The last known references to scholars
being members of the Mouseion date to the 260s.[93]
In 272 AD, the emperor Aurelian fought to recapture the city of Alexandria from the forces of the Palmyrene queen
Zenobia.[93][77][3] During the course of the fighting, Aurelian's forces destroyed the Broucheion quarter of the city in
which the main library was located.[93][77][3] If the Mouseion and Library still existed at this time, they were almost
certainly destroyed during the attack as well.[93][77] If they did survive the attack, then whatever was left of them would
have been destroyed during the emperor Diocletian's siege of Alexandria in 297.[93]
Roman Period and destruction
This Latin inscription regarding
Tiberius Claudius Balbilus of Rome
(d. c. AD 79) mentions the
"ALEXANDRINA BYBLIOTHECE"
(line eight).

12. Scattered references indicate that, sometime in the fourth century, an
institution known as the "Mouseion" may have been reestablished at a
different location somewhere in Alexandria.[93] Nothing, however, is known
about the characteristics of this organization.[93] It may have possessed some
bibliographic resources, but whatever they may have been, they were clearly
not comparable to those of its predecessor.[95] For much of the late fourth
century AD, the library of the Serapeum was probably the largest collection of
books in the city of Alexandria.[96] In the 370s and 380s, the Serapeum was
still a major pilgrimage site for many pagans.[97]
In addition to possessing the largest library in Alexandria, the Serapeum
remained a fully functioning temple and it even had classrooms for
philosophers to teach in.[97] It naturally tended to attract followers of
Iamblichean Neoplatonism.[97] Most of these philosophers were primarily
interested in theurgy, the study of cultic rituals and esoteric religious
practices.[97] The Neoplatonist philosopher Damascius (lived c. 458–after
538) records that a man named Olympus came from Cilicia to teach at the Serapeum, where he enthusiastically taught his
students the rules of traditional divine worship and ancient religious practices.[98] He enjoined his students to worship
the old gods in traditional ways, and he may have even taught them theurgy.[99]
In 391 AD, a group of Christian workmen in Alexandria uncovered the remains of an old Mithraeum.[99] They gave some
of the cult objects to the Christian bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus.[99] Theophilus had the cult objects paraded through
the streets so they could be mocked and ridiculed.[99] The pagans of Alexandria were incensed by this act of desecration,
especially the teachers of Neoplatonic philosophy and theurgy at the Serapeum.[99] The teachers at the Serapeum took up
arms and led their students and other followers in a guerilla attack on the Christian population of Alexandria, killing
many of them before being forced to retreat.[99] In retaliation, the Christians vandalized and demolished the
Serapeum,[100][101] although some parts of the colonnade were still standing as late as the twelfth century.[100] However,
none of the accounts of the Serapeum's destruction mention anything about it having a library and sources written before
its destruction speak of its collection of books in the past tense, indicating that it probably did not have any significant
collection of scrolls in it at the time of its destruction.[102][103][101]
The Suda, a tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia, calls the mathematician Theon of Alexandria (c. AD 335–c. 405) a
"man of the Mouseion".[105] According to classical historian Edward J. Watts, however, Theon was probably the head of a
school called the "Mouseion", which was named in emulation of the Hellenistic Mouseion that had once included the
Library of Alexandria, but which had little other connection to it.[105] Theon's school was exclusive, highly prestigious,
and doctrinally conservative.[106] Neither Theon nor Hypatia seem to have had any connections to the militant
Iamblichean Neoplatonists who taught in the Serapeum.[100] Instead, Theon seems to have rejected the teachings of
Successors to the Mouseion
Drawing from the Alexandrian World
Chronicle depicting Pope Theophilus
of Alexandria, gospel in hand,
standing triumphantly atop the
Serapeum in 391 AD[94]
Serapeum
School of Theon and Hypatia

