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The Library of Alexandria: The History and Legacy of the Ancient World’s Most Famous Library
*Includes pictures depicting important people, places, and events.*Includes ancient accounts about the Library of Alexandria and its destruction.*Includes a bibliography for further reading.*Includes a table of contents. “When I wrote 'The Alexandria Link,' I discovered that we are only aware of about 10 percent of the knowledge of the ancient world. In the ancient world, most of the knowledge was destroyed.� � Steve BerryIn the modern world, libraries are taken for granted by most people, perhaps because their presence is ubiquitous. Every school has a library, large libraries can be found in every major city, and even most small towns have public libraries. However, the omnipresent nature of libraries is a fairly recent historical phenomenon, because libraries were still few and far between before the 19th century. For centuries in the Western world, during what is known as the Middle Ages, written knowledge was guarded closely and hidden away in private repositories, usually by the religious classes, and hidden away in private repositories. The lack of libraries in the West has helped contribute to the popular imagination of the ancient Library at Alexandria, and all the myths and legends that have come to be associated with it, but the Library of Alexandria deserves its reputation. Before the Middle Ages, Greek scholars carefully collected and inventoried books and other written materials in the Library of Alexandria, which truly made it a sort of precursor to all modern libraries. In fact, the Library of Alexandria proved to be one of the greatest institutions created in the ancient world because it influenced the minds of countless people in profound ways for centuries. The Library not only inspired the imaginations of artists but gave birth to new research methods, which proved to provide the basis for many considered common-place today. The Library of Alexandria was one of the few libraries in the ancient Greek world, which helped ensure that mathematicians, scientists and other scholars from across the Mediterranean traveled to Egypt to study there, and it was so impressive in its size and influence that it left an indelible mark on the world that still reverberates today. While the exact nature of the Library remains murky, it functioned for at least several centuries and is believed to have housed hundreds of thousands of books, most written as scrolls on papyrus, and it essentially became the culmination of two ancient literary and cultural traditions the Greek and Egyptian. Of course, the most controversial aspect of the Library of Alexandria is its destruction, which is still a topic of debate today. Several ancient historians attributed its destruction to the Roman conquest of Egypt during the 1st century B.C., with some like Plutarch specifically citing Julius Caesar’s soldiers as the ultimate cause of its destruction. The Roman writer Seneca wrote that 40,000 books were lost in the fire. However, other ancient historians claimed to have gone to the Library of Alexandria after Caesar stayed in the city, and all of these claims might be muddled by the fact that there was more than one library in the area. It’s possible that the Library of Alexandria or some version of it survived until the 7th century A.D., but either way, the destruction of the library is often viewed as one of the reasons the Middle Ages were “Dark�. Nobody knows for sure how much knowledge was lost in the Library, nor how it affected what Western societies knew and didn’t during medieval times. The Library of The History and Legacy of the Ancient World’s Most Famous Library looks at the history of the library in an attempt to separate fact and fiction.
46 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 14, 2014
30 people are currently reading
223 people want to read
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4,775Ìýbooks260ÌýfollowersCharles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 20, 2020
I read this book partly to clear my mind of conflicting accounts that I've read about when and how the ancient Library of Alexandria was destroyed and/or came to an end. But another reason I selected this particular book was to check out a book written and published by Charles River Editors. I noticed while looking for nonfiction books that could be borrowed under Amazon's Prime program that Charles River Editors has many books available under that program. Of course they're available for purchase too. They generally are in the range of 40 to 80 pages in length (this book is 44 pages for example). When I went to their website I found the following statement:
So what were my impressions this book? It appears to be a well written research paper with sources fully attributed (i.e. lots of footnotes). The research upon which it is based was probably compiled within several days of work by a reasonably skilled graduate student. I can't find anything in particular to criticize about it. However, I suspect that fully credentialed historians would probably have more to say on the subject. I suppose if one were to criticize the book it would be that it does not offer any new or original ideas nor new combinations of facts that constitute an advance to knowledge on the subject.
