Library of Alexandria - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The library of Alexandria was most famous Bibliothèque of the Antiquité.

History

Alexandria was at its time one of the largest cultural hearths of the Mediterranean, its superb library being without question one of the principal bases of its notoriety.

It is one of the generals of Alexandre, Ptolémée {{Ier}}, receiving the Egypt divides some with dead of the king, who gave the intellectual and commercial impulse to the future size of Alexandria.

In -288, it made build a museum ( Museion : the palate of the Muses) sheltering a university, an academy and the library (estimated at: 700000 volumes at the time of César). Then he asked in each country known so that one send to him works of all types of authors, that he translated into Greek. As the city was a port, he also asked all the ships which made stopover in Alexandria allow that the books contained on board be recopied and translated. The copy was given to the ship, and the original preserved by the library.

The museum became an academic research center high where the scientists were defrayed by the prince and where they found the instruments, collections, zoological gardens and botanies necessary to their work.

The translation in Greek of all these works was a colossal work which mobilized the majority of the intellectuals and scientists of each country; it was necessary that these men have a command of to perfection their own language as well as the Greek . The library was directed by scholars like Zénodote of Éphèse, then Aristophane de Byzance, Aristarque de Samothrace and Apollonios of Rhodos. One will retain for example the Seventy, a group of scholars resulting from the philosophical current of the same name, who translated the Old Testament. The legend of Seventy known as that six representatives of each Jewish tribe were locked up on the island of Pharos to achieve this translation. They were thus 72 Rabbin S and they would have carried out the translation in 72 days.

The Greek poet Callimaque de Cyrène was destined for Alexandria by Ptolémée {{II}} Philadelphe, and gave lessons of poetry in the museum: he had Apollonios of Rhodos and Aristophane de Byzance like disciples. He became librarian of Alexandria after the death of Zénodote, while continuing to give courses. He wrote the first reasoned catalog of the Greek literature, Pinakes (Tables), often quoted thereafter.

Destruction of the library

Scientific context of the debate

The sources are extremely limited and the positions of the historians quite as distinct the ones as the others.

The only certainty that no material trace of the library of Alexandria was, to date, is identified or found. The absence of material element thus puts the researchers in impossibility of validating, of cancelling or of corroborating the dires sources which, with the wire of time, could be handled, misunderstood or interpreted (in a direction or another).

Summary of the various assumptions

There are three principal assumptions to explain the destruction of the library of Alexandria:

the Roman civil war between César and Pompée (approx. -50);
conflicts of political primacy and nun between Paganism and Christianity (250 - 350);
consequences of the Arab conquest (approx. 650).

The Roman civil war between César and Pompée

See also: Jules César#La civil war, Pumped

At the end of the civil war between César and Pompée, after the Battle of Pharsale in -48, César, winner, pursued his rival to Alexandria where it found it assassinated on order of the young person Ptolémée {{XIII}}. A war engaged then between Ptolémée and César, this last wanting to avenge the reserved fate with Pompée. The Roman general left victorious the confrontation, and détrôna the young sovereign with the profit of Cléopâtre {{VII}} and of young person of his brothers. In -47, the troops of Jules César set fire to the fleet of Alexandria; fire would have been propagated with the warehouses and would have destroyed part of the library. This fire and different the confrontation (former or posterior) would have led to the loss of approximately: 40000 with: 70000 rollers in a warehouse beside the port (and not in the library itself).

Conflicts of political primacy and nun between paganism and Christianity

The increasing tensions between the imperial capacity Roman paganist and the religious and political influence growing of the Christians caused confrontations which were translated, for example, by the Edict of ordering Théodose in 391, inter alia, the destruction of the pagan temples. The assumption advanced by certain authors is that the library of Alexandria would have finally disappeared during these various confrontations.

Consequences of the Arab conquest

The last assumption (on the chronological level) charges the destruction of the library to the caliph Omar who would have given in 642 the order to destroy the library with his military chief 'Amr Ibn Al “Ace. This last assumption continues to make the object of a strong controversy, some supporting it, others rejettant it. Factuellement, it should be raised that the quoted sources make carry, according to the point of view of the author, the responsibility for the destruction of the library either to the bishop, or with the caliph Omar by her orders sent to the Amrou general. According to Luciano Canfora, this last would have obeyed besides only unwillingly the orders of Omar, helping the librarians secretly so that at least the texts of Aristote can be saved.