Who was the head of the Alexandrian library? Revived Library of Alexandria, Egypt

November 12th, 2015

The works of all these and many other great scientists of antiquity were collected in huge collection Library of Alexandria. According to various estimates, its collection contained up to 700 thousand papyrus scrolls. The Library of Alexandria was founded in 290 BC and accumulated all the most progressive knowledge of mankind for almost seven centuries.

And this was not just a library. During its heyday, it was more of an academy: the greatest scientists of that time lived and worked here, who were engaged in both research and teaching, passing on their knowledge to students. IN different time Archimedes, Euclid, Zenodotus of Ephesus, Apollonius of Rhodes, Claudius Ptolemy, Callimachus of Cyrene worked here. Here the Complete History of the World was written and stored in three volumes.

Let's find out what could be stored there...

1. Eratosthenes of Cyrene.

Greek mathematician, astronomer, geographer, philologist and poet. Disciple of Callimachus, from 235 BC. e. - head of the Library of Alexandria. It was Eratosthenes who coined the term “geography”. He was noted for his extensive work in many scientific fields, for which he received the nickname “beta”, that is, the second, from his contemporaries. And this is only because the first place should be reserved for the ancestors. Eratosthenes is best known for the fact that, long before the advent of machines and satellites, he established the shape of our planet and almost accurately calculated its circumference.

He wrote three books about history geographical discoveries. In his treatises “Doubling the Cube” and “On the Average” he considered solutions to geometric and arithmetic problems. The most famous mathematical discovery of Eratosthenes was the so-called “sieve”, with the help of which prime numbers are found. Eratosthenes can also be considered the founder of scientific chronology. In his Chronographies he tried to establish dates related to political and literary history Ancient Greece, compiled a list of Olympic Games winners.

2. Hipparchus of Nicaea.

Ancient Greek astronomer, mechanic, geographer and mathematician of the 2nd century BC. e., often called the greatest astronomer of antiquity. Hipparchus made fundamental contributions to astronomy. His own observations lasted from 161 to 126 BC. Hyparchus determined the length of the tropical year with high accuracy; quite accurately measured precession, which manifests itself in the slow change in the longitude of stars. The star catalog he compiled shows the positions and relative brightness of about 850 stars.

Hipparchus's work on chords of a circle (according to modern concepts- sines), the tables he compiled, which anticipated modern tables of trigonometric functions, served Starting point for the development of chordal trigonometry, which played important role in Greek and Muslim astronomy.

Only one original work by Hipparchus has survived unchanged to this day. Very little is known about the rest of his works, and existing data vary widely.

3. Euclid.

Ancient Greek mathematician, author of the first theoretical treatise on mathematics that has come down to us. He is known mainly as the author of the fundamental work “Principia”, which systematically presents the theoretical core of all ancient mathematics, which includes two main sections - geometry and arithmetic. In general, Euclid is the author of many works on astronomy, optics, music and other disciplines. However, only a few of his works have survived to this day, and many only partially.

4. Heron of Alexandria.

Heron is considered one of the greatest engineers in the history of mankind. He was the first to invent automatic doors, an automatic puppet theater, a vending machine, a rapid-fire self-loading crossbow, a steam turbine, automatic decorations, a device for measuring the length of roads (an ancient odometer), etc. He was the first to create programmable devices (a shaft with pins with a rope wound around it ).

He studied geometry, mechanics, hydrostatics, and optics. Main works: Metrics, Pneumatics, Automatopoetics, Mechanics (the entire work has been preserved in Arabic translation), Catoptrics (the science of mirrors; preserved only in Latin translation) etc. In 1814, Heron’s essay “On the Diopter” was found, which sets out the rules for land surveying, actually based on the use of rectangular coordinates.

5. Aristarchus of Samos.

Ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician and philosopher. He was the first to invent the heliocentric system of the world and developed a scientific method for determining the distances to the Sun and Moon and their sizes. Contrary to the generally accepted views of his time, Aristarchus of Samos even then (mid-2nd century BC) argued that the Sun is motionless and is in the center of the universe, and the Earth revolves around it and rotates around its axis. He believed that the stars were stationary and located on a sphere of very large radius.

As a result of the promotion of his heliocentric system of the world, Aristarchus of Samos was accused of atheism and was forced to flee from Athens. Of all the extremely numerous works of Aristarchus of Samos, only one has reached us, “On the magnitudes and distances of the Sun and Moon.”

Now let's talk more about the library itself.

The idea of ​​a library.

The Library of Alexandria is perhaps the most famous of the ancients, but not the most ancient library known to us. The idea of ​​a library is the idea of ​​preserving and transmitting knowledge from past to future generations, the idea of ​​continuity and dedication. It is not at all accidental, therefore, the existence of libraries in the most developed cultures antiquities. The libraries of the Egyptian pharaohs, kings of Assyria and Babylon are known. Some functions of libraries were performed by collections of sacred and cult texts at ancient temples or religious and philosophical communities, such as the brotherhood of Pythagoras.

In ancient times there were also quite extensive private collections of books. For example, the library of Euripides, which he, according to Aristophanes, used when writing own works. More famous is Aristotle's library, which was created largely thanks to donations from Aristotle's famous student Alexander the Great. However, the importance of Aristotle's library many times exceeds the total importance of the books collected by Aristotle. For we can say with absolute certainty that the creation of the Library of Alexandria became possible largely thanks to Aristotle. And the point here is not even that Aristotle’s book collection formed the basis of the Lyceum library, which became the prototype of the library in Alexandria. It is much more important that the followers or students of Aristotle were everyone who, to a greater or lesser extent, to a lesser extent was involved in the creation of the Library of Alexandria.