This book provides a history of the founding of the Library of Alexandria and recounts stories of competing libraries. It did address my questions regarding its demise, and as I expected there are conflicting accounts of its end. There are various historical accounts of its destruction (e.g. during the invasion by Julius Caesar) which then are followed by later historical accounts referring to the library as if it still existed. This book suggests that the library probably slowly fell into disrepair from neglect and lack of investment from changing governments. The high humidity of its seaside location required that the scrolls be recopied onto new papyrus every hundred years or so. So any extended period of reduced subsidies could easily lead to a situation where the stored scrolls were unusable.
Today there's no physical trace of the library. Historians are not sure of its exact location. If there's anything that scholars of ancient literature wish they could change about history it is the loss of most of those ancient Greek plays. The portion of those plays that have survived to the present constitutes a small fraction of what once existed.
My own guess is that the best plays are the ones that scribes cared enough about to copy. So those lost manuscripts probably weren't all that good anyway. ; )
An article about the Library of Alexandria:
Charles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle , Nook , Kobo , and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.I also noticed that they are able to quickly publish books on new subjects that arise in the news (e.g. ). Charles River Editors appears to be a book mill that churns out books that cover almost any subject that one might expect to find in Wikipedia, but with much more expanded thoroughness than what one finds in an encyclopedia.
So what were my impressions this book? It appears to be a well written research paper with sources fully attributed (i.e. lots of footnotes). The research upon which it is based was probably compiled within several days of work by a reasonably skilled graduate student. I can't find anything in particular to criticize about it. However, I suspect that fully credentialed historians would probably have more to say on the subject. I suppose if one were to criticize the book it would be that it does not offer any new or original ideas nor new combinations of facts that constitute an advance to knowledge on the subject.
This book provides a history of the founding of the Library of Alexandria and recounts stories of competing libraries. It did address my questions regarding its demise, and as I expected there are conflicting accounts of its end. There are various historical accounts of its destruction (e.g. during the invasion by Julius Caesar) which then are followed by later historical accounts referring to the library as if it still existed. This book suggests that the library probably slowly fell into disrepair from neglect and lack of investment from changing governments. The high humidity of its seaside location required that the scrolls be recopied onto new papyrus every hundred years or so. So any extended period of reduced subsidies could easily lead to a situation where the stored scrolls were unusable.
Today there's no physical trace of the library. Historians are not sure of its exact location. If there's anything that scholars of ancient literature wish they could change about history it is the loss of most of those ancient Greek plays. The portion of those plays that have survived to the present constitutes a small fraction of what once existed.
My own guess is that the best plays are the ones that scribes cared enough about to copy. So those lost manuscripts probably weren't all that good anyway. ; )
An article about the Library of Alexandria:
March 23, 2018
The first time I visited the New York Public Library to write a research paper on female monasticism in the High Middle Age, I was amazed by the volumes of book it possessed and its classification system of organization staffed by knowledgeable librarians, as well as the colossal architectural building in the middle of Manhattan, New York. Perhaps it might have been this kind of awe and wonder kindled in the minds of ancient travelers or scholars who had seen or visited the Library of Alexandra, one of the largest and greatest of the ancient libraries in the history of civilization, which is said to exist from the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30BC. The Library of Alexandra: The History and Legacy of the Ancient World’s Most Famous Library by Charles River Editors guides presents a comprehensive history of this great ancient library from its genesis to demise on the grounds of historical accounts and logical scientific reasoning.
For centuries when libraries were still few and far between as written knowledge had been exclusively held by the religious classes in private repositories, the image of this ancient library once existent in Alexandra had been evocative of mysterious ambience of esoteric mystical knowledge of the misty pasts and thus inspired imagination to create myths and legends. In fact, libraries as we know now and find ubiquitously are fairly a modern invention born of the cultural legacy of the Library of Alexandria as the apotheosis of two ancient literary and cultural traditions converging the Greek and the Egyptian.
The Egyptian Background
When Alexander the Great and his army conquered the ancient Middle East in the 4th century - one of which was Egypt -, they were encountered with cultures with long literary traditions and traditions of literary documents in repositories called, “the House of Life� and “the House of Books� that housed thousands of documents written in papyrus-made scrolls for the Egyptian and clay tablets for the Mesopotamian under the administration of the priest class. Of these two houses of documents, it is the House of Life, the ancient Egyptian equivalent of a library, from which the majority of texts have survived until the present time. Consequently, Alexander and his army were overawed with the rich literary culture of their conquered land took the ancient Egyptian concept of a library and transformed it from a religious to a secular institution by providing a bridge of knowledge from the most ancient concepts of libraries to the modern libraries in the process of Hellenization of the Egyptian.
