08.09.2014 0 7285
What world libraries of the past and present can be considered the largest treasuries of human thought? Over the entire existence of our civilization, there have not been so many of them - and the most famous of them have sunk into oblivion.
THE BEGINNING OF TIME
The most ancient libraries are usually called the repositories of clay tablets of the Assyro-Babylonian civilization. They are more than four and a half thousand years old. The first repository of papyrus books appeared only 12 centuries later. It became the library of Ancient Egypt, founded during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II. Another equally famous “ancient book depository is associated with the name of Alexander the Great. The emperor founded a city in the Nile Delta and named it after himself.
Later a library was built there, which was called the Alexandria Library. It was headed by the greatest scientists: Eratosthenes, Zenodotus, Aristarchus of Samos, Callimachus, etc. By the way, it was under Callimachus that for the first time in history a catalog of existing manuscripts was created, which was later regularly replenished. Thanks to this, it became the first prototype of the modern library we are used to. According to various estimates, it contained from 100 to 700 thousand volumes.
In addition to the works of ancient Greek literature and science that formed its basis, there were books in oriental languages. Quite a few of them were translated into Greek. Thus, the interpenetration and mutual enrichment of cultures occurred. The library was visited by ancient Greek mathematicians and philosophers, in particular Euclid and Eratosthenes.
In those days, it even eclipsed one of the recognized wonders of the world - the Faros Lighthouse, located there, in Alexandria. Unfortunately, the library has not survived. Some died in fire back in 48 BC, during the capture of the city by Julius Caesar. It was finally destroyed in 646 AD, during the time of the victorious Arab caliph Omar, who captured Egypt. It is he who is credited with the words: “If these books repeat the Koran, then they are not needed, if not, then they are harmful.”
However, there is an encouraging version that the funds of the Library of Alexandria were not destroyed, but the Arabs took possession of them as victors. It is no coincidence that UNESCO has now developed a plan for the restoration of the Library of Alexandria, primarily from the period of Antiquity and early Christianity. For this purpose, the collection and copying of surviving manuscripts from adjacent countries will be carried out.
WHO CREATED IVAN THE TERRIBLE LIBRARY?
The disappeared library of Ivan IV the Terrible, also known as “Liberia” (from the Latin liber - “book”), still haunts historians, researchers of antiquity and all sorts of adventurers. For several centuries it has been the source of numerous rumors and speculations. It is also interesting that although the collection of rare books is named after Ivan the Terrible, it came to Moscow long before the birth of the Tsar. On the contrary, under Grozny, a priceless treasure was lost, perhaps forever.
Before it came to Rus', the owner of the book collection was the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI. After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the emperor and his niece, Princess Sophia Palaiologos, fled to Rome. At the same time, the main part of the library, which included volumes in ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew, was transported there on the ship. The library, which had been collected bit by bit over millennia, arrived in Moscow as the dowry of Sophia, who was given in marriage to the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III (grandfather of Ivan the Terrible).
In addition to books related to spiritual and church topics, scientific treatises and poems of ancient classics occupied a significant place in it. According to rumors, "Liberia" contained books on magic and witchcraft practices. Standing apart were priceless volumes that told about the history of human civilization and the origin of life on Earth.
Many researchers believe that the basis of the main book collection of Ancient Rus' was precisely part of the lost Library of Alexandria. Sources report that even under the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III - the son of Ivan III and Sophia Paleologus and the future father of Ivan the Terrible - all manuscripts were translated into Russian.
The same sources indicate that this was done by the learned Athonite monk Maxim the Greek (1470-1556), a famous publicist and translator of that time. He was discharged from Constantinople for a specific purpose: to translate books from languages unknown in Rus' into Church Slavonic, which he did for many years. And so that he could not tell anyone about what he had seen, he was never released from Rus' again.
Later, the royal library was constantly replenished by Ivan the Terrible - he personally bought books brought from all over the world. There is a hypothesis that the king was able to obtain the legendary book collection of Yaroslav the Wise, which was stored for several centuries in the dungeons of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.
However, some experts express doubts about the scientific value of the lost library of Ivan the Terrible. Thus, Academician D.S. Likhachev, one of the world’s largest experts on Ancient Rus', believed that its importance was greatly exaggerated, since “a significant part of this collection consisted of church books that Sophia Paleologus brought to Rus' from Byzantium to pray in her native language." The academician also believed that it would be more important for us to save book treasures that are perishing these days.
850 KILOMETERS OF SHELVES
One of the most famous libraries of our time is the Library of Congress in Washington. Its dimensions are truly enormous: the total length of the bookshelves is 850 km! They (as of 2003) contain over 130 million storage units (books, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, photographs, sound recordings and microfilms). The annual growth of the fund ranges from 1 to 3 million units.
