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The Ancient Library
The very name of the Bibliotheca
Alexandrina conjures up the image of a glorious past, of a shared heritage, not
just between Greece and Egypt, nor even of the whole Mediterranean, but a shared
heritage for all of humanity. For it was indeed
at the Ancient Library of Alexandria that the greatest adventure of the human
intellect was to unfold.
2300
years ago, Alexander the Great, Aristotle’s pupil, brought his dream of culture
and conquest, of uniting the world and launching a new era to the timeless land
of Egypt. Alexander selected the
site for a new capital:
Alexandria. His
successors in Egypt, the Ptolemies, built Alexandria, and made it the
intellectual capital of the world.
Its lighthouse, the Pharos, was considered one of the seven wonders of
the ancient world. But a greater
legacy was the Ancient Library of Alexandria. Launched in 288 BC by Ptolemy I
(Soter) under the guidance of Demetrius of Phaleron, the temple to the muses, or
Mouseion (in greek), or museum (in latin) was part academy, part research
center, and part library. The great
thinkers of the age, scientists, mathematicians, poets from all civilizations
came to study and exchange ideas.
As many as
700,000 scrolls, the equivalent of more than 100,000 modern printed books,
filled the shelves. The library was
open to scholars from all cultures.
Girls and boys studied regularly at the Ancient Library. On this very spot:
- Aristarchus was the first person to
state that the earth revolves around the sun, a full 1800 years before
Copernicus;
- Eratosthenes proved that the earth was
spherical and calculated its circumference with amazing accuracy, 1700 years
before Columbus sailed on his epic voyage
- Hipparchus established the first atlas
of the stars and calculated the length of the solar year accurately to within
6.5 minutes
- Callimachus the poet described the
texts in the library organized by subject and author, becoming the father of
library science,
- Euclid wrote his elements of geometry,
the basic text studied in schools all over the world even
now
- Herophylus identified the brain as the
controlling organ of the body and launched a new era of
medicine
- Manetho chronicled the pharaohs and
organized our history into the dynasties we use to this
day
- Zenodotus and the grammarians
established the basics of literary scholarship with their meticulous
definition of the Homerian text for the Iliad and the
Odyssey
And the list of great names
and great achievements goes on and on… Diophantes, Appolonius of Perga, Heron
and visiting scholars such as Archimedes… They and many others were all members
of that amazing community of scholars, which mapped the heavens, organized the
calendar, established the foundations of science and pushed the boundaries of
our knowledge. They opened up the cultures of the world, established a true
dialogue of civilizations. Indeed,
it was at the ancient Library of Alexandria that 72 specialists first translated
The Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek (the famous Septuagint). Together these scholars promoted
rationality, tolerance and understanding and organized universal knowledge. For over six centuries the ancient
Library of Alexandria epitomized the zenith of learning, as later scholars, such
Claudius Ptolemy and Dioscoredes built on that explosion of knowledge and added
their contributions.
To
this day it symbolizes the noblest aspirations of the human mind, global
ecumenism, and the greatest achievements of the intellect. The library completely disappeared over
sixteen hundred years ago… but it continues to inspire scientists and scholars
everywhere.
The
Bibliotheca Alexandrina was located in at least three buildings: (i) the
original Muesum in the royal district of the city, (ii) the additional building
mostly for book storage, located on the harbor, and (iii) the “daughter Library” located in
the Serapeum, the temple to Serapis, cult god of Alexandria. The Serapeum was located in the
southwest part of the city, the popular quarter.
The
Library disappeared slowly, suffering a slow decline from the time of Caesar and
Cleopatra. Indeed, the first disaster was in 48 B.C., when the part of the
library located at the harbor was accidentally set afire during the Alexandrian
war of Julius Caesar. However, Marc Anthony gave Cleopatra the 200,000 scrolls
of Pergamon, to make up for the losses.
Yet, subsequent upheavals within the Roman Empire resulted in the gradual
neglect and ultimate destruction of the library. Roman armies came to Alexandria to “restore order several times between 200 and 300 AD, and it was on one of those
occasions, (probably the campaign of Aurelius in 272 AD) that the entire royal
quarter and the original Museum were destroyed. Christianity was brought to Africa
through Alexandria by St. Marc in the first century AD, and it was followed by
merciless and brutal persecution of the Christians by the Romans in the first
three centuries. Persecution ceased
with the conversion of Constantine the Great, but schisms erupted in the
church. Tensions were running high
and tolerant church fathers such Clement of Alexandria had to eave the city and
his disciple Origen suffered much for his views. In 391 AD Emperor Theodosius issued a
decree banning all religions other than Christianity and Christian Groups under
Bishop Theophilus burnt the Serapeum in 391 AD. This was the end of the ancient library
as a public institution.
What
remained were the scholars in an uneasy co-existence with an increasingly
militant Christian mob. Tragedy
struck in 415 AD. Hypatia, daughter
of Theon, last recorded scholar in Alexandria, herself the first woman in
mathematics and astronomy, a neo-Platonist philosopher and charismatic orator,
was brutally murdered by the mob in 415 AD. She became the first martyr to
science.
Thus
by 400 A.D. the Library had vanished, and the era of Alexandrian scholarship
came to an end a few years later.
It had thus disappeared over two centuries before the arrival of the
Muslim Arab armies in 641 AD.
But
the memory of the ancient Library of Alexandria lived on. It continued to inspire scholars and
humanists everywhere. Many dreamt
of one day reviving the great Library…
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