The Greek and Hellenization
Alexander’s Hellenization was a two-fold political program consisting of (1) acculturation by performing and accepting certain religious and cultural traditions making him look “Egyptian� to gain acceptance by the Egyptian elite class; and (2) the promotion of the Greek culture, “Hellenism� by spreading the Greek culture throughout Egypt. The process of Hellenization in Egypt was well succeeded by his general named Ptolemy, (the founder of the Ptolemy dynasty from 304 to 330 BC, including Cleopatra VII) who made Alexandria the capital of Egypt and the cultural center of the Hellenistic and the famed Library of Alexandria as the centerpiece. In fact, the Ptolemies� subsidization of the Library was their way to link their dynasty, which was in a foreign land far away from their homeland Greece, to the greatness of their culture. They also banned the export of papyrus from Egypt, which resulted in increase of prices for books and creation of the industry of forgeries and plagiarism.
According to the Greek historian/geographer Strabo (64 BC-24 AD) upon visiting the Library of Alexandria, it was part of the royal palace and an annex to the museum, which was a community of academic and religious scholars gathering in the shrine of the Muses of the arts and intellect. The membership was exclusive to the men holding property in common with a priest in charge of the museum. The library housed over 500,000 papyrus book-scrolls written by the ancient notables, such as Homer, Euripeds, Sophocles, and Herodotus, all in Greeks as most of the documents stored therein had been translated from their original languages by priests under the Hellenistic influence. Besides, the Library organized all the entries into alphabetical order as a classification system of library organization that is akin to modern library information system.
Destruction of the Library of Alexandria
Since there has been no definite archeological evidence of the Library discovered, myths and legends concerning its end are still rampant in the imaginations of creative minds. It is said to be burned down by the Civil Wars in 48 or 47 BC by Plutarch in Life of Caesar, the theory advocated by Seneca, a famous Roman orator, and later popularized by Edward Gibbon of “The Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire.� However, the most plausible and logical theory of the destruction of the Library is that the humidity must have ensued the destruction of books in papyrus and that the process of destruction would have taken place over hundreds of years contrary to a popular dramatic version of its being burned to ashes by Caesar’s men in one night. Also, another speculation is that after Egypt was annexed to the Roman Empire in 30 BC, the presence of the Library of Alexandria became an afterthought to the Romans, who imported Greek Scholars and books into Rome, rather than made a long trip to the foreign land. The Romans were more concerned with building their own architectural building, including libraries and schools, in their own land by sending their book agents to the Library of Alexandria to take the originals back to Rome, which contributed to a gradual demise of the Library, by making its presence obsolete and unnecessary for the upkeep of the maintenance.
The great ancient Library of Alexandria as an architectural artifact might have disappeared into history, but its cultural inheritance of civilization preserving intellectual act of learning in appreciation of arts and beauty still strongly resonates with his historiography and contribution to our modern world by continuing to inspire our minds to carry it on for posterity. The Library of Alexandria still exists in the presence of any place of learning or knowledge as long as we appreciate such cultural influence on what we take for granted, such as using our own library. Now that I have read this book, the next time I visit any library, I would appreciate the legacy of the Library of Alexandria and Alexander, the Great for making it all possible.
For centuries when libraries were still few and far between as written knowledge had been exclusively held by the religious classes in private repositories, the image of this ancient library once existent in Alexandra had been evocative of mysterious ambience of esoteric mystical knowledge of the misty pasts and thus inspired imagination to create myths and legends. In fact, libraries as we know now and find ubiquitously are fairly a modern invention born of the cultural legacy of the Library of Alexandria as the apotheosis of two ancient literary and cultural traditions converging the Greek and the Egyptian.