This library is the largest in the world in the history of mankind. The birth of the book depository dates back to January 24, 1800, when, on the initiative of US President John Adams, Congress allocated 5 thousand dollars for its completion. It is noteworthy that the Russian library collection contains over 200 thousand books and more than 10 thousand various magazines. It houses a huge number of Russian printed publications from 1708 to 1800, as well as many works of Russian fiction of the 19th century.
The famous library of the Krasnoyarsk merchant G.V. Yudin is also located there. It includes books on history, ethnography, archeology, handwritten texts on the exploration of Siberia, all of Pushkin’s lifetime publications and even a complete collection of Russian magazines of the 18th century! The merchant sold his unique book and magazine collection to the Library of Congress in 1907.
FIFTH IN THE WORLD
Today, UNESCO considers libraries with holdings exceeding 14 million items to be large. 24 book depositories in the world meet this condition. In this honorary list, Russia is represented by six book temples - three such libraries are located in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg and one in Novosibirsk.
The foundation of the largest Russian State Library in the country was laid by the famous private collection of State Chancellor Count N.P. Rumyantsev. By decree of Nicholas I of March 23, 1828, with its library, it came under the jurisdiction of the state. In 1831, it was opened as a public institution in St. Petersburg. And after 30 years, the museum was transported from St. Petersburg to Moscow and began to work in accordance with the “Regulations on the Moscow Public Museum and the Rumyantsev Museum” approved by Alexander II.
STORAGE OF SECRET KNOWLEDGE
The world's oldest Vatican Apostolic Library is also of great interest. It was founded in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V. Today its holdings include about 1,600,000 printed books, 150,000 manuscripts, 8,300 incunabula, more than 100,000 engravings and geographical maps, 300,000 coins and medals. The Vatican Library also houses a rich collection of Renaissance manuscripts.
It is not without reason that it is considered a repository of the secret knowledge of mankind. The library has rooms where neither journalists, nor historians, nor specialists in other sciences are allowed, although the huge number of ancient and medieval manuscripts makes it the most attractive for historians of all times.
Alexander VOROBYEV
The first books in the libraries of Assyria were clay tablets - a legacy of the Sumerian civilization. The most ancient of them, dating back to before 3500 BC, were found in the settlements of the cities of Kish and Ur. Many official documents from the 25th century. BC were written in the Sumerian language, the meaning of the words never became known to science.
The sources of writing for Assyria consisted of about 100 thousand book-tablets found in the area of the oldest city of Ur. Their texts described farming, cattle breeding, cooking various dishes, and crafts. The most outstanding were books describing the principles of public administration and the science of jurisprudence. Among them were their own laws and judges.
Merchants, poets, historians and philosophers kept trade records on tablets and immortalized their works on clay. It remains interesting that the foundations of publishing originated in Assyria. The king's orders were engraved on a clay board and then copied by applying them to raw clay tablets.
The materials for writing the Assyrian script were not only clay, but also leather, wood, or papyrus imported from Ancient Egypt. Drawings were also applied to metal objects, vases and bowls.
Libraries of Assyria and Mesopotamia
Borsa Theater, AssyriaSpeaking about the treasuries of writing in Assyria, it is difficult not to mention the culture of early Mesopotamia, in particular the gallery of books of King Ashurbanipal (about 669 - 633 BC). It collected more than 30 thousand clay sources of knowledge about ancient civilization. We can say that this ruler became the founder of library science. All the tablets in his collection, housed in the Palace of Nineveh, were numbered and arranged chronologically. A shortcut was placed on each for easy quick searching. The king's library was replenished with books - copies of tablets from temples and Assyria.
The topics of the books were important historical events, works of art, religious themes, medical recipes, and scientific achievements of the peoples of the Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians.
The works on the structure of the solar system, on the movement of the planet Earth along its axis around the Sun, on the constellations and twelve zodiac signs became outstanding. It is noteworthy that they describe the origin of the Earth as a result of a universal explosion, when a huge celestial body invaded our Galaxy at great speed.
Scientists confidently claim that the biblical story was based on written sources from Ancient Sumeria and Babylon. And the Ten Commandments exactly repeat the laws of the King of Babylonia Hamurappi of the 18th century BC.
Thanks to the discovery of deciphering writing, knowledge about healing and medicine became known. However, many texts have remained unread to this day due to the difficulties of translating the Sumerian language. How many more secrets do they hold, and what new things could we learn from their contents? Perhaps the ancient Sumerians knew where humanity came from and why we came to this world.