The first among them, of course, should be called Alexander himself, who, bringing to life the theory of the philosophical act of his teacher, pushed the boundaries Hellenistic world so much so that the direct transfer of knowledge from teacher to student became in many cases simply impossible - thereby creating the preconditions for the founding of a library in which books from the entire Hellenistic world would be collected. In addition, Alexander himself had a small traveling library, the main book of which was the “Iliad” of Homer, the most famous and mysterious Greek author, whose work was studied by all the first librarians of the Library of Alexandria. We should not forget that the city itself was founded by Alexander, on the plan of which he inscribed the first five letters of the alphabet, which meant: “Alexandros Vasileve Genos Dios Ektise” - “Alexander the king, the offspring of Zeus, founded ...”, - signifying that the city will be very famous, including for verbal sciences.

Indirect students of Aristotle include the founder of the dynasty of Egyptian kings, Ptolemy Lagus, who, being a childhood friend of Alexander the Great, and then one of his generals and bodyguards, of course, shared the basic ideas of Alexander and Aristotle.

A follower of Aristotle was the immediate founder and first head of the Library of Alexandria, a student of Theophrastus, Demetrius of Phalerum. Perhaps the same can be said about Strato, who, together with Demetrius of Phalerum, was one of the founders of the Alexandrian Museum. And his pupil Ptolemy Philadelphus, after ascending the Egyptian throne, made great efforts to continue the work of his father, not only allocating significant financial resources, but also showing personal concern for the development and prosperity of the Museum and the Library.

Founding of the Library of Alexandria.

The creation of the Library of Alexandria is most closely connected with the Museum of Alexandria, founded around 295 BC. on the initiative of two Athenian philosophers, Demetrius of Phalerus and Strato the physicist, who arrived in Alexandria at the invitation of Ptolemy I at the very beginning of the 3rd century. BC e. Since both of these men were also mentors to the royal sons, one of the most important functions, and perhaps the primary task of the newly created Museum, was to provide the highest level of education to the heirs to the throne, as well as to the growing elite of Egypt. In the future, this was completely combined with full-fledged research work in a wide variety of fields of knowledge. However, both directions of the Museum’s activities, of course, were impossible without the existence of scientific and educational library. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that the Library, as part of a new scientific and educational complex, was founded in the same year as the Museum itself, or a very short time after the latter began its work. The version of the simultaneous founding of the Museum and the Library can also be supported by the fact that the library was an obligatory and integral part of the Athens Lyceum, which, without a doubt, served as a prototype for the creation of the Alexandria Museum.

We find the very first mention of the Library in the famous “Letter to Philocrates”, the author of which, a close associate of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, reports the following in connection with the events of the translation of the holy books of the Jews into Greek: “Demetrius Falireus, head of the royal library, received large sums to collect, if possible, all the books in the world. Buying and making copies, he, to the best of his ability, completed the king’s desire. Once in our presence he was asked how many thousands of books he had, and answered: “Over two hundred thousand, king, and in a short time I will take care of the rest to bring it to five hundred thousand. But I am informed that the laws of the Jews also deserve to be rewritten and have in your library.” (Letter of Aristaeus, 9 – 10).

Library structure.

No less valuable was the experience of successful ten-year management of Athens, during which Demetrius of Phalerus carried out large construction work, and also made it possible for Theophrastus to acquire the garden and the Lyceum building itself. Therefore, the opinion of Demetrius of Phalerum seemed no less important in the development of construction plans and architectural solutions for the Library of Alexandria.

Unfortunately, no reliable information about the appearance and internal structure of the premises of the Library of Alexandria has been preserved. However, some finds suggest that book manuscript scrolls were stored on shelves or in special chests, which were arranged in rows; aisles between rows provided access to any storage unit. Each scroll had something like a modern index card in the form of a plate attached to it, which indicated the authors (or author), as well as the title (title) of their works.

The library building had several side extensions and covered galleries with rows of bookshelves. Apparently, the library did not have reading rooms - however, there were workstations for scroll copyists, which the employees of the Library and the Museum could also use for their work. Accounting and cataloging of acquired books were carried out, probably, from the day the library was founded, which completely corresponds to the rules at the Ptolemaic court, according to which records of all affairs and conversations were kept in the palace from the moment the king conceived any business until its complete execution. It was thanks to this that the librarian could at any time answer the king’s question about the number of books already in the repositories and plans to increase storage units.

Formation of a book fund.

1. Poetry, first of all epic, first of all Homer;

2. Tragedy and comedy, first of all, ancient: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides;

3. History, law, oratory;

4. Philosophy, which included not only philosophical works in the modern sense - but also works on all known branches of science: physics, mathematics, botany, astronomy, medicine, etc. and so on.

The primary task was to compile a complete canon of Greek literature of that time. But since the texts of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles and other authors circulated in many copies, it was first necessary to come to an agreement on a single version of the most important texts for Greek culture. That's why we bought everything available options the most authoritative works, which were kept in numerous copies in the Library of Alexandria.

At the same time, it was Demetrius of Phalerus who began work on the identification and textual criticism of Homer’s poems. It is on the basis of the Homeric texts collected by Demetrius of Phalerum, as well as his critical works“On the Iliad”, “On the Odyssey”, “An expert on Homer”, Zenodotus of Ephesus, the head of the Library of Alexandria following Demetrius, made the first attempt at a critical edition of Homer’s texts. It is Demetrius of Phalerum that should therefore be considered the founder of scientific literary criticism.