The Egyptian Background
When Alexander the Great and his army conquered the ancient Middle East in the 4th century - one of which was Egypt -, they were encountered with cultures with long literary traditions and traditions of literary documents in repositories called, “the House of Life� and “the House of Books� that housed thousands of documents written in papyrus-made scrolls for the Egyptian and clay tablets for the Mesopotamian under the administration of the priest class. Of these two houses of documents, it is the House of Life, the ancient Egyptian equivalent of a library, from which the majority of texts have survived until the present time. Consequently, Alexander and his army were overawed with the rich literary culture of their conquered land took the ancient Egyptian concept of a library and transformed it from a religious to a secular institution by providing a bridge of knowledge from the most ancient concepts of libraries to the modern libraries in the process of Hellenization of the Egyptian.
The Greek and Hellenization
Alexander’s Hellenization was a two-fold political program consisting of (1) acculturation by performing and accepting certain religious and cultural traditions making him look “Egyptian� to gain acceptance by the Egyptian elite class; and (2) the promotion of the Greek culture, “Hellenism� by spreading the Greek culture throughout Egypt. The process of Hellenization in Egypt was well succeeded by his general named Ptolemy, (the founder of the Ptolemy dynasty from 304 to 330 BC, including Cleopatra VII) who made Alexandria the capital of Egypt and the cultural center of the Hellenistic and the famed Library of Alexandria as the centerpiece. In fact, the Ptolemies� subsidization of the Library was their way to link their dynasty, which was in a foreign land far away from their homeland Greece, to the greatness of their culture. They also banned the export of papyrus from Egypt, which resulted in increase of prices for books and creation of the industry of forgeries and plagiarism.
According to the Greek historian/geographer Strabo (64 BC-24 AD) upon visiting the Library of Alexandria, it was part of the royal palace and an annex to the museum, which was a community of academic and religious scholars gathering in the shrine of the Muses of the arts and intellect. The membership was exclusive to the men holding property in common with a priest in charge of the museum. The library housed over 500,000 papyrus book-scrolls written by the ancient notables, such as Homer, Euripeds, Sophocles, and Herodotus, all in Greeks as most of the documents stored therein had been translated from their original languages by priests under the Hellenistic influence. Besides, the Library organized all the entries into alphabetical order as a classification system of library organization that is akin to modern library information system.
Destruction of the Library of Alexandria
Since there has been no definite archeological evidence of the Library discovered, myths and legends concerning its end are still rampant in the imaginations of creative minds. It is said to be burned down by the Civil Wars in 48 or 47 BC by Plutarch in Life of Caesar, the theory advocated by Seneca, a famous Roman orator, and later popularized by Edward Gibbon of “The Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire.� However, the most plausible and logical theory of the destruction of the Library is that the humidity must have ensued the destruction of books in papyrus and that the process of destruction would have taken place over hundreds of years contrary to a popular dramatic version of its being burned to ashes by Caesar’s men in one night. Also, another speculation is that after Egypt was annexed to the Roman Empire in 30 BC, the presence of the Library of Alexandria became an afterthought to the Romans, who imported Greek Scholars and books into Rome, rather than made a long trip to the foreign land. The Romans were more concerned with building their own architectural building, including libraries and schools, in their own land by sending their book agents to the Library of Alexandria to take the originals back to Rome, which contributed to a gradual demise of the Library, by making its presence obsolete and unnecessary for the upkeep of the maintenance.
The great ancient Library of Alexandria as an architectural artifact might have disappeared into history, but its cultural inheritance of civilization preserving intellectual act of learning in appreciation of arts and beauty still strongly resonates with his historiography and contribution to our modern world by continuing to inspire our minds to carry it on for posterity. The Library of Alexandria still exists in the presence of any place of learning or knowledge as long as we appreciate such cultural influence on what we take for granted, such as using our own library. Now that I have read this book, the next time I visit any library, I would appreciate the legacy of the Library of Alexandria and Alexander, the Great for making it all possible.
September 9, 2017
I would give nearly anything to see this library in all its glory. What a sight to behold.
Decent summary of the most famous library in the world. An introduction, but still decent.
Decent summary of the most famous library in the world. An introduction, but still decent.
March 1, 2019
I was supremely disappointed when I received this book. Pamphlet or brochure would be a more accurate descriptor. Partially my fault for not paying close attention to the number of pages. I went out to the Wikipedia page for Library of Alexandria and it appears to be more comprehensive. I concede that Wikipedia is probably not as trustworthy or accurate, but telling that many of the sources cited there were also sources in this book. Also telling, this book is not mentioned in the bibliography on the Wikipedia page.