“Rome, Florence, all sultry Italy are located between the four walls of his library. His books contain all the ruins of the ancient world, all the splendor and glory of the new!”
G. Longfellow
The ancient world, through the mouths of great scientists, poets, and statesmen, declared the enormous power and importance of libraries. From time immemorial, libraries were created by rulers, major dignitaries, priests and clergy, scientists and educators.
Libraries of ancient civilizations and states - custodians of the scientific and cultural achievements of peoples contributed to the mutual enrichment of cultures of different countries, continuity in the development of sciences and literature. And in our time, the preserved information about ancient libraries and their collections often serve as the basis for new scientific discoveries.
Libraries first appeared in the ancient East. Usually the first library is called a collection of clay tablets, approximately 2500 BC. e., found in the temple of the Babylonian city of Nippur.
In one of the tombs near Egyptian Thebes, a box with papyri from the II transition period (XVIII - XVII centuries BC) was discovered. During the New Kingdom era, Ramses II collected about 20,000 papyri.
The most famous ancient Eastern library is a collection of cuneiform tablets (mostly of a legal nature) from the palace of the Assyrian king of the 7th century BC. e. Ashurbanipal in Nineveh.
In ancient Greece, the first public library was founded by the tyrant Clearchus (IV century BC).
Alexandria became the largest center of ancient literature. 
library. It was created in the 3rd century BC. e. Ptolemy I and was the center of education of the entire Hellenistic world. The Library of Alexandria was part of the mouseĩon (museum) complex. The complex included living rooms, dining rooms, reading rooms, botanical and zoological gardens, an observatory and a library. Later, medical and astronomical instruments, stuffed animals, statues and busts were added and used for teaching. The museum included 200,000 papyri in the Temple (almost all libraries of antiquity were attached to temples) and 700,000 documents in the School. The museum and most of the Library of Alexandria were destroyed around 270 AD.
In the Middle Ages, centers of book learning were monastery libraries, which operated scriptoria. Not only the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Church Fathers, but also the works of ancient authors were copied there. During the Renaissance, Renaissance figures literally hunted for Greek and Latin texts preserved in monasteries. Due to the enormous cost of manuscripts and the laboriousness of their production, books were chained to library shelves.
The advent of printing brought enormous changes to the appearance and activities of libraries, which were now increasingly different from archives. Library collections are beginning to grow rapidly. With the spread of literacy in modern times, the number of library visitors also increases.
The most famous libraries of antiquity:
Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh
Hellenistic Library of Alexandria
The Library of Pergamon is its main competitor in antiquity
Otrar Library in Otrar
Al-Hakam II Library in Cordoba
Libraries of antiquity Completed by students of class 2 “B” “Books are compressed time” Marietta Shaginyan
Introduction In ancient history, there are many large libraries known that were collected by the rulers of the great ancient states in order to preserve the most valuable information from the knowledge accumulated by previous civilizations for the benefit of future generations. However, the vast majority of books from these archives are now considered irretrievably lost.
What is a library? A library is a cultural, educational and scientific auxiliary institution that organizes the public use of printed works. Libraries systematically collect, store, promote and issue printed works to readers, as well as information and bibliographic work.
The library of Pharaoh Ramses 11 is considered one of the most ancient. It was above its entrance, trimmed in gold, that the inscription “Pharmacy for the Soul” was carved. Founded around 1300 BC. near the city of Thebes, she kept papyrus books in boxes, clay jars, and later in wall niches. They were used by pharaohs, priests, scribes, and officials. They were inaccessible to the common population.
The first libraries appeared in the first millennium BC in the ancient East. According to history, the very first library is considered to be a collection of clay tablets dating back to approximately 2500 BC. BC, discovered in the temple of the Babylonian city of Nippur (present-day Iraq). This collection of books was located in 70 huge rooms and consisted of up to 60 thousand clay tablets, on which texts containing information about religious events (for example, the tale of the Great Flood), lyrics to deities, legends and myths about the emergence of civilization, were recognized. various fables, sayings and proverbs. Each of the books had labels with inscriptions about the content: “Healing”, “History”, “Statistics”, “Cultivation of plants”, “Description of the area” and others.
Library found during excavations in the city of Nippur
Nineveh Fireproof Library The city of Nineveh was still known from the Bible, and was discovered only in 1846 by G. Layard, an English lawyer who accidentally found several tablets from the Nineveh Library. Visitors were greeted by the inscription: “The palace of Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom the great gods gave ears to hear, and open eyes to see, which represents the essence of government. This wedge-shaped letter I wrote on the tiles, I numbered them, I put them in order, I placed them in my palace for the instruction of my subjects."
