Under Roman Catholic Rule, Julius Caesar killed everyone they conquered, this is why many people suggest that perhaps the Vatican archives may have hidden knowledge about what happened to the Library of Alexandria or perhaps even ancient scrolls or copies of ancient scrolls that may have survived the fire. But how and why it was lost is still a mystery. Most of the earliest clay tablets that were created contained information saved for practical purposes. Plutarch, for instance, provides this account: When the enemy tried to cut off his (Julius Caesar’s) fleet, he was forced to repel the danger by using fire, and this spread from the dockyards and destroyed the great library. From The Library of Virginia: Fairfax family. The basement of the Vatican houses 53 miles of shelf space with very limited access. The Library of Alexandria was once the largest library, a storehouse of the world's finest literature. The Eastern Isles were a tropical paradise and a thriving nation before the eruption. Mar 2017 942 Colorado Dec 28, 2020 #92 There are many cases across multiple cultures where cities were burned, and this especially included libraries. Now, what do ancient texts tell us about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria? The original library branch was located at the royal palace at Alexandria, near the harbor. And any of those attacks could have marked the demise of the Library. But the awareness of this history, what has happened, how it has happened, and what parts continue to happen, will go a long way. Precisely because the Great Library vanished without a trace, the myth has been magnified over centuries. There was also the tomb of the last Pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra. Library fires have happened sporadically through the centuries: notable examples are the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, destruction of Library of Nalanda in India and the accidental burning of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar. The scholar was Theon, “the man from the Mouseion, an Egyptian, a philosopher.”. While he doesn’t mention any burning, he talks of the Museum book collection as if a thing of the past. Ptolemy I, successor of Alexander the Great. Well first off, It’s been burned down 3 times. Updated at 3:10 p.m. on 9/23/2020. The myth is that the Library was intentionally burnt. See more ideas about Library of alexandria, Alexandria, Hypatia. Your email address will not be published. Pompeii mosaic depicting a group of philosophers, probably Plato in the center, via Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Library of Alexandria, had the largest collection of book. It spread from the ships in the harbor to Alexandria, burning down the area of the city that contained the Library of Alexandria. Once the largest library in the ancient world, and containing works by the greatest thinkers and writers of antiquity, including Homer, Plato, Socrates and much more, the Library of Alexandria, northern Egypt, is popularly believed to have been destroyed in a huge fire around 2000 … We are here to make sure that you are 100% satisfied with your purchase! Well first off, It’s been burned down 3 times. Editors note: After the editing process, one paragraph in this article did not reflect the author’s original intent. He explained, “when Ptolemy Philadelphus succeeded to the throne he became a seeker after knowledge and a man of some learning. While the general described in detail the city he conquered, there is no mention of a library. Additionally, the lack of clarity as to when the library disappeared and who’s responsible means we blame our chosen villain for its loss. The Burning of the Library of Alexandria, 1876. The Library held between 40,000 and 700,000 papyrus rolls, written in Greek. Four contemporary historians stated that Caesar burned the library accidentally, when burning ships, but, there was more than one library in Alexandria, and recent evidence geographical evidence (by the French archeologist Jean Yves in his book; Alexandria: Jewel of Egypt) highlights that the historians may have got bibliothekas, which … Library of Alexandria Burning The Library of Alexandria was the cultural center which revolved the intellectual life of Hellenism. The mystery exists not for lack of suspects but from an excess of them. The immense gap between the myth and the reality, that we know so little of, is difficult to fathom. (9 Facts), 15 Exquisite Royal Portraits You Should Check Out, Amedeo Modigliani: A Modern Influencer Beyond his Time. While the story itself isn’t accurate, it speaks to us today as we face the digital book burnings that are threatening the modern-day Library of Alexandria: the internet. Abstract Expressionism is one of the most celebrated and significant art movements of the 20th century. This brings us to the main sources about the books in the Library. And the reality, that it completely disappeared and only exists in ancient texts. The Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies inherited Egypt from Alexander and ruled the country until Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 30 B.C.E. However, the text describing the