13. Iamblichus[106] and may have taken pride in teaching a pure, Plotinian Neoplatonism.[106] In around 400 AD, Theon's
daughter Hypatia (born c. 350–370; died 415 AD) succeeded him as the head of his school.[107] Like her father, she
rejected the teachings of Iamblichus and instead embraced the original Neoplatonism formulated by Plotinus.[106]
Theophilus, the same bishop who ordered the destruction of the Serapeum, tolerated Hypatia's school and even
encouraged two of her students to become bishops in territory under his authority.[108] Hypatia was extremely popular
with the people of Alexandria[109] and exerted profound political influence.[109] Theophilus respected Alexandria's
political structures and raised no objection to the close ties Hypatia
established with Roman prefects.[108] Hypatia was later implicated in a
political feud between Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria, and Cyril of
Alexandria, Theophilus's successor as bishop.[110][111] Rumors spread
accusing her of preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril[110][112] and,
in March of 415 AD, she was murdered by a mob of Christians, led by a lector
named Peter.[110][113] She had no successor and her school collapsed after her
death.[114]
Nonetheless, Hypatia was not the last pagan in Alexandria, nor was she the
last Neoplatonist philosopher.[115][116] Neoplatonism and paganism both
survived in Alexandria and throughout the eastern Mediterranean for
centuries after her death.[115][116] British Egyptologist Charlotte Booth notes
that a large number of new academic lecture halls were built in Alexandria at
Kom el-Dikka shortly after Hypatia's death, indicating that philosophy was
clearly still taught in Alexandrian schools.[117] The late fifth-century writers
Zacharias Scholasticus and Aeneas of Gaza both speak of the "Mouseion" as
occupying some kind of a physical space.[93] Archaeologists have identified
lecture halls dating to around this time period, located near, but not on, the
site of the Ptolemaic Mouseion, which may be the "Mouseion" to which these
writers refer.[93]
In AD 642, Alexandria was captured by the Muslim army of 'Amr ibn al-'As. Several later Arabic sources describe the
library's destruction by the order of Caliph Omar.[118][119] Bar-Hebraeus, writing in the thirteenth century, quotes Omar
as saying to Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī: "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are
opposed to the Quran, destroy them."[120] Later scholars, including Father Eusèbe Renaudot in 1793, are skeptical of
these stories, given the range of time that had passed before they were written down and the political motivations of the
various writers.[121][122][123][124][125]
It is not possible to determine the collection's size in any era with certainty. Papyrus scrolls constituted the collection, and
although codices were used after 300 BC, the Alexandrian Library is never documented as having switched to parchment,
perhaps because of its strong links to the papyrus trade. (The Library of Alexandria in fact was indirectly causal in the
Hypatia (1885) by Charles William
Mitchell, believed to be a depiction of
a scene in Charles Kingsley's 1853
novel Hypatia[104]
Later schools and libraries in Alexandria
Collection

14. creation of writing on parchment—due to the library's critical need for papyrus, little was exported and thus an alternate
source of copy material became essential.)[126]
A single piece of writing might occupy several scrolls, and this division into self-contained "books" was a major aspect of
editorial work. King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) is said to have set 500,000 scrolls as an objective for the
library.[127] The library's index, Callimachus's Pinakes, has only survived in the form of a few fragments, and it is not
possible to know with certainty how large and how diverse the collection may have been. At its height, the library was said
to possess nearly half a million scrolls, and, although historians debate the precise number, the highest estimates claim
400,000 scrolls while the most conservative estimates are as low as 40,000,[6] which is still an enormous collection that
required vast storage space.[128]
As a research institution, the library filled its stacks with new works in mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences
and other subjects. Its empirical standards were applied in one of the first and certainly strongest homes for serious
textual criticism. As the same text often existed in several different versions, comparative textual criticism was crucial for
ensuring their veracity. Once ascertained, canonical copies would then be made for scholars, royalty, and wealthy
bibliophiles the world over, this commerce bringing income to the library.[37]
The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most
prestigious libraries of the ancient world, but it was far from the
only one.[7][129][130] By the end of the Hellenistic Period, almost
every city in the Eastern Mediterranean had a public library and
so did many medium-sized towns.[7][4] During the Roman
Period, the number of libraries only proliferated.[131] By the
fourth century AD, there were at least two dozen public libraries
in the city of Rome itself alone.[131]
In late antiquity, as the Roman Empire became Christianized,
Christian libraries modeled directly on the Library of Alexandria
and other great libraries of earlier pagan times began to be
founded all across the Greek-speaking eastern part of the
empire.[131] Among the largest and most prominent of these
libraries were the Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima, the
Library of Jerusalem, and a Christian library in Alexandria.[131]
These libraries held both pagan and Christian writings side-by-
side[131] and Christian scholars applied to the Judeo-Christian scriptures the same philological techniques that the
scholars of the Library of Alexandria had used for analyzing the Greek classics.[131] Nonetheless, the study of pagan
authors remained secondary to the study of the Christian scriptures until the Renaissance.[131]
Legacy
Illustration by Yahyá al-Wasiti from 1237
depicting Arab scholars at an Abbasid library in
Baghdad
In antiquity