It should be especially noted that from the very first years of its existence, the Library of Alexandria showed interest not only in Greek literature, but also in some books of other peoples. True, this interest existed in a rather narrow area and was dictated by purely practical interests of ensuring effective leadership multinational state, whose peoples worshiped different gods and were guided by their own laws and traditions. It was the need to write universal legislation and establish, if possible, a common way of life that dictated interest in religion, legislation and the history of the peoples living in Egypt. That is why, already in the first decade of the existence of the Library in Alexandria, the Law of the Jews was translated into Greek, which became, apparently, the first book translated into the language of another people. Around the same years, Ptolemy Soter's advisor, the Egyptian priest Manetho, wrote the History of Egypt in Greek.

Quite definitely, the “Letter of Aristeas” also speaks about ways of forming a library collection, citing the main ones as buying and copying books. However, in many cases, the owners simply had no other choice but to sell or hand over books for copying. The fact is that, according to one of the decrees, the books that were on the ships that arrived in Alexandria were sold by their owners to the Library of Alexandria or (apparently, in cases of failure to reach agreement on this issue) were handed over for mandatory copying. At the same time, quite often the owners of the books, without waiting for the end of their copying, left Alexandria. In some cases (probably for particularly valuable scrolls), a copy was returned to the owner of the book, while the original remained in the Library's collections. Apparently, the share of books that came into the library’s collections from ships was quite large, since books of such origin were later called “ship library” books.

It is also known that Ptolemy II Philadelphus personally wrote to the kings, with many of whom he was related, so that they would send him everything that was available from the works of poets, historians, orators, and doctors. In some cases, the owners of the Library of Alexandria sacrificed quite significant amounts of deposit in order to leave in Alexandria the originals of especially valuable books taken for copying. In any case, this is exactly the story that came out with the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the lists of which were kept in the archives of the Theater of Dionysus in Athens. Athens received a pledge of fifteen talents of silver and copies of ancient tragedies, and the Library of Alexandria received the originals of priceless books.

However, in some cases, the Library also had to bear losses - since over time, cases of acquiring quite skillful forgeries of ancient books became more frequent, and the Library was forced to employ additional staff to determine the authenticity of a particular scroll.

However, the attempt to collect all the books in the world was not entirely successful. The most significant and annoying gap for the Library of Alexandria was the absence of the original books of Aristotle in its repositories; The library was unable to acquire them from the heirs of Neleus, who received the books of Aristotle under the will of Theophrastus.

A separate part of the Library's collection, apparently, was the royal archive, which consisted of records of daily palace conversations, numerous reports and reports of royal officials, ambassadors and other service people.

The Rise of the Library of Alexandria.

The subsidiary library had its own fund of 42,800 scrolls, mainly educational books, among which was a huge number of doublets of works located in a large library. However, the main library also had a huge number of copies of the same works, which was due to several reasons.

Firstly, the library quite deliberately acquired a huge number of handwritten copies of the most famous works of Greek literature in order to highlight the most ancient and reliable copies. To the greatest extent this concerned the works of Homer, Hesiod, and ancient tragic and comic authors.

Secondly, the technology for storing papyrus scrolls itself implied the periodic replacement of books that had become unusable. In this regard, the Library, in addition to researchers and curators of texts, had a large staff of professional copyists of the text.

Thirdly, a significant part of the library collections consisted of books by Muzeion employees who studied and classified ancient and contemporary texts. In some cases, work on commenting on texts, and then commenting on comments, took truly exaggerated forms. For example, the case of Didymus Halkenter, the “copper womb,” is known, who compiled three thousand five hundred volumes of commentaries.

These circumstances, as well as the lack of a correct understanding of many ancient terms (for example, in distinguishing between “mixed” and “unmixed” scrolls) do not allow us to at least approximately estimate the number of original texts stored in the collections of the Library of Alexandria. It is only obvious that only a fraction of a percent of the literary wealth that the ancient world possessed has reached our time.

But even if in some of its manifestations the desire to collect all the books of the world could seem like a morbid passion, the Ptolemies nevertheless had a very clear idea of ​​​​the benefits of monopoly on knowledge. It was the creation of the Library that attracted people to Egypt the best minds of its time, turned Alexandria for several centuries into the center of Hellenistic civilization. That is why the Library of Alexandria experienced fierce competition from the libraries of Rhodes and Pergamon. In order to prevent the growing influence of these new centers, a ban was even introduced on the export of papyrus from Egypt, which for a long time remained the only material for the production of books. Even the invention of a new material - parchment - could not significantly shake the leading position of the Library of Alexandria.

However, at least one case is known when competition from Pergamon turned out to be saving for the Library of Alexandria. By this event we mean the gift of 200,000 volumes from the collection of the Pergamon Library, presented to Cleopatra by Mark Antony shortly after the fire of 47 BC, when Caesar, during the Alexandrian War, in order to prevent the capture of the city from the sea, ordered the fire located in harbor fleet, and the flames allegedly engulfed coastal book storage areas.

For a long time It was believed, however, that this fire destroyed the entire collection of the main library. However, a different point of view currently prevails, according to which the Library burned down much later, namely in 273 AD. together with Muzeion and Brucheion, during the reign of Emperor Aurelius, who waged war against Queen Zenobia of Palmyra.

But we still do not know the exact fate of the book collection of the Library of Alexandria.

The destruction of the Library of Alexandria.

According to the first version, the library burned down in 47 BC, during the so-called Alexandrian War, and historians consider Julius Caesar to be involved in its death.

These events actually took place on the territory of Alexandria, during the dynastic struggle between Cleopatra the Seventh and her young brother and husband, Ptolemy the Thirteenth Dionysius.

