The Vanished Library
by Luciano Canfora
tr by Martin Ryle
Posted on 05/17/2004 10:10:51 AM PDT by presidio9
Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the site of the Library of Alexandria, often described as the world's first major seat of learning. A Polish-Egyptian team has excavated parts of the Bruchion region of the Mediterranean city and discovered what look like lecture halls or auditoria.
Two thousand years ago, the library housed works by the greatest thinkers and writers of the ancient world.
Works by Plato and Socrates and many others were later destroyed in a fire.
Oldest University
Announcing their discovery at a conference being held at the University of California, Zahi Hawass, president of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the 13 lecture halls uncovered could house as many as 5,000 students in total.
A conspicuous feature of the rooms, he said, was a central elevated podium for the lecturer to stand on.
"It is the first time ever that such a complex of lecture halls has been uncovered on any Greco-Roman site in the whole Mediterranean area," he added.
"It is perhaps the oldest university in the world."
Professor Wileke Wendrich, of the University of California, told BBC News Online that the discovery was incredibly impressive.
Alexandria was a major seat of learning in ancient times and regarded by some as the birthplace of western science.
Birthplace of geometry
It was a tiny fishing village on the Nile delta called Rhakotis when Alexander the Great chose it as the site of the new capital of his empire.
It was made Egypt's capital in 320 BC and soon became the most powerful and influential city in the region.
Its rulers built a massive lighthouse at Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the famed Library of Alexandria.
It was at the library that Archimedes invented the screw-shaped water pump that is still in use today.
At Alexandria Eratosthenes measured the diameter of the Earth, and Euclid discovered the rules of geometry.
Ptolemy wrote the Almagest at Alexandria. It was the most influential scientific book about the nature of the Universe for 1,500 years.
The library was later destroyed, possibly by Julius Caesar who had it burned as part of his campaign to conquer the city.
If you get the chance read the book "Treasure" by Clive Cussler. It's a book about the library director smuggeling most of the books and artworks out and hiding them before the library was destroyed. The story is about it's discovery 2000 years later in an unlikely place.It's an action adventure book with other subplots to it.It's a great read!
The Vanished Library
by Luciano Canfora
tr by Martin Ryle
The Vanished Library
by Luciano Canfora
tr by Martin Ryle
Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.
The Vanished Library
by Luciano Canfora
tr by Martin Ryle
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
|
|
|||
Gods |
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Great words: auditoria, gymnasia, natatoria, symposia, Pennsylvania.
(yay! found my photocopy)
The Library originally had two parts: the biblion (main library), for scholars, and the museion (mus-e-um?), which also had a library. And an Annex was built later, called the Serapeion (Serapeum?).
Caracalla sacked Alexandria in the 3rd century AD. The Museum's library was apparently looted/damaged then. The Serapeion's collection was burned or looted in 391 AD, with some involvement of Theophilus (Patriarch of Alexandria) and the Emperor Theodosius I. And the mobs of Alexandria. Apparently, Alexandria was famous for its mobs (who over the years lynched Roman officials, sundry foreigners, and Hypatia, for example).
The Emir Amrou Ibn el-As captured Alexandria in 641 AD and, traditionally, was said to have used what books remained (except for Aristotle's stuff) to the feed stoves at the public baths.
My understanding was that once the Italian and other scholars got their hands on the original Greek manuscipts brought by — or bought from! — the fleeing Byzantines, they realized how *awful* the Arabic-language translations were. The Arabic manuscripts were afterwards ignored, and Greek editions of the Greek classics were published forthwith.
Libraries and fire. Many years ago, when I received a library card for Oxford’s Bodleian Library I was required to read out loud from a card a curious and ancient declaration that, among other things, required me to affirm that I would not “bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame.” The declaration seemed quaint and superfluous at the time, but in retrospect I realized that it likely had its genesis in some hugely costly and unfortunate event in an era when books were very rare.
Given what happened with Julius Caesar, did you have to promise that you were not a Roman Legionnaire, too?
The library is right on Duke St and Holmes Run. Kinda hard to miss almost. Really nice, but I wish they had a better DVD collection.
>> The library was later destroyed, possibly by Julius Caesar who had it burned as part of his campaign to conquer the city. <<
WTF? The news report has to cower to their Muslim masters? Caesar accidentally burned many books while he conquered Alexandria, but the library probably wasn’t even at its peak influence yet. Christian Emperor Theodosius ordered the destruction of pagan temples, some of which constitutes part of the library. But it was the Muslims who destroyed the library.
“Several historians told varying accounts of an Arab army led by Amr ibn al ‘Aas sacking the city in 642 after the Byzantine army was defeated at the Battle of Heliopolis. Some historians, including Alfred J. Butler, argue that, when the commander Amr ibn al-Aas asked the Caliph Umar on what to do with the library he gave the famous answer: “They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, in which case they are superfluous.” It is said that the Arabs subsequently burned the books to heat bathwater for the soldiers.[21][22] Burning and destruction of the Library of Alexandria was reported to be the first act of sacking after Amr ibn al ‘Aas forces entered the city.[1] It was also said that the Library’s collection was still substantial enough at this late date to provide six months’ worth of fuel for the baths.”
Yes, very few are aware that Pennsylvania is the plural form of Pennsylvanium. You must have studied Latin!
Guess what? You’re right. Caesar didn’t destory it; the Muslims did.
Guess what? You’re right. Caesar didn’t destory it; the Muslims did.
How uncanny that the BBC made no mention of Muslim morons destroying the Alexandria library. It’s even in Wikipedia-—>>>
However, this version of events is not confirmed in contemporary accounts of Caesar’s visit. In fact, it has been reasonably established that segments of its collection were partially destroyed on several occasions before and after the first century BC. In any case the contents of the library were substantial up until the time of the Muslim sacking of Alexandria in 642.[1]
The Cotton or Cottonian library was the library compiled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571–1631), an antiquarian and bibliophile. Cotton's library included his collection of books, manuscripts, coins and medallions in his personal estate. The materials comprised the books and artifacts retrieved after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Consequently, his collection is the single greatest known resource of literature in Old English and Middle English. Several well known works such as Beowulf, the poem Pearl, and the Lindisfarne Gospels exist today because of Cotton's library.
The leading scholars of the era, including Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, and James Ussher, came to use Cotton's works. Richard James acted as his librarian. Upon the foundation of the Bodleian Library, he made a substantial contribution.
The Cotton library is now part of the British Library.
The Cotton Library suffered a very serious fire in 1731. A number of irreplacebale manuscripts were lost -- we nearly lost Beowulf!!
Not just “along with Black Death.” Black Death in Europe was the result of Islamic germ warfare (although, of course, it might have eventually spread there anyway). Islamic practice in its wars against the (Byzantine) Roman Empire was to fling diseased corpses into cities.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
