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The Ancient Library Alexander the Great -- the Conquests as a source of knowledge The Founding of the Library and the Mouseion The Egyptian Section of the Alexandria Library The Papyri: Evidence of Greek and Egyptian Scientific Interchange The Pinakes -- a Bibliographical Survey of the Alexandria Library The Alexandria Library -- " The Memory of Mankind" Appendix 1 -- The Contents of the Alexandria Library Appendix 2 -- The End of the Library
References
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Regarding the collection of books, we learn from the oldest surviving text, which is the Letter of Aristeas, that it was conceived as a universal library (9-10) "Demetrius… had at his disposal a large budget in order to collect, if possible, all the books in the world; …to the best of his ability, he carried out the king's objective."
The same claim is reiterated more than once: Irinaeus (ibid.) speaks of Ptolemy's desire to equip "his library with the writings of all men as far as they were worth serious attention". Much later, a medieval text, most probably also derived from Aristeas, repeats the same allegation (Tzetzes, Proleg. p.31. Mb 8 f.). Undoubtedly, however, the larger amount was in Greek, in fact, judging from the scholarly work done in Alexandria, we have the impression that the whole corpus of Greek literature was amassed in the Library. |