Museum previously quoted, written 25 years later, doesn’t even mention fire damage. We know this happened because Caesar wrote about setting the fire. The reply was, “if their content is in accordance with the book of Allah, we may do without them, for in that case the book of Allah more than suffices. This question is based on a number of false premises. Aurelian destroyed the palace area. Not one of its papyrus rolls survives. Your email address will not be published. Three wonders, the Library, Alexander, and Cleopatra’s tombs vanished without a trace. What happened? It was built in 288 BCE by Ptolemy I, And was named in honor of their famous barbarian yet intellectual, Alexander “the Great “. At its height, the Library of Alexandria contained anywhere from 70,000 to 700,000 scrolls. Its destruction wasn't caused by burning, this is a myth. According to several authors, the Library of Alexandria was accidentally destroyed by Julius Caesar during the siege of Alexandria in 48 BC. Dios. Not a single stone of the Library building has been found. A lot of historians believed that Julius Cesar burned 101 ships, which were landing on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea because of his fight with little Ptolemy, Cleopatra s brother. Written three centuries later, “in those days the orthodox inhabitants of Alexandria were filled with zeal and they collected a large quantity of wood and burned the place of the heathen philosophers.”. Fishburn, Matthew. The Library housed thousands of years of the ancient Kemetic teachings confiscated with its invasion approx 1700 BCE. Required fields are marked *. Why call it a Museum? We know the popular ones like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Socrates, Hippocrates, Homer. Nor the tragic loss of a library. The burning of the Library is just a footnote to that larger story. There is only a single description, of all ancient texts that survive, as to what the library might have looked like. Before we go into details of the destruction of the library. It existed for almost seven hundred years. One can only imagine who else had visited the Library of Alexandria whose works were just lost into ashes. Sources: all the ancient texts quoted in italic link to their source. Then, in 2002, when a new library, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, opened as heir to the lost one as “A center of excellence in the production and dissemination of knowledge, as well as a meeting place for the dialogue of peoples and cultures.”. There was even a time where ships that came to the harbor were required to hand over all books that they had, as well as documentation and blueprints of ships and any type of technology. Private Collection. He achieved his objective: before long, some fifty-four thousand books were acquired.”, The conqueror was impressed but asked the Caliph what to do with those books. Emperor Caracalla slaughtered the population of Alexandria. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The Great Library of Alexandria, in northern Egypt was once the largest of the ancient world, containing the works of Homer, Plato, Euclid, Socrates, Aristotle and hundreds more.Close to one million books and scrolls from across Greece, Assyria, Egypt, Persia and India filled its vast shelves. Diocletian “set fire to the city and burnt it completely.” He also wanted to massacre the inhabitants until their blood reached his horse’s knees. I suppose naming a blog Alexandria Burning could raise a few eyebrows in light of the recent goings-on in Egypt and their call for a change in their government. The building, part of the Royal Quarter of palaces, was instead called the Museum. These are just a few examples, of just what we know of. In this great library, the two cultures of the West and the East met through books and lectures hosted by the library, which was considered the first attempt at the modern idea of globalization It was compulsory that any scholar who was studying in Alexandria’s library would leave … Again, the Library of Alexandria was more than just a library, it was a research center, a university, and medical school. With collections of works, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and gardens, the library was part of a larger research institution called the Museum of Alexandria, where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world studied. We do not know the exact date of its creation, but it would have been around 300 BC, ordered by either Ptolemy I or Ptolemy II. Their creators had no need to save or archive them and as such those first examples of writing are lost. You see, there are, unfortunately, a tremendous number of widespread misconceptions about what the Library of Alexandria was and what happened to it. $80.00 ISBN 978-0-7123-0684-3. Fact is it declined gradually over centuries. I have found it” or that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and also his famous quote about giving me a lever long enough and a Falcom to which to place it and I shall move the world, Heron of Alexandria who is a mathematician and it was known and believed to have created the very first working model of a steam engine 2,000 