15. Ironically, the survival of ancient texts owes nothing to the great libraries of antiquity and instead owes everything to the
fact that they were exhaustingly copied and recopied, at first by professional scribes during the Roman Period onto
papyrus and later by monks during the Middle Ages onto parchment.[1][132]
The idea of reviving the ancient Library of Alexandria in the modern era was
first proposed in 1974, when Lotfy Dowidar was president of the University of
Alexandria.[133] In May 1986, Egypt requested the Executive Board of
UNESCO to allow the international organization to conduct a feasibility study
for the project.[133] This marked the beginning of UNESCO and the
international community's involvement in trying to bring the project to
fruition.[133] Starting in 1988, UNESCO and the UNDP worked to support the
international architectural competition to design the Library.[133] Egypt
devoted four hectares of land for the building of the Library and established
the National High Commission for the Library of Alexandria.[134] Egyptian
president Hosni Mubarak took a personal interest in the project, which
greatly contributed to its advancement.[135] Completed in 2002, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina now functions as a modern
library and cultural center, commemorating the original Library of Alexandria.[136] In line with the mission of the Great
Library of Alexandria, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina also houses the International School of Information Science (ISIS), a
school for students preparing for highly specialized post-graduate degrees, whose goal is to train professional staff for
libraries in Egypt and across the Middle East.[137]
Libraries portal
a. "Mouseion" means "House of Muses", whence the term "museum".[27]
b. This shift paralleled a similar, concurrent trend in philosophy, in which many philosophers were beginning to
synthesize the views of earlier philosophers rather than coming up with original ideas of their own.[79]
1. Garland 2008, p. 61.
2. Tracy 2000, pp. 343–344.
3. Phillips 2010.
4. MacLeod 2000, p. 3.
5. Casson 2001, p. 35.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Interior of the modern Bibliotheca
Alexandrina
See also
Notes
References
Citations

16. 6. Wiegand & Davis 2015, p. 20.
7. Garland 2008, p. 60.
8. Haughton 2011.
9. MacLeod 2000, p. 5.
10. Murray, S. A., (2009). The library: An illustrated history. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, p.17
11. Murray, Stuart (2009). The library : an illustrated history. New York, NY: Skyhorse Pub. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-61608-453-
0. OCLC 277203534 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/277203534).
12. MacLeod 2000, pp. 1–2, 10–11.
13. MacLeod 2000, pp. 13.
14. MacLeod 2000, p. 11.
15. MacLeod 2000, p. 2.
16. MacLeod 2000, pp. 1.
17. MacLeod 2000, pp. 1–2.
18. MacLeod 2000, pp. 2–3.
19. Fox 1986, p. 341.
20. Fox 1986, p. 340.
21. Fox 1986, pp. 340–341.
22. David C. Lindberg (15 March 1980). Science in the Middle Ages (https://books.google.com/books?id=lOCriv4rSCUC
&pg=PA5). University of Chicago Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-226-48233-0. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
23. Tracy 2000, p. 343.
24. Letter of Aristeas, 9–12 (http://www.attalus.org/translate/aristeas1.html#9) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
00917162816/http://attalus.org/translate/aristeas1.html#9) 17 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
25. Tracy 2000, pp. 344–345.
26. Wiegand & Davis 2015, p. 19.
27. Entry Μουσείον (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D
%2368883) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070912160936/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=
Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2368883) 12 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine at Liddell
& Scott.
28. MacLeod 2000, pp. 1–.
29. Lyons 2011, p. 26.
30. Manguel, Alberto (2008).The Library at Night. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 26.
31. Barnes 2000, p. 62.
32. Casson 2001, p. 34.
33. Erksine, Andrew (1995). "Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Museum and Library of Alexandria". Greece &
Rome, 2nd ser., 42(1), 38–48.
34. Galen, xvii.a, p. 606 (http://www.attalus.org/translate/extracts.html#1.606) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2011
0514005420/http://www.attalus.org/translate/extracts.html#1.606) 14 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
35. MacLeod 2000, pp. 4–5.
36. Casson 2001, p. 36.
37. Kennedy, George. The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Classical Criticism, New York: University of
Cambridge Press, 1999.
38. Casson 2001, pp. 33–34.
39. MacLeod 2000, p. 4.
40. MacLeod 2000, pp. 3–4.

