from an inch to a foot square. A great number of them were broken, as Layard supposed by the falling in of the roof, but as the late Mr George Smith thought by having fallen from the upper story, upon which he believed the collection to have been placed. These tablets formed the library of the great monarch Assur-bani-pal the Sardanapalus of the Greeks the greatest patron of literature amongst the Assyrians. It is estimated that this library consisted of some ten thousand distinct works and docu ments, some of the works extending over several tablets. The tablets appear to have been methodically arranged and catalogued, and the library seems to have been thrown open for the general use of the king's subjects.[1] A great portion of this library has already been brought to Eng land and deposited in the British Museum, but it is calculated that there still remain some 20,000 fragments to be gathered up. For further details as to Assyrian libraries, and the still earlier Babylonian libraries from which the Assyrians drew their science and literature, see BABYLONIA, vol. iii. p. 191.
Egypt.Of the libraries of ancient Egypt our knowledge is much less full and precise. It seems to be ascertained that the oldest hieroglyphic writings now extant run some centuries farther back than 2000 B.C. We possess a papyrus manu script which is assigned to the age of Amenophis I. of the 18th dynasty, perhaps about 1600 B.C., and the fabric is so perfect as to point to a much earlier invention.[2] With the invention of papyrus came the age of books. The temples were the centres of literary activity, and to each of them were attached professional scribes who occupied a very respectable position. Their function was regarded as a religious one, for the distinction between religion and science had not yet been made. The sacred books of Thoth—forty-two in number—constituted as it were a com plete encyclopaedia of religion and science. But they did not forbid speculation, or a wider development of the principles contained in them. So there arose a great mass of litera ture in the shape of exposition and commentary. To such an extent did this increase that at the time of th<s Greek conquest of Egypt the Thoth literature is said to have amounted to 36,525 books.[3] Books were collected not only in the temples but also at the tombs of kings. The most famous of these libraries dates from the 14th century B.C., and was the so-called library of King Osymandyas, described by Diodorus Siculus, who relates that it bore an inscription which he renders by the Greek words ΨΥΧΗΣ ΙΑΤPΕΙΟΝ, "the dispensary of the soul." Osymandyas has been identified with the great king Ramses I., and the seat of the library is supposed by Wilkinson to have been the Ramesseum, the magnificent palace temple near Thebes.[4] Lepsius thinks he has found the tombs of two of the librarians of Osymandyas.[5] According to Eustathius there was also a great collection in a temple at Memphis. A heavy blow was dealt to the old Egyptian literature by the Persian invasion, and many of their books were carried away by the conquerors. They were only delivered from the yoke of Persia to succumb to that of Greece, and henceforward their civilization was dominated by foreign influences. Of the libraries of Greece under the Ptolemies we shall there fore speak a little further on.
Greece.Of the libraries of ancient Greece we have very little knowledge, and such knowledge as we possess comes to us for the most part from late compilers. Amongst those who are known to have collected books are Pisistratus, Polycrates of Samos, Euclid the Athenian, Nicocrates of Cyprus, Euripides and Aristotle (Athenæus, i. 4). At Cnidus there is said to have been a special collection of works upon medicine. Pisistratus is said to have been the first of the Greeks who collected books on a large scale. Aulus Gellius, indeed, tells us in language perhaps "not well suited to the 6th century B.C.,"[6] that he was the first to establish a public library. The authority of Aulus Gellius is hardly sufficient to secure credit for the story that this library was carried away into Persia by Xerxes and subsequently restored to the Athenians by Seleucus Nicator. Plato is known to have been a collector; and Xenophon tells us of the library of Euthydemus. The library of Aristotle was bequeathed by him to his disciple Theophrastus, and by Theophrastus to Neleus, who carried it to Scepsis, where it is said to have been concealed underground to avoid the literary cupidity of the kings of Pergamus. Its subsequent fate has given rise to much controversy, but, according to Strabo (xiii. pp. 608, 609), it was sold to Apellicon of Teos, who carried it to Athens, where after Apellicon's death it fell a prey to the conqueror Sulla, and was transported by him to Rome. The story told by Athenæus (i. 4) is that the library of Neleus was purchased by Ptolemy Philadelphus. The names of a few other libraries in Greece are barely known to us from inscriptions; of their character and contents we know nothing. If indeed we are to trust Strabo entirely, we must believe that Aristotle was the first person who collected a library, and that he communi cated the taste for collecting to the sovereigns of Egypt. Alexandria.It is at all events certain that the libraries of Alexandria were the most important as they were the most celebrated of the ancient world. Under the enlightened rule of the Ptolemies a society of scholars and men of science was at tracted to their capital. It seems pretty certain that Ptolemy Soter had already begun to collect books, but it was in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus that the libraries were properly organized and established in separate buildings. Ptolemy Philadelphus sent into every part of Greece and Asia to secure the most valuable works, and no exertions or expense were spared in enriching the collections. Ptolemy Euergetes, his successor, is said to have caused all books brought into Egypt by foreigners to be seized for the benefit of the library, while the owners had to be content with receiving copies of them in exchange. Nor did the Alexandrian scholars exhibit the usual Hellenic exclusiveness, and many of the treasures of Egyptian and even of Hebrew literature were by their means translated into Greek. There were two libraries at Alexandria; the larger, in the Bruehium quarter, was in connexion with the Museum, a sort of academy, while the smaller was placed in the Serapeum. The number of volumes in these libraries was very large, although it is difficult to attain any certainty as to the real numbers amongst the widely varying accounts. According to a scholium of Tzetzes, who appears to draw his information from the authority of Callimachus and Eratosthenes, who had been librarians at Alexandria, there were 42,800 volumes or rolls in the Serapeum and 490,000 in the Bruehium.[7] This enumeration seems to refer to the librarianship of Callimachus himself under Ptolemy Euergetes. In any case the figures agree tolerably well with those given by Aulus Gellius[8] (700,000) and Seneca[9] (400,000). It should be observed that, as the ancient roll or volume usually contained a much smaller quantity of matter than a modern book,—so that, e.g., the history of Herodotus might form nine "books" or volumes, and the Iliad of Homer twenty-four—these numbers must be dis-
- ↑ 1 See Menant, Bibliothèque du Palais de Ninive, Paris, 1880.
- ↑ Wuttke, Entstehung der Schrift, p. 531, Leipsic, 1872.
- ↑ Lepsius, Chronologie der Aegypter, p. 42, Berlin, 1849.
- ↑ Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt, i. 111 sq.
- ↑ Lepsius, Chronologie, der Aegypter, p. 39.
- ↑ Grote, History of Greece, iv. 37, following Becker.
- ↑ Ritschl, Die Alexandrinischen Bibliotheken, p. 22; Opusc. Phil., i. § 123.
- ↑ N. A., vi. 17.
- ↑ De Tranq. An., 9.
