The Great Library: The Royal Library of Alexandria

On this page is a paper I wrote last winter (December 2005, January 2006). The topic is the ancient library in Alexandria. 

The Library of Alexandria

The Royal Library of Alexandria, Egypt was a library way ahead of its time, with an astonishing collection and many developments, the library affects the world even today. The Library of Alexandria is often considered the “first library in a modern sense” (Edwards and Fisher 211). The people of the library were very hands-on and enthusiastic about their work. They did not just sit and read quietly, but they gazed at the stars, dissected human bodies to learn about anatomy, sparked controversy on a plethora of topics, and forever changed history’s course with their developments. Important theories of the world were created at the library, and the modern library as we know it took its first bloom at Alexandria’s splendid library. 

The library, for better or for worse, endured changes between thinkers and between ideologies and religions. Names like Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Eratothenes, Euclid, Archimedes, and, of course, Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies are connected to the library. The library was a place where hundreds of thousands of written works were copied and collected, and it is a place where, sadly, probably some of the most informational and influential works of the Hellenistic age were destroyed. With at least 300,000, and up to (a more likely) 700,000 books, the library was not only a place of important people and discoveries, but also a very vast library.

In 331 B.C., Alexander the Great ordered the city of Alexandria be built.  Alexander would never set sight on the miraculous Egyptian city, built in his name, for he died in 323 B.C. at a mere age of 33 (Trumble 2). After his death, Alexander’s empire, which stretched from Europe to  Egypt and India, was divided among his generals. The generals did not rule unitedly, but divided their pieces of the empire and ruled each one separately. A general named Ptolemy became ruler of Egypt and its surrounding areas. 

Ptolemy ordered the Egyptian capital to be changed from Memphis to the flowing port city of Alexandria. Ptolemy was a man of the sciences and learning, so he decided to make Alexandria a city of learning. What better way than to create the greatest and most famous library in the Ancient World and one of the most miraculous hubs of learning of all time: The Library of Alexandria.

The library actually started as a branch of the great learning center probably suggested by one of Ptolemy’s advisors, Demetrius of Phaleron. The great library and research center would be called the Museion, “named after the Greek goddesses of science and learning, Muses” (Trumble 2-5). The Library of Alexandria eventually became a great library. 

Even though the Library of Alexandria is clearly the most famous library in ancient times, there were libraries before it. There were records of temples in Egypt, long before the Library of Alexandria, that housed books and there were private libraries and collections throughout the world. These private libraries included that of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, in addition to the libraries of the wealthy and of other cities. As far as public libraries go, however, “the first known public library was in the Greek city of Athens” (Trumble 5). 

After Ptolemy I (or Ptolemy Souter) died, the library continued to grow under his son Ptolemy II (or Ptolemy Philadelphus). The library gained its many books mostly by seizures from homes and ships in Alexandria. The Ptolemy family ordered homes and docked ships to be searched and their books to be taken to the library, either to keep or to make copies of them. Most of the books were in Greek, but some were in Hebrew and a slew of other languages. Ptolemy II made exchanges and deals with other nations and cities to be able to take or copy their works. With books from many countries and in many languages, the Library of Alexandria was eclectic, diverse, and large.

The Library of Alexandria grew and grew, and eventually could not comfortably house any more materials. “During the reign of Euergetes, the number of books grew so large, a second library [or “daughter” library] had to be built” (Trumble 8). This “daughter” library of the Library of Alexandria was called the Serapeum, named after the god Serapis. The Serapeum was much smaller than the main library and is often times referred to, along with the main library, as the Library of Alexandria. To many, the Serapeum is synonymous with the main library, so the two are often referred to as one library.

There were many famous people, advancements, and discoveries at the Library of Alexandria (and its sister structure, the Museion). Scholars at the library mapped and measured the Earth and stars and produced the “greatest work of ancient astronomy, the Almangest of Claudius Ptolemy” (Stille 247). There was a great amount of scholarly work at the library, for the Library of Alexandria “virtually invented modern scholarship, creating the definitive text of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey” (Stille 247). According to references, “Ptolemy [I] invited the great mathematician Euclid to Alexandria and Euclid’s famous Elements of Geometry bore a dedication to Ptolemy” (Stille 247).  The Library of Alexandria even contained, eventually, the Greek philosopher Aristotle's collection of books (Fischer 58).

The Ptolemies called upon rulers of other nations for texts and had plentiful Jewish and Buddhist scriptures, among other religious books. Many of these religious works were translated by religious scholars actually at the library. On the topic of religion, Alexandria also produced Platonius, a Christian philosopher, the famous Gnostic gospels, and works of a Jewish thinker named Philo. Alexandria is credited with producing many other religious works and thinkers. 

Alexandria was in a league of its own. With two large libraries and a museum (and research center), it possessed great buildings and research facilities along with distinguished professionals on staff. These professionals specialized in a wide variety of categories, too. The city had a zoo, an anatomical institute, and an observatory (Crew 73). 

It is no wonder Alexandria was a hub of science and knowledge in the ancient world. The libraries and the museum were closely related and were centers of information and research. Of course, the facilities at Alexandria, namely the main library, had their share of rivals. Most notably of these rivals was the Pergamon library, which fought unsuccessfully to match the might of the Library of Alexandria (Crew 73).