years before James Watts, Eratosthenes who is the very first person to identify that the earth rotated around the Sun and he did so eighteen hundred years before Copernicus and he was also the very first person to find the circumference of the earth and he estimated it correctly to within two hundred miles. Library of Alexandria, the most famous library of Classical antiquity. Wondering why statues and monuments were destroyed and how many ancient artworks survive, he searched for a book answering that question. Guillaume Deprez is a contributing writer and art historian, graduate of the Louvre School. Of course, nobody actually knows for sure estimates based in size and descriptions are between 400k-700k scrolls were burned to ashes. Taking a hard look at the facts about the Library of Alexandria, there is much we do not know. Unfortunately, it also burned down part of the city – the area where the great Library stood. Here it is, written nearly 300 years after its creation: Disappointingly, this is no actual description of a grand building, only that scholars lived in a place where they could stroll and take their meals together in a large hall. Following the anti-pagan edicts of 391 AD, the Serapeum temple was destroyed. See more ideas about Library of alexandria, Book worms, Books. If, on the other hand, they contain matter not in accordance with the book of Allah, there can be no need to preserve them. Last edited: Dec 28, 2020. Papers, 1777-1864 (bulk: 1861-1862). Although there is a mythology of “ the burning of the Library at Alexandria”, the library may have suffered several fires or acts of destruction of varying degrees over many years. In Alexandria it was papyrus rolls rather than books that were supposedly burnt. But how and why it was lost is still a mystery. If we order by size what they tell us, the number of books was either 40,000; 54,800; 70,000; 200,000; 400,000; 490,000 or 700,000 books. Such an omission proves little since he was not in the habit … Geologists think it was right on the harbor, and multiple stories. As a result, the only limit to Alexandria’s wonders is our imagination. The library of alexandria was situated in alexandria egypt. They’re burning the Library of Alexandria again, and we’re letting them get away with it. It states: The second explained how books were acquired: Egyptian holding a papyrus roll, surrounded by Osiris and Anubis, via Pushkin Museum. Then, a stone inscription mentions by name a director of the ‘Alexandrina Bybliothece.’ Emperor Domitian relied on the Library to copy texts lost to fire, sending “scribes to Alexandria to transcribe and correct them.”, Another author even informs us that Emperor Hadrian actually visited the Museum in 130 AD: “In the Museum at Alexandria, he propounded many questions to the teachers.”. What it looked like, its exact location, precisely how many books it held, if it burnt, and who destroyed it. If making sense of Alexandria’s story wasn’t already confounding enough, there were several libraries in Alexandria, two of them ‘great.’ The first was the library that was part of the Museum. It absolutely was one of the biggest or largest and most important libraries in the world. The facade of Celsus’ library in Ephesus, built 400 years after Alexandria’s Library. We know this happened because Caesar wrote about setting the fire. It was so impressive, that aside from the Capitol in Rome, “the whole world beholds nothing more magnificent.” And this time, we do have a description of its library: “Within the colonnades, enclosures were built, some having become repositories for the books available to the diligent for study, thus spurring on an entire city to a mastery of learning. The library at Alexandria was said to be one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The fire at Alexandria also prefigures the demise of the book in the age of digital texts. The library itself is known to have had an Acquisitions Department and a Cataloguing Department,  and we know that it had a hall containing shelves of collections of papyrus scrolls known as “Biblioteca”. From the late 4th century AD, we have descriptions of the Serapeum. Inside the reading room of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. To optimize our Worldwide Shipping program, products may be shipped seperately. Just imagine what else they had in there. When Julius Caesar intervened in the civil war between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII, Caesar set fire to the ships in the harbor. Ancient Rome Ancient History Cyclades Greece Library Of Alexandria Ghost City Carl Sagan … Accession 31308. However, he didn’t mention burning the library. Indeed, the beauty is beyond the power of words.”. Preston Chesser. He searched for books regardless of expense, offering booksellers the very best terms to persuade them to bring their wares here. Outline of a sphinx, with the statue of a Priest carrying an Osiris-jar. In Alexandria it was papyrus rolls rather than books that were supposedly burnt. The library was named after Alexander the Great, who initiated the collection of documents in 334 BCE. Not…, WARNING! 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