Cleopatra was eldest daughter Ptolemy the Twelfth Auletes, and according to his will, at the age of 17 she was appointed co-ruler of her minor husband, but in 48 BC. As a result of the rebellion and palace coup, she lost power.

The rebellion was raised by the Egyptian military leader Achilles, as a result of which Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoe, came to power.

However, soon after this, Cleopatra, supported by the small army of Julius Caesar located in Alexandria, who opposed the rebellious Achilles, managed to regain power.

Julius Caesar

According to existing legend, Julius Caesar, forced to fight on the streets of Alexandria against significantly superior enemy forces, in order to give strength to his troops, ordered the burning of the Roman fleet, which was already loaded with valuables and manuscripts of the Library of Alexandria, ready for evacuation to Rome.

From the pier, the fire spread to the city, and part of the book stock located on the ships burned down.

Roman troops from Syria urgently arrived to help Julius Caesar and helped suppress the rebellion.

In 47 BC. Grateful Cleopatra gave birth to a son from Julius Caesar, who was officially recognized by him and named Caesarion.

To legitimize her power, she marries her younger brother, known as Ptolemy the Fourteenth.

In 46 BC. Cleopatra solemnly arrives in Rome, where she is officially declared an ally of the Roman Empire. After the death of Julius Caesar and the Civil War that began in the vast Roman Empire, she takes the side of the triumvirate created by Antony, Octavian and Lepidus.

During the division of the provinces between the triumvirs, Mark Antony received the eastern regions of the Roman Empire and threw in his lot with Cleopatra, falling under her complete influence, thereby turning all of Rome against himself.

And already in 31 BC. The Egyptian fleet suffered a crushing defeat from the Romans at Cape Actium, after which Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Egypt was turned into a Roman province and completely lost its independence.

From this time on, the Library of Alexandria officially became the property of the Roman Empire.

It is known that the funds of the Library of Alexandria, burned due to the fault of Julius Caesar, were attempted to be restored in full (and it seems restored) by Mark Antony, who, after the death of Julius Caesar, becoming governor of Egypt, bought up all the books of the library of Pergamon, which contained almost all copies of the books from Alexandria.

He made a truly royal gift to Cleopatra, presenting her with 200,000 volumes of unique books taken from the Pergamon library, many of which were autographs and cost fortunes. Later they were placed in the collections of the subsidiary library of Alexandria.

The Library of Alexandria was again severely damaged during the capture of Egypt by Zenobia (Zenovia) Palmyra.

Zenobia Septimia, who professed Judaism, became Augusta of Palmyra in 267, declared Palmyra a kingdom independent of Rome, and, having defeated the legions of the Roman emperor Publius Licinius Ignatius Gallienus sent to suppress it, conquered Egypt.

In passing, we note that it was Gallienus who granted freedom of religion to Christians.

This was the most critical time for the Roman Empire.

Zenobia

Sent to pacify the rebellious Zenobia, the “restorer of the empire” Lucius Domitius Aurelian, in 273 defeated the seventy-thousand-strong army of Palmyra and captured Queen Zenobia, annexing almost all previously lost regions to the Roman Empire.

During this war, part of the Library of Alexandria was burned and looted by Zenobia's supporters, but after her capture, it was again almost completely restored.

It is curious that after the victory over Zenobia, Aurelian begins to assert the unlimited power of the emperor in the Roman Empire, and officially began to call himself “lord and god.”

At the same time, the cult of the Invincible Sun was introduced everywhere in the Roman Empire, i.e. Aurelian also tried to restore the religion of Pharaoh Akhenaten, which had already been forgotten by this time, in the Roman Empire.

However, this was not the last fire of the Alexandria Library.

Another, most cruel and senseless destruction of the funds of the Library of Alexandria occurred in 391, during the reign (375-395) of Emperor Theodosius the Great.

In this tragic year, crowds of Christian fanatics, fueled by the sermons of the Bishop of Alexandria Theophilus, literally destroyed the Library of Alexandria, with the goal of destroying all pagan and heretical books, in order to establish the dominant role of the Christian religion.

The pogrom ended with a fire in which most of the manuscripts were lost, some of which were worth fortunes.

This is the official version.

But there is another version: there is information about a tombstone inscription in the crypt of a wealthy merchant, dating back to approximately 380, which states that during the year, twenty of his ships transported sacred texts from Egypt to the island of Rhodes and to Rome, for which he received gratitude and blessing from the Pope himself.

It was not published in an academic publication, but it is reliably known that later, the “burnt and destroyed” books of the Library of Alexandria mysteriously began to appear in other collections, libraries and collections, only to disappear again without a trace as time passed.

But if priceless books, worth a fortune, disappear “without a trace,” it means that someone needed this too.

And it was in the papal library that Alonso Pinzon, one of the captains of Columbus’s legendary squadron, discovered the coordinates of the mysterious island of Sipango, which Columbus had been searching for all his life.

Meanwhile, despite the merciless pogrom and fire caused by the possessed Theophilus, the main funds of the Library of Alexandria were still preserved, and the library continued to exist.

Historians again unreasonably connect its final death with the invasion of Egypt by the Arabs under the leadership of Caliph Omar the First, and even report the exact date of this event - 641, when, after a fourteen-month siege, the troops of Caliph Omar captured Alexandria.

In my previous books I have already reported on the beautiful legend associated with this event, which was born thanks to the book “History of Dynasties” by the thirteenth-century Syrian writer Abul Faraj. Legend has it that when the caliph’s troops began to burn books in the square, the servants of the Library of Alexandria begged him on their knees to burn them, but spare the books. However, the caliph answered them: “If they contain what is written in the Koran, they are useless, and if they contradict the word of Allah, they are harmful.”.