A good source estimating the number of books housed in the libraries is the twelfth-century writer John Tzetezes. Although Tzetezes’ ancient sources of this information are lost today, there are records that Tzetezes wrote that, according to his source(s) at the time, there “were 42,800 books in the Serapium, and 400,000 mixed books and 90,000 unmixed books in the main library” (qtd. in Trumble 8-9). One debate is what Tzetezes meant by “mixed” and “unmixed” books. According to Kelly Trumble, a writer about the library, “A “mixed” book probably contained more than one work, “unmixed” being a book of a single work” (9).

One major drawback of a large library was that it was hard to find anything with no efficient cataloguing system. The Library of Alexandria was no different and had troubles cataloguing its vast collection. Luckily enough for the librarians of the library, at least "an encyclopedic catalogue of scrolls was used... most in Greek [alphabetical order]" (Fischer 183).

On the topic of librarians, the librarians of the Alexandrian library had to be not only librarians (in the modern sense of the word); they had to be "full-fledged philosophers" (Sarton 145). Even so, "as the Library of Alexandria was a nursery to humanists and philologists, the closely related [and, many times, synonymous] Museion of Alexandria was a home to anatomists and astronomers" (Sarton 145).

Sadly, the library was not open to all. Back in the time of the Library of Alexandria, libraries were more repositories of knowledge. They were exclusive and many of them were private. Now, in modern times, the library serves mainly as a public resource of knowledge; although now they contain a lesser percentage of human knowledge of the world than did the libraries of ancient times (Edwards and Fisher ix). 

With "few or no duplicates in the library's collections" (Kent, Lancour, and Daily 8), the Library of Alexandria surely had a true, eclectic collection. There were quotes that, together, the Museion and other libraries had a total of around "700,000 volumes when [so Plutriarch says] it (the library collections) were burned" (Kent, Lancour, and Daily 8).  This burning was, at least, in part started by the event when the famous Roman emperor Julius Caesar began his fiery siege of the city of Alexandria, in 47 B.C. 

Even with the alleged total destruction of the library by Caesar, there were so many events written after it that included the Library of Alexandria in them. This leads many modern scholars to believe that only some parts of the library or its collection were destroyed or, at the least, harmed [at all]. The leader of Egypt at the time of Caesar's failed capturing of the city was Cleopatra. Interesting enough, the also-famous Cleopatra had a previous relationship with Caesar. 

The ruler Mark Antony, another of Cleopatra's very close friends, was said to have given around 200,000 (some reports say up to 300,000) books from a rival library, the Pergamon library, in 32 B.C. (Kent, Lancour, and Daily 8). This event is presumably to compensate from loss of books from Caesar's invasion. Thus, Mark Antony's gift to Cleopatra leads people to believe that books had been lost from Caesar's attack. Since books had been lost, they obviously needed replacing.

Even after these blurry sequences of events, more awaited the library. When Christianity spread, anti-pagan leaders threatened the great library. As the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science says, "In 391 A.D. the Patriarch Theophilus  decided to convert all the temples of Alexandria into churches, and riots broke out, probably most intense around the Serapeion as the center of the older religion [the pagan religions of the past]" (Kent, Lancour, and Daily 8).

            During Theophilus' acts, the pagan temples and shrines were destroyed. After this unclear historical event, many teachers and scholars fled the city to other areas. Many of these 

places were flourishing, and accepted teachers and learning (such a city, at the time, was Constantinople). However, science and culture were still growing in the city of Alexandria until another mysterious and tragic turn occurred.

Arab conquering was taking place in many areas around the globe. A man name Amru conquered Alexandria in 634 and was said to have burned the [entire] library (of Alexandria) on the orders of the leader Caliph Omar. But this event, according to many scholars, has no basis and is "refuted by many who have studied the library's history" (Kent, Lancour, and Daily 8).  No matter what the fate of the library, it was virtually inexistent in 416 A.D. (Sarton 156).

Today almost nothing remains of the Library of Alexandria. There is little to no useful knowledge that has been gathered from archeological expeditions. However, there is knowledge of the library gathered from letters and books around the time of the library, therefor scholars today must rely on the ancient writings almost solely. 

Today, even though the old Library of Alexandria is inexistent, the spirit of the library still lives on in the city of Alexandria. Recently, the Egyptian government opened a new library, with a huge collection, that honored the old library. The "new Library of Alexandria" was opened in 2002 and named the Bibliotheca Alexandrina ("Egypt Opens New Library of Alexandria"). The city of Alexandria was a wonder in the ancient world, and that wonder lives on to this day.

Works Cited

Battles, Matthew. Library: An Unquiet History. New York: W.V. Norton & Company, 2004.

Crew, P. Mack. The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 7 (Part 1: The Hellenistic World). Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Edwards, Brian, and Biddy Fisher. Libraries and Learning Resource Centres. Oxford (UK): Architectural Press, 2001.

"Egypt Opens New Library of Alexandria." National Geographic Today. 16 Oct. 2002. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1016_021016_alexandria.html> (4 Dec. 2005)

Fischer, Stephen Roger. History of Reading. London (UK): Reaktion Books, 2003.

Haag, Michael, ed.. Rough Guide History of Egypt. London (UK): Rough Guides, 2003.

Kent, Allen, Harold Lancour, Jay E. Daily, eds.. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Vol. 26. New York: CRC Press, 1979.

"Library of Alexandria." Wikipedia. 16 Nov. 2001. 4 Dec. 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria> (4 Dec. 2005).

Sarton, George. Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C.. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959.

Stille, Alexander. The Future of the Past. New York: Picador Publishing, 2003.

Trumble, Kelly. The Library of Alexandria. New York/Boston: Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin), 2003.