Assyria.
The researches which have followed the discoveries of P. E. Botta and
Sir H. Layard have thrown unexpected light not only upon the history but
upon the arts, the sciences and the literatures of the ancient
civilizations of Babylonia and Assyria. In all these wondrous
revelations no facts are more interesting than those which show the
existence of extensive libraries so many ages ago, and none are more
eloquent of the elaborateness of these forgotten civilizations. In the
course of his excavations at Nineveh in 1850, Layard came upon some
chambers in the south-west palace, the floor of which, as well as the
adjoining rooms, was covered to the depth of a foot with tablets of
clay, covered with cuneiform characters, in many cases so small as to
require a magnifying glass. These varied in size from 1 to 12 in.
square. A great number of them were broken, as Layard supposed by the
falling in of the roof, but as George Smith thought by having fallen
from the upper storey, 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 documents, 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 England 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 at
Tello, the ancient Lagash, and at Niffer, the ancient Nippur, from which
the Assyrians drew their science and literature, see BABYLONIA and
NIPPUR.
Ancient Egyptian Libraries.
Of the libraries of ancient Egypt our knowledge is scattered and
imperfect, but at a time extending to more than 6000 years ago we find
numerous scribes of many classes who recorded official events in the
life of their royal masters or details of their domestic affairs and
business transactions. Besides this official literature we possess
examples of many commentaries on the sacerdotal books, as well as
historical treatises, works on moral philosophy and proverbial wisdom,
science, collections of medical receipts as well as a great variety of
popular novels and humoristic pieces. At an early date Heliopolis was a
literary centre of great importance with culture akin to the Babylonian.
Attached to every temple were professional scribes whose function was
partly religious and partly scientific. The sacred books of Thoth
constituted as it were a complete encyclopaedia of religion and science,
and on these books was gradually accumulated an immense mass of
exposition and commentary. We possess a record relating to "the land of
the collected works [library] of Khufu," a monarch of the IVth dynasty,
and a similar inscription relating to the library of Khafra, the builder
of the second pyramid. At Edfu the library was a small chamber in the
temple, on the wall of which is a list of books, among them a manual of
Egyptian geography (Brugsch, _History of Egypt_, 1881, i. 240). The
exact position of Akhenaten's library (or archives) of clay tablets is
known and the name of the room has been read on the books of which it
has been built. A library of charred books has been found at Mendes
(Egypt Expl. Fund, _Two Hieroglyphic Papyri_), and we have references to
temple libraries in the Silsileh "Nile" stelae and perhaps in the great
Harris papyri. The most famous of the Egyptian libraries is that of King
Osymandyas, described by Diodorus Siculus, who relates that it bore an
inscription which he renders by the Greek words [Greek: PSUCHÊS
IATREION] "the Dispensary of the Soul." Osymandyas has been identified
with the great king Rameses II. (1300-1236 B.C.) and the seat of the
library is supposed to have been the Ramessaeum at Western Thebes.
Amen-em-hant was the name of one of the directors of the Theban
libraries. Papyri from the palace, of a later date, have been discovered
by Professor W. F. Flinders Petrie. At Thebes the scribes of the
"Foreign Office" are depicted at work in a room which was perhaps rather
an office than a library. The famous Tel-el-Amarna tablets (1383-1365
B.C.) were stored in "the place of the records of the King." There were
record offices attached to the granary and treasury departments and we
know of a school or college for the reproduction of books, which were
kept in boxes and in jars. According to Eustathius there was a great
collection at Memphis. A heavy blow was dealt to the old Egyptian
literature by the Persian invasion, and many books were carried away by
the conquerors. The Egyptians were only delivered from the yoke of
Persia to succumb to that of Greece and Rome and henceforward their
civilization was dominated by foreign influences. Of the Greek libraries
under the Ptolemies we shall speak a little further on.
Greece.
Alexandria.
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 (Athenaeus i. 4). At Cnidus there is
said to have been a special collection of works upon medicine.
Pisistratus is reported 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.,"[2] 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 Pergamum. 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 Athenaeus (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 communicated the taste for collecting
to the sovereigns of Egypt. 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 attracted 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 Brucheum 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
vols. or rolls in the Serapeum and 490,000 in the Brucheum.[3] 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[4] (700,000) and Seneca[5] (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 discounted for
the purposes of comparison with modern collections. The series of the
first five librarians at Alexandria appears to be pretty well
established as follows: Zenodotus, Callimachus, Eratosthenes, Apollonius
and Aristophanes; and their activity covers a period of about a century.