The library of Nineveh contained on the clay pages of its books everything that was rich in the cultures of Sumer and Akkad. The Books of Clay told the world that the wise mathematicians of Babylon did not limit themselves to four arithmetic operations. They calculated percentages, knew how to measure the area of various geometric shapes, they had their own multiplication table, they knew squaring and extracting square roots. The modern seven-day week was also born in Mesopotamia, where the foundation of modern astronomy concepts about the structure and development of celestial bodies was laid. The books were kept in strict order. At the bottom of each plate was the full title of the book, and next to it was the page number. The library also had a catalog in which the title, number of lines, and the branch of knowledge to which the book belonged were recorded. Finding the right book was not difficult: a small clay tag with the name of the department was attached to each shelf - just like in modern libraries.
Library of Nineveh
In ancient Greece, the first public library was founded in Heraclea by the tyrant Clearchus (IV century BC).
The largest and most famous library of antiquity, the Alexandrian library, was founded in the 111th century BC.
Libraries of Ancient Rus' The first library in Rus' was founded in the city of Kyiv in 1037 by the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise. Books for the library were also bought from other countries. The prince placed some of these books in the Church of St. Sophia, founding the first library. The first library in Rus', created in this way in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, grew and was enriched with book treasures in subsequent years.
Library of the Church of St. Pieters (Netherlands)
Library of the monastery in Waldsassen (Germany)
British Museum Library (London)
Conclusion Libraries began to be created by the kings of the ancient kingdoms. Legends tell of stunning libraries of the Ancient World, such as the library of the Assyrian Kingdom, the Babylonian Kingdom, the Library of Thebes in Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Greek and Roman Libraries, and the famous Library of Alexandria. Every city has its own library and every country has its own State National Library. And no matter in what form books exist - on papyri or CD-roms - their repositories - libraries - have always been, are and will be needed by humanity!
Kovalik I.V., teacher-librarian
Municipal educational institution gymnasium "Mariinskaya", Taganrog.
Libraries of the Ancient World.
Library lesson for 5th grade.
Lesson Objectives :
Expand knowledge about the history of the creation of main sources of information in the past (clay tablets, papyrus, parchment).
Give an idea of the libraries of the ancient world and their significance for humanity.
Equipment : Projector, screen, computer, multimedia presentation.
"There is only one truly inexhaustible
the treasure is a large library.”
Pierre Buast
LIBRARIES are called “pillars of civilization.” They have always played a key role in the development of science and culture. And the German poet Goethe called them the memory of humanity.
What libraries can be ranked among the “pillars of civilization”? To answer the first question, let's go back into history and visit the oldest libraries in the world. History has not preserved detailed information about ancient libraries, but from the small fragments that modern scientists have, one can get an idea of the most ancient book collections.
Our journey through time will cover a huge period of human history from the 4th millennium BC to the 4th century AD.
Libraries of Ancient Egypt
It is known that for the first time written works began to be collected in Ancient Egypt, where there was a repository of papyri over 3,500 years ago. The heyday of libraries was in the 2nd millennium BC. They were located throughout the country, in palaces, temples, and also in the peculiar centers of the spiritual life of the Egyptians - “houses of life.” Papyrus was used for writing; books made from it were stored in boxes, clay jugs or in special cases. Several catalogs carved on the walls of book depositories have survived to this day. Here are religious works, texts on mathematics, navigation, irrigation, astronomy, astrology. Usually, at the temple, along with the library, there were schools of scribes and workshops for copying books.
Libraries were considered the center of wisdom. Above the entrance to the famous library of the Ramesseum temple, which was built by Pharaoh Ramses II, the inscription “Pharmacy for the soul” was carved. Temple libraries often doubled as schools; the best classical texts served as educational materials, and many of them became known to us precisely because they were copied by students in notebooks. The position of custodian was a state one and was inherited, since it could only be held by those who had “higher knowledge.”
Libraries of Ancient Mesopotamia
During excavations at the sites of the most ancient cities of Mesopotamia, cuneiform tablets were found that contained information about the state structure of Sumer, its economy and social life, economic records, lists of words for memorization, school texts and essays, scribes' reports and works of fiction.
Uruk was located in Mesopotamia, in the lower reaches of the Euphrates, on the border between the steppe and the desert (now the territory of Iraq). Long before Rome and Athens, even long before Babylon, it was a thriving city. During excavations in Uruk, several personal libraries were found. In one of the private houses, part of which was adapted for school activities, several hundred tablets with religious and historical texts and multiplication tables were found.