17. 40. MacLeod 2000, pp. 3–4.
41. Staikos 2000, p. 66.
42. Dickey 2007, p. 5.
43. Casson 2001, p. 37.
44. Casson 2001, pp. 39–40.
45. Casson 2001, p. 40.
46. Montana 2015, p. 109.
47. MacLeod 2000, p. 6.
48. Montana 2015, p. 110.
49. Montana 2015, pp. 109–110.
50. Montana 2015, p. 114.
51. Montana 2015, p. 115.
52. Montana 2015, p. 116.
53. Casson 2001, p. 41.
54. Montana 2015, pp. 116–117.
55. Montana 2015, p. 117.
56. MacLeod 2000, pp. 6–7.
57. MacLeod 2000, p. 7.
58. Galen, xvii.a, p. 607 (http://www.attalus.org/translate/extracts.html#1.607) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2011
0514005420/http://www.attalus.org/translate/extracts.html#1.607) 14 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
59. McKeown 2013, pp. 147–148.
60. Trumble & MacIntyre Marshall 2003.
61. Casson 2001, p. 38.
62. McKeown 2013, pp. 148–149.
63. McKeown 2013, p. 149.
64. Montana 2015, p. 118.
65. MacLeod 2000, pp. 7–8.
66. Dickey 2007, pp. 5, 93.
67. Dickey 2007, pp. 5, 92–93.
68. Dickey 2007, p. 93.
69. Montana 2015, p. 129.
70. Meyboom 1995, p. 173.
71. Casson 2001, p. 43.
72. Montana 2015, p. 130.
73. Dickey 2007, pp. 5–6.
74. Dickey 2007, p. 6.
75. Casson 2001, p. 45.
76. Meyboom 1995, p. 373.
77. Casson 2001, p. 47.
78. Watts 2008, p. 149.
79. Fox 1986, p. 351.
80. Pollard, Justin, and Reid, Howard. 2006. The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, Birthplace of the Modern World.

18. 81. Aulus Gellius. Attic Nights book 7 chapter 17 (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/7*.html).
82. McKeown 2013, p. 150.
83. Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 49.6 (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#49).
84. Casson 2001, p. 46.
85. Cherf, William J. (2008). "Earth Wind and Fire: The Alexandrian Fire-storm of 48 B.C." (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=Gz2wCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA70). In El-Abbadi, Mostafa; Fathallah, Omnia Mounir (eds.). What Happened to the
Ancient Library of Alexandria?. Leiden: Brill. p. 70. ISBN 978-90-474-3302-6.
86. Tocatlian 1991, p. 256.
87. Dickey 2007, p. 7.
88. McKeown 2013, pp. 149–150.
89. Casson 2001, pp. 46–47.
90. MacLeod 2000, p. 9.
91. Watts 2008, p. 148.
92. Watts 2008, pp. 149–150.
93. Watts 2008, p. 150.
94. Watts 2017, p. 60.
95. Watts 2008, pp. 150–151.
96. Watts 2008, pp. 150, 189.
97. Watts 2008, p. 189.
98. Watts 2008, pp. 189–190.
99. Watts 2008, p. 190.
100. Watts 2008, p. 191.
101. Theodore 2016, pp. 182–183.
102. Paulus Orosius, vi.15.32 (http://www.attalus.org/latin/orosius6B.html#15) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2010
0917192818/http://attalus.org/latin/orosius6B.html#15) 17 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
103. El-Abbadi, Mostafa (1990), The Life and Fate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria (2nd, illustrated ed.),
Unesco/UNDP, pp. 159, 160, ISBN 978-92-3-102632-4
104. Booth 2017, pp. 21–22.
105. Watts 2008, pp. 191–192.
106. Watts 2008, p. 192.
107. Oakes 2007, p. 364.
108. Watts 2008, p. 196.
109. Watts 2008, pp. 195–196.
110. Novak 2010, p. 240.
111. Cameron, Long & Sherry 1993, pp. 58–61.
112. Cameron, Long & Sherry 1993, p. 59.
113. Cameron, Long & Sherry 1993, pp. 59–61.
114. Watts 2017, p. 117.
115. Booth 2017, pp. 151–152.
116. Watts 2017, pp. 154–155.
117. Booth 2017, p. 151.
118. De Sacy, Relation de l’Egypte par Abd al-Latif, Paris, 1810: "Above the column of the pillars is a dome supported by
this column. I think this building was the portico where Aristotle taught, and after him his disciples; and that this was

