_A word about the Alexandrian Museum. Learned men dwelt in it
supported from the Public Funds. Kings and Emperors made this
Museum their special Care._
I have nothing further that seems worth saying on this subject of
libraries, except a few words about their use. If they stand empty,
or with only an occasional visitor; if students do not frequent them
and make use of their books, why were they ever established, and
what are they save that “idle luxury in the garb of scholarship” to
which Seneca alludes? The Alexandrian kings saw to it that there
were students to make use of their library, for they built near it
a Museum, so called because it was, so to speak, a temple of the
Muses, in which it was possible to follow the Muses, to cultivate the
humanities, free from all cares, even from the labour of providing
food and lodging, since the students in it were supported from the
public funds. How admirable an institution! Strabo gives us the best
description of it:
“Part of the royal palace is a Museum, in which one may stroll or
sit at ease, with a great hall, in which men of letters, who are
members of the Museum, hold meetings and take their meals together.
Moreover, this college, as we may call the Museum organization with
its students, has a foundation or common fund for its support; and
a priest, who is president of the Museum, formerly appointed by the
kings of Egypt, but at the present time by the emperor.”
He says this was part of the royal palace. Doubtless the kings wished
it to be near their own apartments that they might have at hand the
learned men who were its inmates, and converse with them when they
pleased; thus acquiring knowledge and training their minds. It had
porticoes and exedras, the former being more for the exercise of
the body, the latter for the training of the mind, as in them the
students gathered, conferred, and held discussions. There was also
a hall, where they ate together. Philostratus says the same thing
in speaking of Dionysius, who was, he writes, “received into the
Museum;” and then adds, “The Museum is the Egyptian banquet-hall of
learning, which brings together all the men of letters from all parts
of the world.”
Note particularly the words, “all the men of letters from all parts
of the world,” for even if not to be taken literally they show that
the number was very large and the expense very great. Timon the
satirist calls our attention to the same points when he says, in his
satirical and carping way, “Many people are supported at public
expense in Egypt the populous, that they may idly browse among
books and quarrel over them in the cave of the Muses.” Athenaeus,
commenting on this passage, says, “Timon spoke of the Museum as a
cave or cage, thus making sport of the philosophers maintained there,
as if they were so many rare birds.”
Athenaeus, we see, calls them philosophers; but Strabo uses the more
general phrase, “men of letters and savants;” and no doubt scholars
of every sort were admitted. Strabo puts special stress on the word
“men,” showing that boys and youths and those beginning their studies
were not taught in the Museum, as they would be in a similar place
to-day; but that admittance was rather a reward for erudition already
attained, an honour rightly earned. At Athens, following a similar
custom, those who deserved the honour were supported in the Prytaneum
at public expense.
What think you of that, O Prince of to-day? Does not the wish rise
within you to establish again this noble custom?
Continuing Strabo’s account of the Museum: he says a priest was
appointed to manage its affairs, who was selected by the kings or
emperors. The position must have been of great dignity, and one which
it was thought the emperor himself should fill. One may ask if the
emperor did not appoint all the officials? Philostratus seems to
imply that he did, when he says, speaking of Dionysius the sophist,
“The Emperor Hadrian appointed him satrap or governor of many people,
and named those who should receive public honours, and those also
who should be maintained at public expense in the Museum.” Again,
speaking of Polemon, he says, “Hadrian made him a member of the
Museum, where he lived at public expense.” Let me add that, though
I have not so indicated in my translation, Philostratus uses in the
phrase I have quoted a word meaning “circle,” from which it would
seem that members were admitted in a certain order and in proper
turn, some even being chosen before any vacancy had occurred. These
no doubt waited in confidence and entered in due course, in the order
of their appointment. A like custom prevails to-day among princes in
conferring favours.
Athenaeus throws light on this matter of appointments to the Museum
by the emperor when he says that a certain poet, Pancrates, very
cleverly praised Hadrian’s favourite, Antinous, and that the emperor,
delighted with the subtle flattery, ordered the poet to be supported
free of expense at the Museum.
So much for the reports of Strabo and others on the Museum and its
management.
Let me add that the inmates of the Museum by no means lived
therein an idle and useless life (how could they, being men who
were dedicated, as it were, to public service?), but were diligent
in writing, in arguing, and reciting their own works. Spartianus
testifies to this in his remark about Hadrian, to the effect that he
propounded questions to the savants in the Museum at Alexandria, and
in turn answered those they presented to him.
Let me note that Suetonius says that the Emperor Claudius added a
second Museum to the original one and ordered that certain books be
read there every day, and
I close,
O MOST ILLUSTRIOUS RULER, with the wish that you, a descendant
of great men and born to do great things, may long continue in
that work, worthy of the highest praise, which you have already
begun,--the work of encouraging the production of books and the
cultivation of the liberal arts among men, and so make your name for
all time revered.
To you, JOHN MORETUS, because of the friendship which has bound
together for now these many years you and our Plantin--alas, now
no more!--and all his family and myself,--to you, I say, I entrust
the printing and the publishing of this my OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY
OF LIBRARIES; to you and to no one else. And this my wish and will
I thus declare in accordance with the law laid down by the great
Emperor and the Kings.
JUSTUS LIPSIUS
LITERATURE OF LIBRARIES
SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES
_Edited by_ JOHN COTTON DANA, _Librarian of the Free Public Library,
Newark, New Jersey; and_ HENRY W. KENT, _Librarian of the Grolier
Club, New York City._
1. COTTON DES HOUSSAYES, JEAN BAPTISTE (1727-1783).
Concerning the Duties and Qualifications of a Librarian (Des
Devoirs et de Qualities du Bibliothecaire).
2. DURY, JOHN (DURIE) (1596-1680).
The Reformed Librarie-Keeper. London, 1650.
3. KIRKWOOD, REV. JAMES (1650?-1708).
An Overture for founding and maintaining of Bibliothecks in every
Paroch throughout this Kingdom. [Edinburgh], 1699.
4. BODLEY, SIR THOMAS (1545-1613).
Life, written by himself, 1609; with his First Draught of the
Statutes of the Public Library at Oxford. (From Reliquiae
Bodleianae, 1703.)
5. LIPSIUS, JUSTUS (1547-1606).
De Bibliothecis Syntagma. Antwerp, 1602. Translated into English
for this series.
6. NAUDÉ, GABRIEL (1600-1653).
News from France; or, A Description of the Library of Cardinal
Mazarini (London, 1652), and, The Surrender of the Library of
Cardinal Mazarin.
_250 copies on small paper, 6 vols., $12.00 per set._
_25 copies on large paper, 6 vols., $25.00 per set._
A. C. McCLURG & CO. PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO
Transcriber’s Notes
On page 46, “reestablished” was replaced by “reëstablished”,
reflecting the predominant spelling in the text. Otherwise, original
spelling and punctuation has been retained.
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
public domain.
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.