A large library was found during excavations in the city of Nippur (the territory of modern Iraq) - the ancient religious center of the Sumerians. The temple library was located in 62 rooms, where more than one hundred thousand clay tablets were found. Long work to decipher the records allowed scientists to get an idea not only of the “funds” and storage conditions of the tablets, but also to expand their knowledge of the history of the people who once lived in this territory. Texts were found containing information about religious myths and texts of hymns to deities, legends about the emergence of agriculture and civilization, collections of fables, sayings and proverbs.
The temple library contained collections of laws, geographical, historical, botanical, philological, astronomical and other treatises of the ancient Sumerians. Some of the tablets found in Sumerian libraries were kept in closed boxes or baskets. Each of them had labels with inscriptions about the nature of the materials they contained: “Medicine”, “History”, “Statistics”, “Documents relating to the garden”, “Sending workers” and others.
In the Babylonian kingdom, libraries were created at temples, in the palaces of rulers, and at schools. In no other country of the Ancient East have archaeologists found as many legal documents as in the cities of this kingdom. A special place among the finds is occupied by the collection of laws of King Hammurabi, who built a library in Borsippa.
Persepolis is an ancient Persian city founded by Darius I the Great (ruled 522–486 BC), where he moved the capital of the Achaemenids from Pasargadae, the capital of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian state. At the excavation site, inscriptions of the Achaemenid kings and thousands of clay tablets with texts in the Elamite language were found, containing information about the construction of the city and the economy of the area.
An amazing discovery was made in 1906-1907. in Boğazköy, a small Turkish village, when the German professor Hugo Winkler unearthed the archives of the Hittite kings - thousands of clay tablets with cuneiform texts. The ancient city near Boğazköy, it turns out, was the capital of the Hittites and was called Hattusas. The tablets helped scientists penetrate into the history of the ancient Hittites, learn about the life and way of life of this people.
The owner of the largest and richest library of Ancient Mesopotamia was King Ashurbanipal. This king two and a half thousand years ago collected a large library in his capital Nineveh. It contains hundreds of clay books. They consisted of many “sheets” - tablets of the same size. There were so many books that Ashurbanipal kept some of them in his grandfather's palace, and most of them in the Lion Hall, so named because scenes of the royal lion hunt were depicted on its walls.
A stamp was stamped on the books - “Palace of Ashurbanipal, King of the Universe, King of Assyria” - just like in our libraries they put the library stamp on books, and a catalog of books was compiled.
At the entrance to the library there was an inscription: “Whoever dares to carry away these tables, let Ashur and Bellit punish with their wrath, and let his name and his heirs be consigned to oblivion in this country,” such a warning should have plunged everyone into a state of fear, who would even think of stealing a book from the royal library in Nineveh. Another inscription indicated that this royal property was: “The palace of Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom the god Nabu and the goddess Tamzit gave ears to hear and open eyes to see what the essence of government is. I wrote this wedge-shaped letter on the tiles, I numbered them, I put them in order, I placed them in my palace for the instruction of my subjects.”
This library, the largest of its time, contained books summarizing the scientific achievements of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians.
Thanks to the ancient library, we are well aware of the legends, myths and traditions of the peoples of Mesopotamia. Particularly interesting are the 12 clay tablets on which a remarkable work in verse is written - the epic of Gilgamesh. Tablets with the texts of the poem were found during excavations of libraries in Uruk, but the most accurate copy belonged to Ashurbanipal.
The first Sumerian-Babylonian, Sumerian-Babylonian-Hittite dictionaries were compiled in the library. Modern scientists have been able to translate ancient texts with the help of these dictionaries.
The reader could easily navigate the library of King Ashurbanipal thanks to a clearly developed system. On each clay book at the bottom there was a title, number, and the first words of the work. If a book consisted of several tablet pages, then the last line of the clay “page” was placed at the beginning of the next tablet. Typically, such a “multi-page” book was contained entirely in a special wooden box and had such a unique binding.
Books were stored on shelves according to departments. A clay label with the name of the branch of knowledge to which this group of books belongs was attached to the shelf. A lot of other valuable information about the language, history, science, life, customs and laws of ancient peoples was preserved for us by the library of Ashurbanipal. And all this was written on clay tablets!
But the breadth of information and the enormous number of documents allowed Ashurbanipal's library to earn, according to one study, the reputation of "the greatest library of the ancient world."