The first experiments in bibliography appear to have been made in
producing catalogues of the Alexandrian libraries. Amongst other lists,
two catalogues were prepared by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of
the tragedies, the other of the comedies contained in the collections.
The [Greek: Pinakes] of Callimachus formed a catalogue of all the
principal books arranged in 120 classes. When Caesar set fire to the
fleet in the harbour of Alexandria, the flames accidentally extended to
the larger library of the Brucheum, and it was destroyed.[6] Antony
endeavoured to repair the loss by presenting to Cleopatra the library
from Pergamum. This was very probably placed in the Brucheum, as this
continued to be the literary quarter of Alexandria until the time of
Aurelian. Thenceforward the Serapeum became the principal library. The
usual statement that from the date of the restoration of the Brucheum
under Cleopatra the libraries continued in a flourishing condition until
they were destroyed after the conquest of Alexandria by the Saracens in
A.D. 640 can hardly be supported. It is very possible that one of the
libraries perished when the Brucheum quarter was destroyed by Aurelian,
A.D. 273. In 389 or 391 an edict of Theodosius ordered the destruction
of the Serapeum, and its books were pillaged by the Christians. When we
take into account the disordered condition of the times, and the neglect
into which literature and science had fallen, there can be little
difficulty in believing that there were but few books left to be
destroyed by the soldiers of Amru. The familiar anecdote of the caliph's
message to his general rests mainly upon the evidence of Abulfaraj, so
that we may be tempted to agree with Gibbon that the report of a
stranger who wrote at the end of six hundred years is overbalanced by
the silence of earlier and native annalists. It is, however, so far from
easy to settle the question that a cloud of names could easily be cited
upon either side, while some of the most careful inquirers confess the
difficulty of a decision[7] (see ALEXANDRIA, III.).
Pergamum.
The magnificence and renown of the libraries of the Ptolemies excited
the rivalry of the kings of Pergamum, who vied with the Egyptian rulers
in their encouragement of literature. The German researches in the
acropolis of Pergamum between 1878 and 1886 revealed four rooms which
had originally been appropriated to the library (Alex. Conze, _Die
pergamen. Bibliothek_, 1884). Despite the obstacles presented by the
embargo placed by the Ptolemies upon the export of papyrus, the library
of the Attali attained considerable importance, and, as we have seen,
when it was transported to Egypt numbered 200,000 vols. We learn from a
notice in Suidas that in 221 B.C. Antiochus the Great summoned the poet
and grammarian Euphorion of Chalcis to be his librarian.
Rome.
The early Romans were far too warlike and practical a people to devote
much attention to literature, and it is not until the last century of
the republic that we hear of libraries in Rome. The collections of
Carthage, which fell into their hands when Scipio sacked that city (146
B.C.), had no attractions for them; and with the exception of the
writings of Mago upon agriculture, which the senate reserved for
translation into Latin, they bestowed all the books upon the kinglets of
Africa (Pliny, _H.N._ xviii. 5). It is in accordance with the military
character of the Romans that the first considerable collections of which
we hear in Rome were brought there as the spoils of war. The first of
these was that brought by Aemilius Paulus from Macedonia after the
conquest of Perseus (167 B.C.). The library of the conquered monarch was
all that he reserved from the prizes of victory for himself and his
sons, who were fond of letters. Next came the library of Apellicon the
Teian, brought from Athens by Sulla (86 B.C.). This passed at his death
into the hands of his son, but of its later history nothing is known.
The rich stores of literature brought home by Lucullus from his eastern
conquests (about 67 B.C.) were freely thrown open to his friends and to
men of letters. Accordingly his library and the neighbouring walks were
much resorted to, especially by Greeks. It was now becoming fashionable
for rich men to furnish their libraries well, and the fashion prevailed
until it became the subject of Seneca's scorn and Lucian's wit. The zeal
of Cicero and Atticus in adding to their collections is well known to
every reader of the classics. Tyrannion is said to have had 30,000 vols.