The Library of Alexandria was indeed greatly damaged during the legalized robberies of the victorious troops, for the plunder of which, according to the traditions of that time, all fiercely resisting cities were given over for three days after their capture.

However, the main part of the book fund again survived and became the most valuable military trophy of Caliph Omar, and its priceless book funds a little later became the decoration and pride of the most outstanding libraries, collections and collections of the Arab East.

There is an opinion that our distant ancestors, for the most part, were ignorant and uneducated people.

A weighty argument that completely refutes such a judgment is that it was founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. e. It can safely be called the greatest storehouse of human wisdom, having absorbed all the achievements of civilization of previous eras. Tens of thousands of manuscripts written in Greek, Egyptian and Hebrew were kept within its walls.

Naturally, all this priceless wealth did not lie as a dead weight, stroking the pride of its crowned owners. It was used for its intended purpose, that is, it served as a source of information for everyone. Any person seeking knowledge could easily obtain it by going under the cool arches of spacious halls, in the walls of which special shelves were built. Parchment scrolls were stored on them, and library employees carefully handed them over to numerous visitors.

Among the latter were people of different material incomes and religions. Everyone had every right to get acquainted absolutely free with the information that interested him. The Library of Alexandria was never a means of profit; on the contrary, it was maintained with money from the reigning dynasty. Doesn’t this serve as clear proof that our distant ancestors valued knowledge no lower than exploits on the battlefields and other similar actions of restless human nature?

An educated person, in those distant times, enjoyed great respect. He was treated with undisguised respect, and his advice was taken as a guide to action. The names of the great philosophers of antiquity are still on everyone’s lips, and their opinions arouse genuine interest in modern people. For the sake of objectivity, it should be noted: many of these greatest minds might not have taken place if there had not been the Library of Alexandria.

So to whom does humanity owe such a great masterpiece? First of all, Alexander the Great. His participation here is indirect, but if there had not been this great conqueror, then there would have been no city of Alexandria. History, however, completely excludes the subjunctive moods, but in this case you can deviate from the rule.

It was on the initiative of Alexander the Great that this city was founded in 332 BC. e. in the Nile Delta. It was named in honor of the invincible commander and laid the foundation for many similar Alexandrias in Asian lands. During the reign of the great conqueror, as many as seventy of them were built. All of them have sunk into the darkness of centuries, but the first Alexandria remains and today is one of the largest cities in Egypt.

Alexander the Great died in 323 BC. e. His huge empire split into several separate states. They were led by diadochi - comrades-in-arms of the great conqueror. All of them came from Greek lands and went through a long battle path from Asia Minor to India.

The lands of Ancient Egypt went to the diadochus Ptolemy Lagus (367-283 BC). He founded a new state - Hellenistic Egypt with its capital in Alexandria and marked the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The dynasty lasted for 300 long years and ended with the death of Cleopatra (69-30 BC) - the daughter of Ptolemy XII. The romantic image of this amazing woman is still the subject of much debate among historians and all those who are partial to ardent love passions mixed with cold political calculations.

Ptolemy Lag gave his children an excellent education. Following the example of the Macedonian kings, who entrusted their children to the leading philosophers of the time, the newly-minted ruler invited Demetrius of Foler (350-283 BC) and Strato the Physicist (340-268 BC) to Alexandria. These learned men were students of Theophrastus (370-287 BC). He, in turn, studied with Plato and Aristotle and continued the work of the latter.

This matter was expressed in the philosophical school. It was called the Lyceum, and its students were called Peripatetics. The Lyceum had a library. It did not contain a large number of manuscripts, but the very principle of organization and operation of such an institution was well known to both Demetrius of Foler and Strato the Physicist. It was at their suggestion that Ptolemy Lagus came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a magnificent library in Alexandria.

For the sake of objectivity and historical accuracy, it should be noted that the idea concerned not only the library. The first Greek king of Egypt intended to create museyon- museum. The library was considered as part of it - a necessary addition to the astronomical tower, botanical garden, and anatomical rooms. It was supposed to store information for those who would engage in medicine, astronomy, mathematics and other sciences necessary for society.

The idea, of course, is brilliant, once again emphasizing the high intellectual and spiritual level of the people who lived in that distant era. But Ptolemy Lagus was not destined to realize his dreams. He died in 283 BC. uh, without ever implementing such a global and necessary project.

The royal throne was taken by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309-246 BC). Already from the first year of his reign, in accordance with the will of his father, he began to work closely on both the founding of the Library of Alexandria and the museum.

History, unfortunately, does not know when this whole grandiose idea was brought to life. We do not know exact date, a specific day when the first visitors entered the spacious halls and picked up scrolls with invaluable information. We do not even know the specific place where the Library of Alexandria was located, and what it looked like.

What is known for certain is that the first custodian of this greatest public institution of antiquity was Zenodotus of Ephesus(325-260 BC). This respected ancient Greek philosopher came to Alexandria at the invitation of Ptolemy Lagus. He, like his colleagues, was involved in raising the children of the first Greek king of Egypt and apparently made an indelible impression on those around him with his knowledge and outlook.

It was to him that Ptolemy II Philadelphus entrusted the solution of all organizational issues related to the library that had just begun to operate. There were a great many of these questions. First and most important – assessment of the authenticity and quality of manuscripts.

Papyrus scrolls containing invaluable information were bought by the reigning house from different people, in small libraries belonging to private individuals or philosophical schools, and sometimes were simply confiscated during customs inspection on ships dropping anchor in the port of Alexandria. True, such confiscation was always compensated by monetary reward. Another matter is whether the amount paid corresponded to the true value of the manuscript.