Libraries of Ancient China
At the courts of Chinese rulers, already more than 3 thousand years ago, there were special officials whose duties included collecting and storing literary works and archives. But when Emperor Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC. united China, he declared that only books on the history of the Qin dynasty, as well as on agriculture, medicine and fortune-telling had the right to exist - he ordered the rest to be burned. And for more than half a century, the emperors of the next Han dynasty continued to prohibit the creation of libraries. Then the ban was lifted. And a few more decades later, Emperor Wudi, who introduced a system of state examinations for administrative positions, established a state library. Under him, people also appeared who were engaged in correspondence and search for previously lost books. In 26 BC. Emperor Cheng Di issued a decree to search for previously hidden books. Specially appointed people searched for books throughout the country - and as a result, the first catalog in Chinese history was compiled, which is one of the oldest catalogs in the world.
Libraries of Ancient Greece
The word “library” itself is of Greek origin. “Byblos” means “book” (hence “Bible”), “teke” means “warehouse, storage” (the same root in the words “pharmacy”, “card index”, “record library”, “disco”). The earliest data on ancient libraries dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. In the VI–IV centuries. BC. rulers, philosophers and scientists, for example Pythagoras, had libraries. The Athenian library was located in the Acropolis - along with government services, the treasury, and an art gallery. The Greek mathematician Demophilus created the work “On Books Worth Acquiring” - a kind of recommendatory bibliographic index.
Aristotle's library in the Lyceum (the area of Athens where the great ancient philosopher gave his lectures) contained tens of thousands of scrolls. Alexander the Great, a student of Aristotle, also took part in its creation. After the death of Aristotle (321 BC), the library became part of a special, in modern terms, complex - the Museion (temple of the Muses), created by Theophrastus, a student and follower of the philosopher. There were also rooms for conversations and lectures, living quarters for teachers, and a garden for walks.
The library of ancient Greece becomes an institution that can not only make a copy of a document in its collection, but also guarantees the authenticity of the text in this copy. This is how the original texts of the great Greek playwrights - Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and scientific texts were distributed; It was the library that ensured the viability of the education system.
The most famous library of antiquity was founded at the Alexandrian museion (temple or sanctuary). There is no exact data on the number of books in the library; their number, according to various sources, ranges from 40,000 to 700,000. The library consisted of two branches: the main one (at Museion) and a branch (at the Temple of Serapis).
Its librarians sought to collect the manuscripts of most of the known texts from throughout the ecumene, or inhabited earth. It is generally accepted that it was in Alexandria that approximately 70 scholars translated the first part of the Holy Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek. It was later called the Septuagint and was widely used by early Christians. The library was located in several halls: in some, scrolls were stored on shelves, in others, manuscripts were read, and there were special rooms for copying manuscripts and sorting out new acquisitions.
The head (custodian) of the library, usually a recognized scientist or poet, whose post was often combined with the post of educator of the royal heir, was responsible for the acquisition of books. He also headed the Alexandrian Museion as a priest of the highest rank. Educated “envoys” who were on the library staff bought scroll books in all parts of the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. If the scroll could not be purchased, they ordered copies of it. There were slaves for auxiliary work. Copyists were employed in the library, and translators were hired to translate foreign works.
The owners of the library, the Egyptian kings Ptolemies, acquired all literary works that existed. To replenish the library, the Ptolemies often resorted to very specific methods.
Thus, every ship arriving in Alexandria was subjected to a thorough search, and if there was any book on it, it was taken to the library, where a copy was made of it, paying some financial compensation to the owner. The Ptolemies sought to obtain originals as well.
In particular, Ptolemy III sent his representatives to Athens for the manuscripts of poet-playwrights - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. He issued 15 talents of silver as a guarantee of the safety of these manuscripts. However, he sacrificed such a huge amount and returned the copies to Athens, keeping the originals for himself. How true this information is is a moot point, but in any case, such evidence confirms that in Alexandria all efforts were devoted to acquiring the necessary books, and, along with purchase and correspondence, they did not stop at illegal means.
The first written catalog of books in history was created in the Library of Alexandria. Its author was the chief custodian Callimachus. He compiled the so-called “Tables” on 120 scrolls (the full name is “Tables of those who showed themselves in all types of literature, and what they wrote”), which became the first compilation of all Greek literature. For this work, Callimachus is called the father of bibliography.
Over the years, the library's custodians were:
Eratosthenes (III century BC) is considered one of the outstanding scientists and writers of the Hellenistic world. Since 235, Eratosthenes has been the head of the Library of Alexandria and remains so for over 40 years, while simultaneously studying the sciences - philology, chronology, mathematics, astronomy. He was also the tutor of the heir to the throne.
Claudius Ptolemy In the 2nd century. AD for many years he was librarian of the Library of Alexandria. This is a scientist who created a system of the world that existed almost unchanged for about 13 centuries.
