The Great Library of Alexandria
The great library of Alexandria is situated in Alexander, Egypt. It is one of the most famous library of classical antiquity. This library did not only witness amazing stories of Alexander the great, Julius Ceaser, Chleopatra, Ptolemi and many more but also contained all the intellectual works by the greatest thinkers and writers of the whole world. This library wanted to collect every book ever written.
It is popularly believed to have been destroyed in a huge fire around 2000 years ago and its immense works lost. It is widely believed the losses of scientific research set back the progress of human civilization by at least a thousand years.
How the great library of Alexandria was founded
The famous seaport of Alexandria was found by Alexander the great around 330 BCE. He declared it to be the perfect spot for a city. A city that would bear his name, and that would become a new capital of the ancient world. After his death in 323 BCE , his empire was left in the hands of his generals. Ptolemi I Soter took over Egypt and again made Alexandria the capital as it was a port city so it was linked to many countries.
It is said that the library was founded during the reign of Ptolemi I Soter and it is initially organized by Demetrius of Phalerum. He was a student of Aristotle and he had been exiled from Athens and taken refugee in Alexandria under Ptolemiac court.
However this story is not widely acceptable. Some believes that Ptolemi I might have laid down the ground work but it was not a physical institution until the reign of Ptolemi II. Demetrius might have given the concept and was responsible for the ground work but by the time it was a physical institution he was out of the favor of Ptolemic court. So he did not have any part in establishing the library.
During the reign of Ptolemi II the idea of a universal library seemed to have taken place. It was not only a library, it was also a part of a research center that is known as Alexandrian Mouseion or Musaeum.
There was also the world’s first ever Medical research center in that library.
The Universal Library
The library of Alexandria wanted to keep the position of greatest source of knowledge. They wanted every book, scrolls, papyrus that has ever written in the whole world. The ptolemic rulers tried to collect as many books and documents as possible. The Library of Alexandria held over half a million documents from Greece, Assyria, Egypt, Persia, India and many other nations. Over 100 scholars lived at the Museum full time to perform research, write, lecture or translate and copy documents.
We can’t even imagine how far the Ptolemis would go for their hunt of books. One widely popular story is that every ship that sailed into the harbour of Alexandria was searched. If any books were found, those were immediately sent to the library. The professional scribes there immediately made copies of those books and delivered to the original owners, the originals being filed away in the Library.
It is believed that the library housed between 200,000 to 700,000 books.
The library was so large it actually had another branch or “daughter” library at the Temple of Serapis. The daughter library contained 42,800 scrolls, all of which were copies of those in the main library.
The library is considered to be the first model of today’s university.
The library had lecture areas, a botanical garden, a zoo of exotic animals for the study of zoology, a medical research center, a dormitory and so much more.
Significance of the library
Many talented and influencer scholars worked for the library during the second and third centuries BC. There were more than hundred scholars researching and residing at that library.
They invented and researched a lot of paramount topic. Almost a thousand years later those same topics were rediscovered. No one even knew this great library existed at that time. Almost all the documents of the library were burned. If only those researches , documents were saved we would have been almost a thousand years in the future.
Although some people believes that some books and scrolls were saved from extensive fire and they are now at Vatican City’s archive.
Famous scholars of Library of Alexandria
No one knows the the exact numbers of scholars or their entire work. But luckily some of their works were somehow saved and they were later discovered.
Eratosthanes was a mathematician and he was also once the chief librarian of library of Alexandria. It is believed he was the first one to identify that the earth rotated around the sun. Almost 1800 years ago before Copernicus did. He was the first man to calculate circumference of the earth. He was also the first to calculate the tilt of the Earth’s axis.
Hipparchus was one of the scholars researching there. He was an astronomer, geographer and considered to be the founder of Trigonometry. Hipparchus is considered the greatest ancient astronomical observer. He was the first to discover the size, orbit of the moon and the size, motion of the sun. He may have been the first to develop a reliable method to predict solar eclipse.
He also created a star catalog of western world. Hipparchus was in the international news in 2005, that the data on the celestial globe of Hipparchus or in his star catalog may have been preserved in the only surviving large ancient celestial globe which depicts the constellations (a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure.) with moderate accuracy.
Euclid was a Greek mathematician who is considered to be the founder of Geometry also researched there. His one of the most famous work Elements is used as a textbook for teaching mathematics especially geometry from it’s publication until the late 19th or first 20th century.
Dinoysius Thrax was a grammarian who first gave definitions of the eight parts of speech. His work in grammar is regarded as the groundwork of the entire Western grammatical tradition
Herophilus was a Greek physician who is considered to be the father of anatomy. He spent majority of his life in Alexandria.
He was the first to discover that the brain is where all the thinking come from not the heart which was believed for thousand of years. He used to encourage the use of dissection in the study of anatomy. Herophilus vivisected at least 600 live prisoners.
Heron of Alexandria was a mathematician and Engineer. He is considered to be the greatest experimenter of antiquity. He is believed to have created the very first working model of a steam engine. Almost 2000 years before James Watt’s steam engine.
He also built the very first vending machine. When a coin was introduced via a slot on the top of the machine, a set amount of holy water was dispensed.
In fact the famous mathematician Archimedes researched there. Some believes that Archimedes even brought some of his advance measuring tools to research there properly.
Destruction of Library of Alexandria
Alexandria had long been known for its violent and volatile politics. Christians, Jews and Pagans all lived together in the city. The city has been bruised multiple times. The library only became a mere victim to it.
The first person blamed for the destruction of the Library is none other than Julius Caesar himself. On his pursuit of Pompey into Egypt in 48 BCE, Caesar was cut off by a large fleet of Egyptian boats in the harbor of Alexandria. He ordered the boats to be burned. The fleet was destroyed, but the flames spread to the city and the library. It’s not known how much of the library was destroyed.
When he documented this attack he never mentioned the destruction of the great library. This behavior is not unfamiliar as he never liked to add unflattering things about him or his work in any documentation.
The second, more famous, burning of the library came at the hands of Theophilus who was Patriarch of Alexandria from 385 to 412 CE. He turned the Temple of Serapis into a Christian church. The Temple of Serapis was estimated to hold about ten percent of the overall Library of Alexandria’s holdings. It is likely that the collection was destroyed by the Christians who moved in.
In the following years, the Christian attack against the library escalated, and the last great pagan philosopher and librarian, Hypatia, was tortured and killed. Some also believes this event was perhaps the final end of the great library of Alexandria.
These are all stories and there is no proper evidence to support these statements.
However as I have already mentioned political and religious conflicts were a part of this city. So these riots played a vital role in the destruction of this library.
The destruction of this library certainly is one of the worst crime ever made against humanity. We know so little compared to what we don’t know about this library. We can only imagine if the library had not been burnt and the documents were preserved how far the human civilization would go.
