A thoroughly researched study on the history of both the Museum and the Alexandria Library, showing the important role they played in the transmission of Greco-roman civilization. The tragic fate of both institutions have long been of great fascination for both writers and readers.

A thoroughly researched study on the history of both the Museum and the Alexandria Library, showing the important role they played in the transmission of Greco-roman civilization. The tragic fate of both institutions have long been of great fascination for both writers and readers. Published also in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish

This book aims at presenting a new discussion of primary sources by renowned scholars of the long disputed question of "What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria"? The treatment includes a brilliant presentation of cultural Alexandrian life in late antiquity.

Examines the many reasons and motivations for the destruction of books throughout history, citing specific acts from the smashing of ancient Sumerian tablets to the looting of libraries in post-war Iraq.

The Library of Alexandria was one of the greatest cultural adornments of the late ancient world, containing thousands of scrolls of Greek, Hebrew and Mesopotamian literature and art and artefacts of ancient Egypt. This book demonstrates that Alexandria became - through the contemporary reputation of its library - a point of confluence for Greek, Roman, Jewish and Syrian culture that drew scholars and statesmen from throughout the ancient world. It also explores the histories of Alexander the Great and of Alexandria itself, the greatest city of the ancient world. This new paperback edition offers general readers an accessible introduction to the history of this magnificent yet still mysterious institution from the time of its foundation up to its tragic destruction.

This pioneering volume of essays explores the destruction of great libraries since ancient times and examines the intellectual, political and cultural consequences of loss. Fourteen original contributions, introduced by a major re-evaluative history of lost libraries, offer the first ever comparative discussion of the greatest catastrophes in book history from Mesopotamia and Alexandria to the dispersal of monastic and monarchical book collections, the Nazi destruction of Jewish libraries, and the recent horrifying pillage and burning of books in Tibet, Bosnia and Iraq.

The circulation of books was the motor of classical civilization. However, books were both expensive and rare, and so libraries - private and public, royal and civic - played key roles in articulating intellectual life. This collection, written by an international team of scholars, presents a fundamental reassessment of how ancient libraries came into being, how they were organized and how they were used. Drawing on papyrology and archaeology, and on accounts written by those who read and wrote in them, it presents new research on reading cultures, on book collecting and on the origins of monumental library buildings. Many of the traditional stories told about ancient libraries are challenged. Few were really enormous, none were designed as research centres, and occasional conflagrations do not explain the loss of most ancient texts. But the central place of libraries in Greco-Roman culture emerges more clearly than ever.