of his own; and that M. Terentius Varro had large collections we may
infer from Cicero's writing to him: "Si hortum in bibliotheca habes,
nihil deerit." Not to prolong the list of private collectors, Serenus
Sammonicus is said to have left to his pupil the young Gordian no less
than 62,000 vols. Amongst the numerous projects entertained by Caesar
was that of presenting Rome with public libraries, though it is doubtful
whether any steps were actually taken towards its execution. The task of
collecting and arranging the books was entrusted to Varro. This
commission, as well as his own fondness for books, may have led Varro to
write the book upon libraries of which a few words only have come down
to us, preserved by a grammarian. The honour of being the first actually
to dedicate a library to the public is said by Pliny and Ovid to have
fallen to G. Asinius Pollio, who erected a library in the Atrium
Libertatis on Mount Aventine, defraying the cost from the spoils of his
Illyrian campaign. The library of Pollio was followed by the public
libraries established by Augustus. That emperor, who did so much for the
embellishment of the city, erected two libraries, the Octavian and the
Palatine. The former was founded (33 B.C.) in honour of his sister, and
was placed in the Porticus Octaviae, a magnificent structure, the lower
part of which served as a promenade, while the upper part contained the
library. The charge of the books was committed to C. Melissus. The other
library formed by Augustus was attached to the temple of Apollo on the
Palatine hill, and appears from inscriptions to have consisted of two
departments, a Greek and a Latin one, which seem to have been separately
administered. The charge of the Palatine collections was given to
Pompeius Macer, who was succeeded by Julius Hyginus, the grammarian and
friend of Ovid. The Octavian library perished in the fire which raged at
Rome for three days in the reign of Titus. The Palatine was, at all
events in great part, destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus. The
story that its collections were destroyed by order of Pope Gregory the
Great in the 6th century is now generally rejected. The successors of
Augustus, though they did not equal him in their patronage of learning,
maintained the tradition of forming libraries. Tiberius, his immediate
successor, established one in his splendid house on the Palatine, to
which Gellius refers as the "Tiberian library," and Suetonius relates
that he caused the writings and images of his favourite Greek poets to
be placed in the public libraries. Vespasian established a library in
the Temple of Peace erected after the burning of the city under Nero.
Domitian restored the libraries which had been destroyed in the same
conflagration, procuring books from every quarter, and even sending to
Alexandria to have copies made. He is also said to have founded the
Capitoline library, though others give the credit to Hadrian. The most
famous and important of the imperial libraries, however, was that
created by Ulpius Trajanus, known as the Ulpian library, which was first
established in the Forum of Trajan, but was afterwards removed to the
baths of Diocletian. In this library were deposited by Trajan the "libri
lintei" and "libri elephantini," upon which the senatus consulta and
other transactions relating to the emperors were written. The library of
Domitian, which had been destroyed by fire in the reign of Commodus, was
restored by Gordian, who added to it the books bequeathed to him by
Serenus Sammonicus. Altogether in the 4th century there are said to have
been twenty-eight public libraries in Rome.
Roman provincial libraries.
Nor were public libraries confined to Rome. We possess records of at
least 24 places in Italy, the Grecian provinces, Asia Minor, Cyprus and
Africa in which libraries had been established, most of them attached to
temples, usually through the liberality of generous individuals. The
library which the younger Pliny dedicated to his townsmen at Comum cost
a million sesterces and he contributed a large sum to the support of a
library at Milan. Hadrian established one at Athens, described by
Pausanias, and recently identified with a building called the Stoa of
Hadrian, which shows a striking similarity with the precinct of Athena
at Pergamum. Strabo mentions a library at Smyrna; Aulus Gellius one at
Patrae and another at Tibur from which books could be borrowed. Recent
discoveries at Ephesus in Asia Minor and Timegad in Algeria have
furnished precise information as to the structural plan of these
buildings. The library at Ephesus was founded by T. Julius Aquila
Polemaeanus in memory of his father, pro-consul of Asia in the time of
Trajan, about A.D. 106-107. The library at Timegad was established at a
cost of 400,000 sesterces by M. Julius Quintianus Flavius Rogatianus,
who probably lived in the 3rd century (R. Cagnat, "Les Bibliothèques
municipales dans l'Empire Romain," 1906, _Mém. de l'Acad. des Insc._,
tom. xxxviii. pt. 1). At Ephesus the light came through a circular
opening in the roof; the library at Timegad greatly resembles that
discovered at Pompeii and possesses a system of book stores. All these
buildings followed the same general plan, consisting of a reading-room
and more or less ample book stores; the former was either rectangular or
semi-circular in shape and was approached under a stately portico and
colonnade. In a niche facing the entrance a statue was always erected;
that formerly at Pergamum--a figure of Minerva--is now preserved at
Berlin. From a well-known line of Juvenal (_Sat._ iii. 219) we may
assume that a statue of the goddess was usually placed in libraries. The
reading-room was also ornamented with busts or life-sized images of
celebrated writers. The portraits or authors were also painted on
medallions on the presses (_armaria_) in which the books or rolls were
preserved as in the library of Isidore of Seville; sometimes these
medallions decorated the walls, as in a private library discovered by
Lanciani in 1883 at Rome (_Ancient Rome_, 1888, p. 193). Movable seats,
known to us by pictorial representations, were in use. The books were
classified, and the presses (framed of precious woods and highly
ornamented) were numbered to facilitate reference from the catalogues. A
private library discovered at Herculaneum contained 1756 MSS. placed on
shelves round the room to a height of about 6 ft. with a central press.
