Editing Library of Alexandria (section)

{{Short description|Library in ancient Alexandria, Egypt}}
{{About|the ancient library|its present-day counterpart |Bibliotheca Alexandrina|other uses|Alexandria Library (disambiguation){{!}}Alexandria Library}}
{{Redirect|Great Library|the library of Quebec in Montreal|Grande Bibliothèque|the library of Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age|House of Wisdom}}
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{{Infobox library
| name = Library of Alexandria
| logo = <!-- file name only (no Image: or File:) -->
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| image = ancientlibraryalex.jpg
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| caption = Nineteenth-century artistic rendering of the Library of Alexandria by the German artist O. Von Corven, based partially on the archaeological evidence available at that time{{sfn|Garland|2008|page=61}}
| country = [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]
| type = [[National library]]
| scope = 
| established = Possibly during the reign of [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] (285–246 BC){{sfn|Tracy|2000|pages=343–344}}{{sfn|Phillips|2010}}
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| location = [[Alexandria]], Egypt
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| items_collected = Any written works{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=3}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=35}}
| collection_size = Estimates vary; somewhere between 40,000 and 400,000 [[scroll]]s,{{sfn|Wiegand|Davis|2015|p=20}} perhaps equivalent to roughly 100,000 books{{sfn|Garland|2008|page=60}}
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| num_employees = Estimated to have employed over 100 scholars at its height{{sfn|Haughton|2011}}{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=5}}
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The '''Great Library of Alexandria''' in [[Alexandria]], [[Egypt]], was one of the largest and most significant [[List of libraries in the ancient world|libraries of the ancient world]]. The [[library]] was part of a larger research institution called the [[Mouseion]], which was dedicated to the [[Muses]], the nine goddesses of the arts.<ref name=":0">Murray, S. A., (2009). The library: An illustrated history. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, p. 17</ref> The idea of a universal library in Alexandria may have been proposed by [[Demetrius of Phalerum]], an exiled Athenian statesman living in Alexandria, to [[Ptolemy I Soter]], who may have established plans for the Library, but the Library itself was probably not built until the reign of his son [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]]. The Library quickly acquired many [[papyrus]] [[scroll]]s, owing largely to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for procuring texts.{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} It is unknown precisely how many scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 at its height.

Alexandria came to be regarded as the capital of knowledge and learning, in part because of the Great Library.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Murray|first=Stuart|title=The library: an illustrated history|page=17|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|location=New York|year=2009|isbn=978-1-61608-453-0|oclc=277203534}}</ref> Many important and influential scholars worked at the Library during the third and second centuries BC, including: [[Zenodotus|Zenodotus of Ephesus]], who worked towards standardizing the works of [[Homer]]; [[Callimachus]], who wrote the ''[[Pinakes]]'', sometimes considered the world's first [[library catalog]];{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], who composed the epic poem the ''[[Argonautica]]''; [[Eratosthenes|Eratosthenes of Cyrene]], who calculated the [[Earth's circumference|circumference of the earth]] within a few hundred kilometers of accuracy; [[Hero of Alexandria]], who invented the first recorded [[Aeolipile|steam engine]]; [[Aristophanes of Byzantium]], who invented the system of [[Greek diacritics]] and was the first to divide poetic texts into lines; and [[Aristarchus of Samothrace]], who produced the definitive texts of the Homeric poems as well as extensive commentaries on them. During the reign of [[Ptolemy III Euergetes]], a daughter library was established in the [[Serapeum of Alexandria|Serapeum]], a temple to the Greco-Egyptian god [[Serapis]].

The influence of the Library declined gradually over the course of several centuries. This decline began with the purging of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145 BC during the reign of [[Ptolemy VIII Physcon]], which resulted in [[Aristarchus of Samothrace]], the head librarian, resigning and exiling himself to [[Cyprus]]. Many other scholars, including [[Dionysius Thrax]] and [[Apollodorus of Athens]], fled to other cities, where they continued teaching and conducting scholarship. The Library, or part of its collection, was accidentally burned by [[Julius Caesar]] during [[Caesar's civil war|his civil war]] in 48 BC, but it is unclear how much was actually destroyed and it seems to have either survived or been rebuilt shortly thereafter. The geographer [[Strabo]] mentions having visited the Mouseion in around 20 BC, and the prodigious scholarly output of [[Didymus Chalcenterus]] in Alexandria from this period indicates that he had access to at least some of the Library's resources.

The Library dwindled during the [[Roman Egypt|Roman period]], from a lack of funding and support. Its membership appears to have ceased by the 260s AD. Between 270 and 275 AD, Alexandria saw a [[Palmyrene invasion of Egypt|Palmyrene invasion]] and an imperial counterattack that probably destroyed whatever remained of the Library, if it still existed. The daughter library in the Serapeum may have survived after the main Library's destruction. The Serapeum, mainly used as a gathering place for [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] philosophers following the teachings of [[Iamblichus]], was vandalized and demolished in 391 AD under a decree issued by bishop [[Theophilus I of Alexandria|Theophilus of Alexandria]].