Alexandrian Library, The

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

The, one of the earliest and most noted libraries in the world. It was formed during the rule of the Ptolemies. The books were kept in the museum and in the temple of Serapis at Alexandria. The museum was a sort of university, in which librarians and other noted men, maintained at public expense, gave their lives to gaining and dispensing knowledge; indeed, their work was very similar to that of our college faculties. The library and museum combined appear to have been the forerunner of the modern university. The board of management was composed of priests, but the librarian held the most influential position. One of these learned men was Euclid, who wrote the geometry that bears his name. Librarian Eratosthenes was the most famous geographer and astronomer of his day. The scholarship of Alexandria was essentially Grecian. Greek was the language of the school and of the scholar. The Alexandrian Library contained probably the largest collection of books before the invention of printing. The volumes, or rolls, which must have had somewhat the appearance of rolls of wall paper, reached the enormous number, it is claimed, of 400,000, some authorities say, 700,000. These volumes, it must be remembered, were only written manuscripts, several being required often for a single work. For instance, the Iliad was contained in twenty-four volumes or rolls, instead of the single printed book of the present day. Different editions of the same book were made by scribes, who copied them carefully by hand, a process requiring much time and patient labor. Illumined volumes, the pages of which are as carefully executed as copper engravings, are to be seen in European libraries. A large part of the library was burned during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar; but it was replaced by a new collection from Pergamus, presented by Mark Antony to Cleopatra. The library again increased. The Serapion, or temple of Serapis, in which the volumes were kept at this time, was destroyed, 391 A. D., by a mob of fanatic Christians led by Archbishop Theophilus, with the permission of the Emperor Theodosius. Most, if not all, of the books were destroyed with it. Nevertheless, this is the library which the Mohammedans have been accused of burning about 640 A. D., when the Arabs conquered the city. A story runs to the effect that the Arabians caliph, when asked to preserve the library, replied that, if the books contained only what was in the Koran, they were unnecessary; and if they contained anything else, they were false and ought to be burned; so they were used for fuel for the baths of the city. See Libraries ; Euclid ; Ptolemy