The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Alexandrian Library

ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, a collection ofbooks formed by Ptolemy I. and Ptolemy II.of Egypt, and probably the largest prior tothe invention of printing. It was founded, itis said, at the suggestion of Demetrius Phalereus,who, when a fugitive at the Egyptiancourt, spoke with admiration of the publiclibraries at Athens. Demetrius was appointedsuperintendent, and diligently employedhimself in the collection of the literature of allnations, Jewish, Chaldee, Persian, Ethiopian,Egyptian; Greek, Roman, &c. According toEusebius, there were 100,000 volumes in thelibrary at the death of Ptolemy Philadelphus;and subsequently the number was increased to700,000. The volumina or rolls, however,contained far less than a printed volume; as,for instance, the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid, in15 books, would be considered as 15 volumes.During the siege which Csesar stood in Alexandria,a large part of the library was burned.Gibbon asserts that the old library was totallyconsumed, and that the collection from Pergamus,which was presented by Mark Antony toCleopatra, was the foundation of the new one,which continued to increase in size andreputation for four centuries, until dispersed byTheophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, at thedestruction of the Serapeum, about A. D. 390.Still the library was reëstablished; andAlexandria continued to flourish as one of the chiefseats of literature until it was conquered bythe Arabs in 640. The library was then burned,according to a story of very questionableauthenticity, in consequence of the fanatic decisionof the caliph Omar: “If these writingsof the Greeks agree with the Book of God,they are useless and need not be preserved; ifthey disagree, they are pernicious and oughtto be destroyed.” Accordingly, it is said,they were employed to heat the 4,000 bathsof the city; and such was their number, thatsix months were barely sufficient for theconsumption of the precious fuel. There is nodoubt, however, that after 640 the libraryceased to exist as a public institution.Connected with the library was a college, orretreat for learned men, called the museum,where they were maintained at public expense.