The fate of the Library of Alexandria is tragic. In 48 BC, part of it died in a fire. The library was damaged during the Egyptian civil war in the 3rd century. The remains were destroyed in the 7th century AD. troops of the Turkish Sultan. When the Sultan was informed about the existence of this library, he said: “If these books repeat the Koran, then they are not needed, if not, then they are harmful.” And the priceless collection was destroyed.
Large libraries also existed in a number of other Greek cities - in Antioch, Ephesus, and also in Pergamon, where there was a library that was not much inferior to the Alexandrian one in terms of the number and value of the books stored in it.
The Pergamon Library was founded in the 2nd century BC by King Eumenes II. Archaeologists have found the place where the library was located and part of the building - a round, 45-meter in circumference repository of manuscripts and a large reading room.
It is interesting to note that the library building was facing east. According to the outstanding architect of antiquity Vitruvius, this protected books from mold, which easily appeared in humid southern and western winds, and also improved the natural lighting of the reading room in the morning, when readers usually studied in the library. The library in the city of Ephesus also faced east, from which not only a two-story building has been preserved, but also a wide marble staircase leading to the book depository, decorated with statues and bas-reliefs.
Mass production of parchment began in Pergamon specifically for the needs of the Pergamon Library. The invention of parchment was the result of a rivalry in the collection of books between the king of Egypt, Ptolemy, and the king of Pergamon, Eumenes II. Ptolemy banned the export of papyrus from Egypt. The ruler of Pergamon had to urgently look for other material for making and rewriting books.
With the advent of parchment, manuscripts began to resemble a modern book. At first, scrolls were made from parchment, like papyrus. However, they soon noticed that, unlike papyrus, it can be easily written on both sides. Parchment was cut into rectangular sheets, which were sewn together. This is how the now dominant universal form of the book was born - the codex, or book block. Literally, "code" translated from Latin means "piece of wood." Perhaps this happened because the book was bound in wooden boards. The oldest parchment book-codes have reached us from the 2nd century AD. e.It is curious that book covers were rubbed with cedar oil to protect against damage by insects; They also preferred to make library cabinets from cedar.
The library had a storage room for manuscripts and a large and small reading room. Cedar-lined niches are located in the marble walls. There were a wide variety of books, but most of all – medical ones. The library had scribes, translators, and people who monitored the safety of manuscripts.
The history of the Pergamon Library ended in 43 BC, when Pergamum was already a province of Rome. Mark Antony donated most of the library to the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and the scrolls ended up in the Alexandria Library. Today Pergamon (Peregamon) is located in Turkey and the ruins of the library are among the tourist sites.
Libraries of Ancient Rome
An equally important role in the history of libraries was played by Rome, whose cultural development was greatly influenced by the Greeks. It was the Greeks who instilled in the Romans a love of books and taught them to value them more than gold.
All educated Romans knew Greek and read Aristotle in the original. It was in Rome that the book became widespread, and publishing appeared - large workshops for copying books. Bookstores appear.
However, during the first five hundred years of its history, Rome did not have libraries. The first collections of books among the Romans were only trophies of Roman military leaders. Gaius Julius Caesar hatched a plan to create a public library in Rome, but his murder prevented it from being realized.
The first public library in Rome was opened only in 39 BC. It was located in the lobby of the Temple of Liberty in the Atrium and was created with funds received from war spoils. Public readings of new works took place in the library. The library building was decorated with statues of great writers of the past.
Subsequently, other Roman emperors also founded public libraries, seeking to perpetuate their names in this way. Emperor Augustus founded two libraries in the Temple of Apollo Palatine: Latin and Greek. Vespasian, in honor of one of his military victories, opened the “Library of the World.”
But the most significant, largest in Ancient Rome was the library founded by Emperor Trajan. It was located on the forum bearing his name. Trajan's Forum with all its buildings was built under the leadership of the outstanding architect Apollodorus of Damascus. This largest and most luxurious of the imperial forums was built in six years (107 - 113). The entrance was a triumphal arch, behind which there was a large courtyard with porticoes. The yard was closed by the Basilica Ulpia. It was followed by a small rounded square with library buildings - Latin and Greek. Together they were called the library of Ulpius (Ulpius is one of the names of Emperor Trajan). Its honeycomb-like marble walls were drilled with thousands of deep square niches. They contained scrolls of papyrus and parchment. The niches were separated from one another, columns stood in front of them, and the entire library was decorated with busts of those “who served the empire with their pen...”. The famous Trajan's Column has survived to this day.
A hundred years later, the books from this library, by order of Emperor Caracalla, were transferred to the baths. The area of the thermal baths was 12 hectares, and this grandiose structure was opened in 216. In the huge main building there are halls with a swimming pool, warm, cold and hot baths, and lounges. The main building was surrounded by a park, in the depths of which two buildings - libraries - were located symmetrically. The colonnades around them were the place of philosophical debates and scientific conversations.