In the public rooms some of the books were arranged in the reading-room
and some in the adjacent book stores. The Christian libraries of later
foundation closely followed the classical prototypes not only in their
structure but also in smaller details. The general appearance of a Roman
library is preserved in the library of the Vatican fitted up by Sextus
V. in 1587 with painted presses, busts and antique vases.
As the number of libraries in Rome increased, the librarian, who was
generally a slave or freedman, became a recognized public functionary.
The names of several librarians are preserved to us in inscriptions,
including that of C. Hymenaeus, who appears to have fulfilled the double
function of physician and librarian to Augustus. The general
superintendence of the public libraries was committed to a special
official. Thus from Nero to Trajan, Dionysius, an Alexandrian
rhetorician, discharged this function. Under Hadrian it was entrusted to
his former tutor C. Julius Vestinus, who afterwards became administrator
of the Museum at Alexandria.
Constantinople.
When the seat of empire was removed by Constantine to his new capital
upon the Bosporus, the emperor established a collection there, in which
Christian literature was probably admitted for the first time into an
imperial library. Diligent search was made after the Christian books
which had been doomed to destruction by Diocletian. Even at the death of
Constantine, however, the number of books which had been brought
together amounted only to 6900. The smallness of the number, it has been
suggested, seems to show that Constantine's library was mainly intended
as a repository of Christian literature. However this may be, the
collection was greatly enlarged by some of Constantine's successors,
especially by Julian and Theodosius, at whose death it is said to have
increased to 100,000 vols. Julian, himself a close student and
voluminous writer, though he did his best to discourage learning among
the Christians, and to destroy their libraries, not only augmented the
library at Constantinople, but founded others, including one at Nisibis,
which was soon afterwards destroyed by fire. From the Theodosian code we
learn that in the time of that emperor a staff of seven copyists was
attached to the library at Constantinople under the direction of the
librarian. The library was burnt under the emperor Zeno in 477, but was
again restored.
Meanwhile, as Christianity made its way and a distinctively Christian
literature grew up, the institution of libraries became part of the
ecclesiastical organization. Bishop Alexander (d. A.D. 250) established
a church library at Jerusalem, and it became the rule to attach to every
church a collection necessary for the inculcation of Christian doctrine.
There were libraries at Cirta, at Constantinople and at Rome. The
basilica of St Lawrence at Rome contained a library or _archivum_
founded by Pope Damasus at the end of the 4th century. Most of these
collections were housed in the sacred edifices and consisted largely of
copies of the Holy Scriptures, liturgical volumes and works of devotion.
They also included the _Gesta Martyrum_ and _Matriculae Pauperum_ and
official correspondence. Many of the basilicas had the apse subdivided
into three smaller hemicycles, one of which contained the library
(Lanciani, op. cit. p. 187). The largest of these libraries, that
founded by Pamphilus (d. A.D. 309) at Caesarea, and said to have been
increased by Eusebius, the historian of the church, to 30,000 vols., is
frequently mentioned by St Jerome. St Augustine bequeathed his
collection to the library of the church at Hippo, which was fortunate
enough to escape destruction at the hands of the Vandals. The hermit
communities of the Egyptian deserts formed organizations which developed
into the later monastic orders of Western Europe and the accumulation of
books for the brethren was one of their cares.
The removal of the capital to Byzantium was in its result a serious blow
to literature. Henceforward the science and learning of the East and
West were divorced. The libraries of Rome ceased to collect the writings
of the Greeks, while the Greek libraries had never cared much to collect
Latin literature. The influence of the church became increasingly
hostile to the study of pagan letters. The repeated irruptions of the
barbarians soon swept the old learning and libraries alike from the
soil of Italy. With the close of the Western empire in 476 the ancient
history of libraries may be said to cease.