Zenodotus of Ephesus was the main arbiter in this sensitive issue. He assessed the historical and informational value of the documents submitted to him for consideration. If the manuscripts met the strict standards set by the Library of Alexandria, they were immediately handed over to skilled craftsmen. The latter checked their condition, restored them, gave them a proper readable appearance, and after that the scrolls took their place on the shelves.

If manuscripts with some inaccuracies or incorrect data fell into the hands of the Greek philosopher, he marked the corresponding paragraphs with special signs. Subsequently, any reader, getting acquainted with this material, saw what can be believed unconditionally, and what is subject to doubt and is not truthful and accurate information.

Sometimes the first keeper of the Library of Alexandria was delivered an obvious fake, purchased from unscrupulous people. There were many who wanted to make money from the sale of scrolls at that time. From this it can be seen that over the past 25 centuries human nature little has changed.

Zenodotus of Ephesus also worked on the classification of manuscripts. He divided them into various topics so that library employees could easily find the material the reader needed. There were a great variety of topics: medicine, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, biology, architecture, zoology, art, poetry and many, many others. All this was entered into special catalogs and provided with appropriate links.

Manuscripts were also divided by language. Almost 99% of all material was written in Egyptian and Greek. Very few scrolls were written in Hebrew and some other languages ​​of the Ancient World. The preferences of the readers were also taken into account here, so some valuable materials written in a rare language were translated into Greek and Egyptian.

The Library of Alexandria paid great attention to the conditions for storing priceless manuscripts.. The premises were thoroughly ventilated, and employees made sure that there was no dampness in them. Periodically, all scrolls were checked for the presence of insects, and damaged documents were immediately restored.

All this work was very difficult and time-consuming. There were a great many manuscripts. Different sources give different numbers. Most likely there were at least 300 thousand scrolls on the shelves in the halls and in the storage room. This is a huge number, and accordingly the staff of the Library of Alexandria was a large team. All these people were supported at the expense of the royal treasury.

Under the arches of the Library of Alexandria

For 300 years, the Ptolemies spent enormous amounts of money on the maintenance of the museum and library absolutely free of charge. From generation to generation, the Greek kings of Egypt not only did not lose interest in this brainchild, but, on the contrary, tried in every possible way to expand it and improve its work.

Under Ptolemy III Euergetes (282-222 BC), a branch of the Library of Alexandria appeared. It was founded at the temple of Serapis - the Babylonian god used by the Ptolemies as the highest deity equal to Osiris (king the afterlife among the ancient Egyptians). There were many such temples in the lands subordinate to the Greek dynasty. Each of them bore the same name - Serapeum.

It was in the Serapeum of Alexandria that a branch of the library was located. This once again emphasizes the importance of this public institution, since the Serapeums were given enormous political significance. Their function was to smooth out religious differences between the original inhabitants of these lands, the Egyptians and the Greeks, who large quantities came to Ancient Egypt for permanent residence after the Ptolemies came to power.

Under Ptolemy III, the Library of Alexandria was led by a third custodian for 40 years (the second custodian was Callimachus, a scientist and poet) - Eratosthenes of Cyrene(276-194 BC). This venerable husband was a mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. He was also fond of poetry and had a good understanding of architecture. Contemporaries considered him not inferior in intelligence to Plato himself.

At the urgent request of the king, Eratosthenes of Cyrene arrived in Alexandria and plunged headlong into the diverse, interesting and difficult work. Under him, the Old Testament was completely translated from Hebrew into Greek. This translation of the biblical commandments that guides and modern humanity, called the Septuagint.

It was under this man that the “Astronomical Catalog” appeared in the Library of Alexandria. It included the coordinates of more than 1000 stars. Many works also appeared on mathematics, in which Eratosthenes was a great expert. All this further enriched the greatest public institution of the Ancient World.

Systematized sources of knowledge, selected with special care, contributed to the fact that many educated people came to Alexandria, seeking to improve and deepen their knowledge of different areas Sciences.

The ancient Greek mathematician Euclid (died 273 BC), Archimedes (287-212 BC), philosophers worked within the walls of the library: Plotinus (203-270 BC) - the founder of Neoplatonism, Chrysipus (279- 207 BC), Gelesius (322-278 BC) and many, many others. The Library of Alexandria was very popular among the doctors of Ancient Greece.

The point was that, according to the laws then existing, it was impossible to engage in surgical practice on the lands of the Balkan Peninsula. Cutting the human body was strictly prohibited. IN Ancient Egypt this issue was looked at completely differently. The centuries-old history of the creation of mummies itself presupposed the intervention of cutting tools. Without them, mummification would have been impossible. Accordingly, surgical operations were viewed as commonplace and commonplace.

The Greek aesculapians used every opportunity to go to Alexandria and it was within the walls of the museum that they improved their skills and became familiar with the internal structure of the human body. Necessary theoretical material they drew within the walls of the Library of Alexandria. There was a wealth of information here. All of it was presented on ancient Egyptian scrolls, carefully restored and sorted.

The work of Eratosthenes of Cyrene was continued by other guardians. Many of them were invited from the Greek lands as teachers for the crowned offspring.

This was an established practice. The keeper of the library was also the mentor of the next heir to the throne. From a young age, the child absorbed the very atmosphere, the spirit of the greatest public institution of antiquity. Growing up and gaining power, he already considered the Library of Alexandria as something dear and painfully close. The best childhood memories were associated with these walls, and therefore they were always cherished and cherished.

The decline of the Library of Alexandria occurred in the last decades of the 1st millennium BC. uh. The growing influence of the Roman Republic and the struggle for power between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII led to a serious political cataclysm. The intervention of the Roman commander Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) helped Cleopatra in her quest for sole and undivided reign, but had a negative impact on cultural heritage great city.