Most of the content is about Ptolemy, Caesar, and Alexander the great. The book discusses their influence in creating and maintaining the library. Very briefly. The book proceeds to set forth three theories about how the library was destroyed and puts forth evidence for why all three of those are dubious.
I bought this book because I recently finished Carl Sagan's Cosmos and he frequently mentions the Library. There are many anecdotes he tells that are not even in this book. Sagan mentions Hapatia and gives more context around her than this book, which mentions her briefly as the daughter of one of the librarians. Very disappointed, I'm looking forward to reading the Wikipedia page tonight.
Most of the content is about Ptolemy, Caesar, and Alexander the great. The book discusses their influence in creating and maintaining the library. Very briefly. The book proceeds to set forth three theories about how the library was destroyed and puts forth evidence for why all three of those are dubious.
I bought this book because I recently finished Carl Sagan's Cosmos and he frequently mentions the Library. There are many anecdotes he tells that are not even in this book. Sagan mentions Hapatia and gives more context around her than this book, which mentions her briefly as the daughter of one of the librarians. Very disappointed, I'm looking forward to reading the Wikipedia page tonight.
November 14, 2018
Wonder of the Ancient World
A brief and concise story of the most known library in human history. The contents , origins, and destruction of the library are all covered as well as its importance not just to Egypt but the whole ancient world..It would have been an amazing wonderland and the fact that a new library has been designed to replace the old is evidence of this..my one regret is the lack of illustrations to spark the imagination!
A brief and concise story of the most known library in human history. The contents , origins, and destruction of the library are all covered as well as its importance not just to Egypt but the whole ancient world..It would have been an amazing wonderland and the fact that a new library has been designed to replace the old is evidence of this..my one regret is the lack of illustrations to spark the imagination!
May 26, 2018
Very well researched book. It covered all the popular theories of what happened to the library but even touched on the more mundane theory that it just fell out of
I already wrote a review and it can be seen above so please read it this entire review process is not worth it
I already wrote a review and it can be seen above so please read it this entire review process is not worth it
September 18, 2017
I didn't enjoy this book. It was very dry and moved slow.
August 3, 2015
Move along, this is not the thesis you are looking for.
If you were expecting a decent college level thesis, this is not it. I'm sure that is would be adequate for freshman high school, but the writing is sloppy and boring. Combine that with a soporific narrator who seems to be reading it for the first time, and this is what you get. The author seems to have done this at the last minute and tried hard to make the word quota. The narrator has halts frequently and inappropriately. Not worth the minimal cost to purchase.
If you were expecting a decent college level thesis, this is not it. I'm sure that is would be adequate for freshman high school, but the writing is sloppy and boring. Combine that with a soporific narrator who seems to be reading it for the first time, and this is what you get. The author seems to have done this at the last minute and tried hard to make the word quota. The narrator has halts frequently and inappropriately. Not worth the minimal cost to purchase.
March 1, 2014
Every so often I try to read something non-fiction to help feed that part of my brain. This short history of the Library of Alexandria is very readable and full of information that may be new to the general reader, but not necessarily to a scholar of this subject. Fortunately, I was a general reader, so I learned that was new to me. This book provides a good, general overview of the topic and supplies a fairly extensive bibliography for those who wish to delve deeper into this subject.
March 10, 2014
Great, concise account of the importance of the Library of Alexandria, its most important librarians, how it came to be, and, of course, the theories surrounding its demise, as no one knows exactly what happened. I enjoyed learning about the librarians who were the first to develop classification systems for books.
December 16, 2016
This book has some very interesting facts about the Library of Alexandria such as the first card cataloging and the first recorded event of alphabetization. It is short and very concise. It covers how the library came into existence, the tactics used to stock the library and to what historians think might have happened to it.
February 24, 2014
Wow! What a lot of cool information on the historical presence of how libraries began. There was even a library war... who had the best collection. Fascinating book that I borrowed from Amazon Prime. I might re-read it again just soak in more knowledge. ;o)
March 2, 2014
A little dry but that is to be expected with non fiction of this type. Very interesting but short.
February 23, 2014
Very informative but the writing is really dry.
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