This is the first in a series of posts about history's lost libraries. And since it's the first, I figured why not start with the granddaddy of them all, the Library of Alexandria, one of the largest and most important libraries in the ancient world.
Like most famous landmarks that were destroyed thousands of years ago, our knowledge about the Library is a mix of legend and fact. But here are the facts, as far as we can determine. It was created by Ptolemy I Soter in the third century BC with the stated goal of collecting all the world's knowledge. Ptolemy I was a Macedonian general and successor to Alexander the Great (for whom Alexandria was named). While it was officially dedicated to the Nine Goddesses of the Arts, aka the Muses, there's little doubt that Ptolemy was trying to show off. He wanted to the world to see what his power could accomplish, namely, the greatest assemblage of knowledge in the history of mankind. Oh, and his empire's wealth, too, probably.
The Library was part of a larger organization called the Musaeum of Alexandria. The Musaeum was focused on study and research with many (if not most) of the greatest minds studying there: Euclid and Archimedes, along with Eratostenes, Hipparchus, Pappus, and Theon. All these people received stipends to live and study in Alexandria.
While the actual design/layout of the Musaeum has been lost to time, the descriptions of the Musaeum should sound familiar:
- Large, Open Walkways
- Communal Dining Areas
- Reading Rooms
- Meeting/Lecture Rooms
- Gardens and Open Areas
- Living Spaces
Am I crazy, or is this not the very model of the modern University. And just like every university today, the Musaeum needed a place to house all that knowledge. That's where the Library came in.
The collection consisted almost entirely of scrolls, the modern book format hadn't been invented, yet. Estimates vary concerning the number of scrolls in the Library's collection, but even the most conservative are around 40,000. King Ptolemy II is said to have set a goal of 500,000, and rumor has it that Mark Antony gave Cleopatra 200,000 scrolls as a wedding gift. Regardless of the exact number, the collection represented a huge amount of knowledge.
There were scrolls about everything. Math, physics, natural science, history, trade, politics, farming, astronomy... it's not a stretch to say that if a scroll existed in the Roman Empire, the Library of Alexandria probably had a copy of it. Heck, they probably had a copy of most scrolls from the Empire's trading partners, too. It wasn't unusual for them to have several different versions of the same scroll - similar to different translations of foreign texts today. As you could imagine, this proved invaluable for researchers. Librarians often used the different versions to created a canonical version which they sold throughout the world.
Every scroll that entered the city was confiscated and copied by the Librarians, who kept the original and returned the copy. While this may sound horrible by today's standards, it was actually really forward. Most places wouldn't have bothered to copy and return the information. Instead, they'd have just seized the scroll. As word spread of this practice, people weren't as worried about bringing scrolls to Alexandria, thus allowing the Library's collection to grow at an unprecedented pace.
The Library didn't just rely on people bringing scrolls to them, however. They actually had an acquisitions department. These people traveled all over the world looking for scrolls. In fact, throughout the entire existence of the Library there were royally funded trips to book fairs, which sounds like awesome work, if you can get it.
The scrolls were housed in a special area known as the bibliothekai, which as anyone who took a foreign language class in high school knows, has come to mean 'library' in every Romance language today. The cataloging department did pretty much what you'd expect; organize and store the information for easy access. After all, you can't expect people to use your vast collection of scrolls unless they can find them.
The Library's Destruction
Despite being a famous historical event and the symbol of irreversible loss of knowledge, not much is known about the actual destruction of the Library. It's popularly known as the 'Burning of the Library of Alexandria,' but nobody really knows for sure. Here are the most likely scenarios is order of likelihood.
1. Caesar Destroyed It Accidentally
In 48BC Caesar was besieged at Alexandria. For tactical reasons that aren't clearly explained, he had to burn his fleet. The fire quickly spread to the dockyards, and from there to the city - and the Library.
If this did happen, the Library wasn't completely destroyed. It survived for several more centuries, albeit in a diminished state.
2. Emperor Aurelian
Sometime between 270 & 275AD Emperor Aurelian took Alexandria by force. During the fighting the Library was destroyed, but it wasn't specifically targeted. Culture, as is so often the case, was just an innocent victim of this war.
3. Emperor Theodosius I
In 391AD Emperor Theodosius I made Paganism illegal and destroyed all the temples. Because much of the Library's collection contained information that Christian thought to be blasphemous, it was destroyed, as well.
4. It's Just a Myth
There was probably never a single event that could be considered the destruction. The Library, like so many ancient things, just faded away over the centuries. The cultural center moved on and neglect was largely responsible.
Unfortunately, we'll probably never know what truly happened, but there is a silver lining. It's popularly thought that a lot of 'one-of-a-kind' information was lost with the Library's desctruction, however, that's probably not the case. Most scholars today believe that almost all the the Library's contents were also available elsewhere. That's not to say that it's all survived to this day, but still, it's better than nothing.