By order of Julius Caesar, the naval fleet, which acted on the side of Ptolemy XIII, was set on fire. The fire began to mercilessly devour the ships. The flames spread to city buildings. Fires started in the city. They soon reached the walls of the Library of Alexandria.

People busy saving their lives and property did not come to the aid of those servants who were trying to save the priceless information captured on the scrolls for future generations. The manuscripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were destroyed in the fire. The manuscripts of the ancient Egyptians, containing data about the origins of human civilization, have sunk into eternity forever. The fire mercilessly consumed medical treatises, astronomical and geographical reference books.

Everything that had been collected with great difficulty throughout the Mediterranean for centuries perished in a fire in a few hours. The three-century history of the Library of Alexandria is over. It was 48 BC. e.

Naturally, when the fire went out and the passions subsided, people looked at what they had done and were horrified. Cleopatra, who received undivided power from the hands of Caesar, tried to restore the former greatness and pride of her ancestors. By her order, the library was rebuilt, but the soulless walls could not replace what was supposed to be stored behind them.

Another admirer of the queen, the Roman military leader Mark Antony (83-30 BC), tried to help stock the library with new manuscripts. They were delivered from different places, controlled by the Roman Republic, but these were far from the same manuscripts on which the great philosophers of antiquity studied.

In 30 BC. e. Cleopatra committed suicide. With her death, the Ptolemaic dynasty ended. Alexandria turned into a Roman province with all the ensuing consequences.

The Library of Alexandria continued to exist, but no one made any serious investments into it. It existed for another three hundred years. The last mention of the library was in 273. This is the time of the reign of the Roman emperor Aurelian (214-275), the crisis of the Roman Empire and the war with the Palmyra kingdom.

The latter was a province that broke away from the empire and declared its independence. This is new public education very quickly gained strength under Queen Zenobia Septimius (240-274). The city of Alexandria ended up on the lands of this kingdom, so the anger of the Roman emperor Aurelian was reflected in it.

Alexandria was stormed and burned. This time nothing could save the Library of Alexandria. She died in the fire and ceased to exist forever. There is, however, a version that even after this fire the library was partially restored, and it existed for another 120 years, finally falling into oblivion only at the end of the 4th century.

Those were endless years civil wars and the reign of the last emperor of the unified Roman Empire, Theodosius I (346-395). It was he who gave the order to destroy all pagan temples. The library was located in Alexandria at the Serapeum (temple of Serapis). According to the order of the emperor, it was burned along with many other similar structures. The pitiful remnants of what was once the greatest storehouse of human knowledge also perished completely.

This could put an end to this sad story. Fortunately, miracles happen on earth, although rarely. The Library of Alexandria was reborn like a Phoenix from the ashes. This miracle happened in 2002 in the city of Alexandria.

Library
Alexandrina

The greatest building with original architecture made of glass, concrete and granite appeared before people's eyes. It's called "". Dozens of states took part in the construction of this building. Managed the work of UNESCO.

The revived library has huge areas, many reading rooms, and storage facilities designed to hold 8 million books. The main reading room is located under a glass roof and is flooded with sun most of the day.

Modern people paid tribute to their distant ancestors. Great traditions buried under a pile of ashes almost 1000 years ago were revived. This once again proves that human civilization is not degrading, but continues its spiritual growth. Let this process go slowly, but it is inevitable in the flow of time, and the thirst for knowledge does not fade away over generations, but continues to dominate human minds and forces us to do such noble deeds.

The article was written by ridar-shakin

Based on materials from foreign publications

Orenburgsky State University

Ilyina L. E., Orenburg State University, teacher, department of Romance philology and methods of teaching the French language, associate professor

Annotation:

This article is devoted to the analysis of the role of the Library of Alexandria in the formation of ancient scientific knowledge. At the first stage of the study, the creation and structure of the library was described. At the second stage, the principles and methods of the Alexandrian School and its subsequent influence on the scientific linguistic knowledge of subsequent centuries were derived.

This article is devoted to the analysis of a role of the Alexandria library in the formation of scientific knowledge of antiquity. At the first investigation phase creation and the structure of library was described. At the second stage the principles and methods of the Alexandria school and its subsequent influence on scientific linguistic knowledge of the next centuries were output.

Keywords:

linguistics; Alexandrian Library; ancient scientific knowledge; library; antiquity; antiquity; historical facts; Demetrius of Falersky

linguistics; Alexandria library; scientific knowledge of antiquity; library; antiquity history facts; Demetry Falersky

UDC: 81-119

The Library of Alexandria is the most famous of the ancient libraries, built in Alexandria - the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt. Her idea was the preservation and transmission of knowledge to subsequent generations, continuity and dedication. Therefore, it is no coincidence that libraries existed in the most developed cultures of antiquity. The libraries of the Egyptian pharaohs, kings of Assyria and Babylon are known. Collections of sacred and cult texts at ancient temples or religious and philosophical communities, like the brotherhood of Pythagoras, used to serve as libraries.

In ancient times there were very extensive private collections of books, such as the library of Euripides, which he used to write his own works. More famous is Aristotle's library, which was created largely thanks to the donations of the famous Alexander the Great. Despite this fact, the importance of the library many times exceeds the importance of the books collected by Aristotle. And yet, the creation of the Library of Alexandria became possible precisely thanks to Aristotle. After all, the followers and students of Aristotle were all those who were involved in the creation of the Library of Alexandria.

A follower of Aristotle, the immediate founder and first head of the Library of Alexandria was Demetrius of Phalerus and Strato, who were the founders of the Alexandrian Museum. And Strato’s pupil Ptolemy Philadelphus made great efforts, showing great concern for the development and prosperity of the Library of Alexandria.