Reading the works of Roman authors from the end of the republic and the first two centuries of the empire, you are convinced that at that time libraries were already firmly established in Roman life, and the Romans could not imagine their existence without them. By the end of the 3rd century AD, there were already 28 public libraries in Rome alone.
The management of libraries was entrusted to the so-called “procurators,” who, as a rule, were famous scientists and poets. The rest of the library staff were freedmen and slaves, called “librarians” (“scribes”). They monitored the safety of books, pasted up and even rewrote dilapidated manuscripts, and kept order in the library premises. It is curious that in 1935, during excavations at the site where the library used to be, a marble slab was discovered. Carved on it in Greek letters were the words: “Not a single book shall be carried away. We took an oath to this."
Books were made, as in Greece, from papyrus. The copied scroll was glued to a stick and screwed onto it; while reading, it was gradually unfolded. The ends of the stick were usually decorated with metal or ivory balls - umbilics. Often the entire volume was placed in a parchment case - a membrane. The title of the book was written on the case or on a special tablet attached to the umbilicus.
We know what libraries were like in Ancient Rome from the works of ancient authors. Essays on collecting books and organizing libraries have been preserved. The works of Telephos from Pergamon “Three books on the meaning of books, which indicate which books are worthy of acquisition” and Gerenius Philo from Byblos “On the acquisition and selection of books” have survived to this day.
Archaeological excavations also help us learn the history of bookmaking and libraries of Ancient Rome.
In August 79 AD. As a result of the eruption of Vesuvius, three cities located at its foot were destroyed: Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabius. During excavations of Herculaneum, which lay under a layer of mud flows, in 1752, at a depth of 27 meters, a room was discovered from which 1,750 charred scrolls were removed. The house where they were found was called the “Villa of the Scrolls.” All the books were in the same order as on the day of the disaster - in a small room, on niche shelves. Among them are the works of scientists and writers of Greece and Rome, many of whom were unknown until that time.
All ancient Roman libraries had a number of common features. All libraries, as a rule, had two sections: one for Greek books and the other for Latin ones. Each library has a reading room and a book depository. Large libraries had several halls for public readings. Works written on papyrus and parchment in book depositories were placed either in niches or in cabinets. In the bookcases, books were divided into branches of science: geography, medicine, history, philosophy. A special place was given to poetry. The floor in the reading room was covered with slabs of dark marble, and the ceilings were devoid of gilding so that the bright colors would not irritate the reader. Comfortable armchairs, statues of muses and busts of famous writers - all this created the atmosphere of a genuine temple of science and contributed to a special elation of thought. Therefore, readers of Roman libraries preferred to study manuscripts in the library reading room, despite the opportunity to receive books at home.
Library of Celsus in Ephesus.
It kept 12 thousand ancient scrolls and served as the grave for the great Celsius. The library is a rather unusual place for a tomb - burial here was a special honor for Celsius. This is the second largest library of the Ancient World after the library in Alexandria. The building is known as one of the few surviving examples of an ancient Roman library and proves that public libraries were built not only in Rome itself, but throughout the Roman Empire.
The library was built during the reign for Tiberius Julius Celsius by his son, Tiberius Julius Aquila. The library was built from 114 to 135. Aquila bequeathed a large sum of funds for the acquisition and contents of the library. In the 2nd half century, during the Gothic invasion, the interior of the building was completely destroyed , who however spared building.
Books were not issued at that time, so most of the Ephesian library was occupied by the reading room. The scrolls lay right there, neatly folded in niches; in the middle of the huge room there were tables with benches, the readers were served by specially trained slaves, many of whom were very knowledgeable in science and literature.
Unfortunately, the library could not withstand the blows of time and perished during the attack of the Goths.
Not only barbarians, but also Roman Caesars caused great damage to libraries. They, like the Chinese emperors, used books to combat dissent. Octavian Augustus was the first to practice mass book burning. The books of the disgraced Ovid were confiscated from all libraries of the empire, and the poet himself destroyed the Metamorphoses. Nero, having sentenced Fabricius Veienton to exile, ordered the “Testament” he had written to be burned. Emperor Domitian ordered the destruction of all works that he did not like.
With the weakening of the Roman Empire, the influence and importance of libraries in society weakened; they fell into decay and desolation, were plundered, destroyed by fires and destroyed by barbarians. According to the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, they gradually turned into “tightly closed tombs.”
With the fall of the Roman Empire, these “tombs” also perished - the libraries were looted, destroyed, and burned.
The Middle Ages began. But that's a completely different story.
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