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FTF: James.m.s! - 06 February 2004.
THE ABOVE COORDINATES ARE BOGUS!
This Description is Text-To-Speech / Voice Reader Compatible.
Kitsap Regional Library.
Central Branch.
1301 Sylvan Way, Bremerton, WA., 98310.
Telephone: (360) 405-9100.
OPEN: Monday through Saturday: 10am to 4pm --- CLOSED: Sunday. |
Royal Library of Alexandria.
T he City of Alexandria was founded in Egypt by Alexander the Great. His successor as Pharaoh, Ptolemy II Soter, founded the Museum or Royal Library of Alexandria. The Museum was a shrine of the Nine Muses, modeled after the Lyceum of Aristotle located in Athens. The Museum was a place of study, which included lecture areas, gardens, a zoo and a shrine for each of the Muses, as well as the Library itself.
I t has been estimated that at one time the Library contained over 500,000 documents from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt, India and many other nations. Over 100 scholars lived at the Museum full time to perform research, write, lecture or translate and copy documents. The library was so large that it actually had another branch or "daughter" library at the Temple of Serapis.
O ne story holds that the Library was seeded, so to speak, with Aristotle's own private collection, through one of his students, Demetrius of Phaleron. Another concerns how its collection grew so large. By decree of Ptolemy III of Egypt, all visitors to the city were required to surrender all books and scrolls in their possession; these writings were then swiftly copied by official scribes. The originals were put into the Library, and the copies were delivered to the previous owners. While encroaching on the rights of the traveler or merchant, it also helped to create a reservoir of books in the relatively new city.
S o who did burn the Library of Alexandria? Unfortunately most of the writers from Plutarch (who apparently blamed Caesar) to Edward Gibbons (a staunch atheist or deist who liked very much to blame Christians and blamed Theophilus ) to Bishop Gregory (who was particularly anti-Moslem, blamed Omar) all had an axe to grind and consequently must be seen as biased.
P robably everyone mentioned above had a part in destroying some part of the Library's holdings. The collection may have ebbed and flowed as some documents were destroyed and others were added. For instance, Mark Antony was supposed to have given Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls for the Library, long after Julius Caesar was accused of burning it.
T he real tragedy of course is not the uncertainty of knowing who to blame for the Library's destruction, but that so much of the world's ancient history, literature and learning were lost forever.
Credits: Preston Chesser
eHistory.com, WikiPedia.org, bede.org.uk, Egyptian Graphics,
NEW Library of Alexandria, Reading Is Fundamental,
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