Trabajo realizado en la asignatura classical Culture

1. LIBRARIES IN ANCIENT
GREECE AND ROME
ΒΙΒΛΙΟΘΗΚΕΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΑ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΝ
ΡΩΜΗ

2. LIBRARIES IN GREECE
In Greece, there was an enormous spreading of
books and reading due to the emergence of the
alphabetic writing and the extension of teaching,
which came through the schools and pedagogues,
and also through the Sophists and the centers of
study and research, as was the case of the Academy
of Plato or the Lyceum of Aristotle.
Another factor that helped the spread of writing and
books in Greece, was the system of Greek
democracy, which allowed any free citizen
who could read and write, to participate in the
government.
Libraries were not only placed in temples, but also
could be found in private houses. It was famous for
example, the Library of Euripides. This author of
Athenian tragedies, a great scholar, had a large
library, one of the largest in Greece.

3. Location of the important libraries of
Ancient Times

4. LIBRARIES IN ROME
In Rome the commercialization of the book began, which will lead to the appearance of
bookstores and workshops where books were made and sold,
In addition, public readings were organized, as advertising campaigns to publicize the
news. Booksellers were both publishers and had their own workshop of copyists, made up
of slaves who were normally literate Greeks.

5. In Rome, the first public libraries appeared. In the
year 39 A.D. several libraries were founded in Rome
like the one of Asinio Polión, which is considered the
first public library.
Augusto founded two large libraries, one of them
located in Octavio's Porch and the other in the
Palatine, next to the Temple of Apollo, both were
public.
Another very important public library was the Ulpia
Library, created by the Emperor Trajan, where
public documents were also preserved; therefore,
it is likely that there was also a historical archive.
The Procurator Bibliothecarum was the person that
organized the public libraries, which were next to
the temples and had Latin and Greek sections.
THE FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARIES

6. In Rome there was also a great change in the making of books. Apart from the
papyrus, Romans also used wax tablets, that the Romans called “codex”, and they
were used for brief notes and for teaching.
For keeping these codes, they needed some files, “tablinia” or “tabularia”
LIBRARIES IN ROME

7. ETYMOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES
The Greek term for book is βιβλίον, which in origin
means papyrus scroll.
The Latin term liber-i in origin means tree bark, since
this was a writing support used in the Ancient Times.
Paper was a Chinese invention, but the word paper
comes from the Greek term πάπυρος / papyrus