19. the academy that Alexander built when he built this city, and where was placed the library which Amr ibn-Alas
burned, with the permission of Omar." Google books here [1] (https://books.google.com/books?
id=NGrRAAAAMAAJ). Translation of De Sacy from here [2] (http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4926) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20110511081440/http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4926) 11 May 2011 at the
Wayback Machine. Other versions of Abd-el-Latif in English here [3] (http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4936)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100915061814/http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=4936) 15
September 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
119. Samir Khalil, «L’utilisation d’al-Qifṭī par la Chronique arabe d’Ibn al-‘Ibrī († 1286)», in: Samir Khalil Samir (Éd.), Actes
du IIe symposium syro-arabicum (Sayyidat al-Bīr, septembre 1998). Études arabes chrétiennes, = Parole de l'Orient
28 (2003) 551–598. An English translation of the passage in Al-Qifti by Emily Cottrell of Leiden University is at the
Roger Pearse blog here [4] (http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=5004) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
110511081446/http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=5004) 11 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
120. Ed. Pococke, p. 181, translation on p. 114. Online Latin text and English translation here [5] (http://www.roger-pearse.
com/weblog/?p=4936) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100915061814/http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/
?p=4936) 15 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Latin: “Quod ad libros quorum mentionem fecisti: si in illis
contineatur, quod cum libro Dei conveniat, in libro Dei [est] quod sufficiat absque illo; quod si in illis fuerit quod libro
Dei repugnet, neutiquam est eo [nobis] opus, jube igitur e medio tolli.” Jussit ergo Amrus Ebno’lAs dispergi eos per
balnea Alexandriae, atque illis calefaciendis comburi; ita spatio semestri consumpti sunt. Audi quid factum fuerit et
mirare."
121. E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chapter 51: "It would be endless to enumerate the moderns who have wondered and
believed, but I may distinguish with honour the rational scepticism of Renaudot, (Hist. Alex. Patriarch, p. 170: )
historia ... habet aliquid ut απιστον ut Arabibus familiare est." However Butler says: "Renaudot thinks the story has
an element of untrustworthiness: Gibbon discusses it rather briefly and disbelieves it." (ch. 25, p. 401)
122. The civilisation of Arabs, Book no III, 1884, reedition of 1980, p. 468
123. "The Vanished Library by Bernard Lewis" (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3517). nybooks.com. Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20061116003731/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3517) from the original on 16 November 2006.
Retrieved 26 November 2006.
124. Trumble & MacIntyre Marshall 2003, p. 51. "Today most scholars have discredited the story of the destruction of the
Library by the Muslims."
125. MacLeod 2000, p. 71. "The story first appears 500 years after the Arab conquest of Alexandria. John the
Grammarian appears to be John Philoponus, who must have been dead by the time of the conquest. It seems, as
shown above, that both of the Alexandrian libraries were destroyed by the end of the fourth century, and there is no
mention of any library surviving at Alexandria in the Christian literature of the centuries following that date. It is also
suspicious that Omar is recorded to have made the same remark about books found by the Arab during their
conquest of Iran."
126. Murray, S.A. (2009). The Library: An illustrated history. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, p. 14
127. Tarn, W.W. (1928). “Ptolemy II”. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 14(3/4), 246–260. The Byzantine writer
Tzetzes gives a similar figure in his essay On Comedy (http://www.attalus.org/translate/poets.html#lycophron2)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080120080207/http://www.attalus.org/translate/poets.html#lycophron2) 20
January 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
128. Murray, Stuart (2009). The Library: An Illustrated History. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60239-706-4.
129. MacLeod 2000, pp. 3, 10–11.
130. Casson 2001, p. 48.
131. Nelles 2010, p. 533.
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133. Tocatlian 1991, p. 265.
134. Tocatlian 1991, pp. 265–266.

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"Alexandrian Library" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_(1920)/Alexandrian_Library).
Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
"Alexandrian Library" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/Alexandrian_
Library). New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
"Alexandrian Library" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_American_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_(1879)/Alexandrian_Libr
ary). The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
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