The Library of Alexandria as a research institution According to the earliest source of information, the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas, the library was initially organized by Demetrius of Phaleron, a student of Aristotle, under the reign of Ptolemy Soter. Built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) in the style of Aristotles Lyceum, adjacent to and in service of the Musaeum (a Greek Temple or House of Muses, hence the term museum), the library comprised a Peripatos walk, gardens, a room for shared dining, a reading room, lecture halls and meeting rooms. However, the exact layout is not known. This models influence may still be seen today in the layout of university campuses. The library itself is known to have had an acquisitions department (possibly built near the stacks, or for utility closer to the harbour), and a cataloguing department. The hall contained shelves for the collections of scrolls (as the books were at this time on papyrus scrolls), known as bibliothekai (βιβλιοθῆκαι). Carved into the wall above the shelves, a famous inscription read: The place of the cure of the soul. The first known library of its kind to gather a serious collection of books from beyond its countrys borders, the Library at Alexandria was charged with collecting all the worlds knowledge.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 01:32:23 +0000
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