Purpose of the study: to study the history of the Rise and Fall of the Library of Alexandria.

Object of study: Alexandrian schools.

Subject of research: the influence of the Alexandrian schools on the development of scientific knowledge of the Ancient World.

The objectives of the research are realized through solving the following problems:

1. Study the origins of the Library of Alexandria.
2. Identify surviving works and documents from the last fire of the Library of Alexandria.

Research methods:

1. Analysis of scientific literature.

The creation of the Library of Alexandria is closely related to the Museum of Alexandria, which was founded around 295 BC, on the initiative of Demetrius of Phalerum and Strato. Demetrius was also a key figure in the development of plans for the device.

Unfortunately, reliable information about the appearance and internal structure of the library premises has not been preserved. Several finds suggest that handwritten scrolls were kept in special chests arranged in rows. Each scroll had a clay tablet on which the author and title were indicated.

The library did not have reading rooms, but it did have jobs for scroll scribes. From the “Letter of Aristeas” we learned that Demetrius of Phalerum was given the task of “collecting, if possible, all the books of the world.” He highlighted the directions of formation of the library's book fund: poetry (epic and works of Homer), tragedy and comedy (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), history, law, oratory and philosophy.

It should be noted that from the very first years of its existence, the Library of Alexandria was also interested in the books of other peoples in order to ensure effective leadership of a multinational state. The need to write legislation and establish a general way of life made people interested in religion, legislation and the history of the peoples living in Egypt.

The “Letter of Aristaeus” talks about ways to form a library collection, the main ones being the buying and rewriting of books. According to this letter, the books that were brought by ship to Alexandria were sold by the owners to the Library of Alexandria or handed over for copying. Sometimes a copy was returned to the owner - while the original book remained in the library. This share of library books was called the "ship's library."

The activities of the Library of Alexandria contributed to the development of research in the field of language, as manuscripts from all over the world were acquired for the library.

In conditions of multilingualism, the Alexandrian school arose, which absorbed the traditions of Greco-Latin science and the teachings of antiquity. The largest representatives This school included: Zenodotus from Ephesus, Lycophron, Alexander of Aetolia, etc. It was here that grammar was formed as a branch of philology.

The principles for describing language developed in this school are defined as the “Alexandrian grammar system.” She identified various branches in grammar - prototypes of modern phonetics, morphology, syntax.

The Alexandrian school developed a doctrine of language at all levels of its structure, starting with letters. Vowels, consonants and semivowels were distinguished acoustically and articulatory. Syllables and punctuation marks were also studied. The word was least part coherent speech, which has the property of articulateness. The Alexandrian philologist Dionysius of Thracia identified 8 parts of speech: name, verb, participle, member (interjection), pronoun, preposition, adverb, conjunction. In defining parts of speech, linguists of the Alexandrian school were dominated by grammatical features in combination with semantic ones, for example, Dionysius of Thracia defined: “a verb is a caseless part of speech, taking tenses, persons and numbers and representing action or suffering.”

A lexicographic tradition arose here, which influenced dictionary work in Europe, especially glossaries, etymological, dialect and other dictionaries of such lexicographers as: Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Apollodorus of Athens.

The grammatical terminology used in modern grammar textbooks and in scientific works on linguistics, in some essence, goes back to the terminology of the Alexandrian school.

Thanks to the activities of the first successors of Demetrius of Phalerum, the library stored approximately 700 thousand books. A little later, a “daughter” library was even created. However, there is a known case when competition turned out to be saving for the Library of Alexandria. It was a gift of 200 thousand. volumes from the collection of the Pergamon Library, presented to Cleopatra by Mark Antony after the fire in 47 BC. This happened when Caesar, during the Alexandrian War, ordered the fleet in the harbor to be set on fire. Flames engulfed the library's coastal storage areas. For a long time it was believed that this fire destroyed the entire collection of the main library.

Some parts of the library's collection existed until the 7th century. AD However, after the capture of Alexandria by the Arabs in 640 AD. A large-scale trade in scrolls from the Muzeion collection developed in the city. The final verdict on the library was pronounced by Caliph Omar, who said that if the contents of the scrolls are consistent with the Koran, then they are not needed, and if they do not agree, then they are undesirable. Therefore, they should be burned in any case."

Thus, we can conclude that the Library of Alexandria played a huge role in the development of ancient scientific knowledge, the collection, preservation and dissemination of generalized data and records historical facts, as well as scientific research. To this day, the history of the heyday and death of the library has attracted the attention of linguists, philologists, historians, philosophers and filmmakers.

Bibliography:

Reviews:

07/13/2014, 11:50 Zakirova Oksana Vyacheslavovna
Review: The attempt made in the article to show the influence of the Library of Alexandria on scientific ancient knowledge seems, in our opinion, not sufficiently justified. The material needs to be improved.

4.08.2014, 19:06 Sereda Evgeniya Vitalievna
Review: The article presented to our attention offers an interesting historical and cultural overview. This is a good abstract work that meets the objectives that were stated at the beginning of the study. At the same time, there is no scientific novelty in this work and interesting observations did not lead to special conclusions that were not previously discussed. The value of this work would increase if the author tabulated (or presented in the form of diagrams) the correspondences available in different sources, or narrowed the topic and considered the features of the library formation (composition of authors, topics, selection principles, etc.). In this form, the article cannot be recommended for publication in a scientific journal. After revision, it is recommended that it be included in the “Cultural Studies” or “History” sections (depending on the direction of work chosen by the author for revision). Best regards, E.V. Sereda

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