Alexandria, as proclaimed by scholars of the time, was the intellectual capital of the Greek world. The greatest representation of this was the Library of Alexandria, the largest source of knowledge in the world. It was established by Ptolemy I in 290 B.C. and flourished under the Ptolemies as more and more works were added to it. Ptolemy II Philadelphus endowed it with the ambitious mission of procuring a copy of every book in existence. Ptolemy III Euregetes wrote a letter "to all the world's sovereigns" asking to borrow their books. When the Athenians lent him the texts to Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, he had them copied, returned the copies, and kept the originals, gladly forfeiting the extravagant collateral which had been demanded for their safekeeping. All ships that stopped in the port of Alexandria were also searched for books and were given the same treatment, thus arose the term "ship libraries" for confiscated collections housed in the Great Library. By 250 B.C., the number of rolls reached 532,000, the equivalent to 100,000 modern books. The remarkable collection of manuscripts brought fame to the city on the Nile as the literary and scientific capital of the Mediterranean.

The First Librarians

The first recorded librarian was Demetrius of Phaleron, who supervised the founding of the Great Library and directed the initial organization of its mission in the years 290 to 282 B.C.E. . Zenodotus of Ephesus held the post of head librarian from the end of Ptolemy I Soler's reign until 260 B.C.E. His successor Kallimachos of Kyrene , was undoubtedly Alexandria's most famous librarian, creating for the first time a subject catalogue for 120,000 scrolls of the Library's holdings, called the Pinakes or Tables. All knowledge was divided into eight major subject categories: Oratory, History, Laws, Philosophy, Medicine, Lyric Poetry, Tragedy, and Miscellany. The Pinakes was a massive undertaking, described as having been made up of one hundred and twenty scrolls and the extant fragments show that citations give something of each author's life, his works, and the number of lines in each work. Even at that, it was by no means comprehensive, but it was the first sort of grand index to knowledge ever and a precursor to all subsequent catalogues of books.

The End of the Library

In 412 Theophilus' nephew Cyril succeeded him as Patriarch of Christianity. The Patriarch exercised control of Alexandria, and the conflict between secular and religious authority was decided in 415, when the Roman prefect Orestes, officially still in charge of the province, objected to Cyril's order that all Jews be expelled from Alexandria. Cyril's army murdered the prefect and were canonized by him for this deed. These same monks captured Hypatia, daughter of the Museum's last great mathematician Theon, who was the last keeper of the library. Supposedly an advisor to Orestes and one of the last members of the museum-library. She was dragged from her chariot by the mob, stripped, flayed, and finally burned alive in the library of the Caesareum as a witch. The Patriach Cyril was made a saint for this action. The library itself was ransacked and then burned to the ground, losing a wealth of knowledge no amount of gold or silver could match.

Back to Alexandria