[14] The later kingdoms and empires of the ancient Near East had long traditions of book collecting. Alexandria’s library was not the first the world had ever known. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. [119][120] Rumors spread accusing her of preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril[119][121] and, in March of 415 AD, she was murdered by a mob of Christians, led by a lector named Peter. [40] The Library itself was directed by a scholar who served as head librarian, as well as tutor to the king's son. 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. [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. Today, it has an extensive collection of artifacts that tell the story of Alexandria. The Library of Alexandria is so embedded in our cultural canon that it remains a broadly known and admired institution. [106] It naturally tended to attract followers of Iamblichean Neoplatonism. [108] The teachers at the Serapeum took up arms and led their students and other followers in a guerrilla attack on the Christian population of Alexandria, killing many of them before being forced to retreat. [108] Theophilus had the cult objects paraded through the streets so they could be mocked and ridiculed. [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. Alexandria was founded in Egypt by Alexander the Great. This torrent has no flags. [15] In Greece, the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos was said to have founded the first major public library in the sixth century BC. [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. 110 BC), went to Alexandria's greatest rival, Pergamum, where he taught and conducted research. [14][3] A large library also existed in Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 605–c. B. As the same text often existed in several different versions, comparative textual criticism was crucial for ensuring their veracity. 627 BC). [111][112][110], The Suda, a tenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia, calls the mathematician Theon of Alexandria (c. AD 335–c. [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. COMMUNITY RESOURCES All City government facilities are now either closed to the public or open by appointment only, until further notice. The library of Alexandria may have been famous in the ancient but today's world has another great treasury of knowledge known as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. [75] The Romans based their grammatical writings on it, and its basic format remains the basis for grammar guides in many languages even today. [22][23][15] It claims the Library was founded during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (c. 323–c. The Library of Alexandria was destroyed/heavily damaged at least four times. Reddit. [109] Instead, Theon seems to have rejected the teachings of Iamblichus[115] and may have taken pride in teaching a pure, Plotinian Neoplatonism. However, modern scholars agree that the Letter of Aristeas is very late, and it contains information that is now known to be inaccurate.. Strabo’s account may be dealing with the personal writings that Aristotle had bequeathed to his successors as heads of the Lyceum, until they were confiscated by Sulla. See cards from the most recent sets and discover what players just like you are saying about them. The two accounts perhaps deal with two different things. [55] However, it was also during the early second century BC that the political power of Ptolemaic Egypt began to decline. The Court of Cassation had rejected the cassation appeal against the death sentence issued by the Alexandria Criminal Court in Case No. [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. [74] Consequently, there was little original work left for scholars to do with these texts. magent link: https://pastebin.com/P0h0LAfs [42], According to legend, during the librarianship of Apollonius, the mathematician and inventor Archimedes (lived c. 287 –c. Learn More >> ALEXANDRIA LAW LIBRARY WILL BE CLOSED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31. ", Jochum, Uwe. The daughter library of the Serapeum may have survived after the main Library's destruction. "[96] Later scholars—beginning with Father Eusèbe Renaudot's remark in 1713 in his translation of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria that the tale "had something untrustworthy about it"—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. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? This keyset takes its namesake from the Great Library of Alexandria – a tribute to the preservation of guiding principles like truth, knowledge, and wisdom. [63], The librarianship of Aristophanes of Byzantium is widely considered to have opened a more mature phase of the Library of Alexandria's history. [44] The Pinakes was divided into multiple sections, each containing entries for writers of a particular genre of literature. Its empirical standards were applied in one of the first and certainly strongest homes for serious textual criticism. Global blockbuster 1001 Inventions launch at the Library of Alexandria. A place of understanding of people around the world. Études arabes chrétiennes, = Parole de l'Orient 28 (2003) 551–598. [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. [69], During the early second century BC, several scholars at the Library of Alexandria studied works on medicine. [46] In addition to the Great Library, many other smaller libraries also began to spring up all around the city of Alexandria. 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. "[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. 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. [51] Eratosthenes was the first scholar to apply mathematics to geography 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. 3 ] a hall contained shelves for the collection of documents in 334 BCE MicElle 's ``! Elementary and high school students to bring the project, which greatly contributed to its in! 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