 | A series of talks on the history of the written word 14. The ancient book |
16 September 2020
World Book Heritage. 14. The ancient book.
A tablet of a suitable size would be prepared and made moist enough fo the impression of the stylus. The stylus was held in the fist and the signs impressed from left to right, producing a wedge-shaped script known as cuneiform. Large tablets were kept soft in a damp cloth and both sides were written on. When finished they were dried in the sun or baked in kilns if important. Envelopes of clay were often provided for correspondence. Early tablets were square or oblong, perhaps 5 by 3 cm. The edges were flat with some rounding at the corners. Later the sizes increase up to 30 by 20 cm and longer texts were often contained on more than one tableted and named on an incipit. For example the Epic of creation took up seven tablets. The tablets were carefully indexed and arranged. There were special shapes – wedges, cones, cylinders, prisms – reserved for foundations of buildings or records of royal campaigns.
Sumer. Sumerian clay tablets survive in hundreds of thousands, mainly economic records but including some 300 literary documents, mainly from Nippur. They include epics, creation myths, hymns, laments, proverbs. There were also dictionaries and grammars. Transcripts of bards' recitations are introduced by the phrase "from the mouth of". Sumerian beliefs and literature were adopted by the Babylonians and Assyrians – Hammurabi's law codes were preceded by those of Sumeria. The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Babylonian account of the Flood also survive in Sumerian fragments.
The Babylonians were Semitic intruders who arrived in Mesopotamia around 2,000 BCE and adopted Sumerian culture. Some 500,000 tablets survive. Fragments of the creation epic survive from both Ashur and Nineveh. Other myths and religious literature includes the complete epic of Gilgamesh. Temples had schools attached to teach writing and other sciences. Libraries attached to temples contained religious works, grammars, king lists, histories, medical and scientific works, city plans law books and other documents. Babylonians had mastered the basic laws of mathematics by 1800 BCE and their astronomy became the basis of the Greek science, for example in the use of the zodiac.
Hittites. The use of clay tablets spread to the Hittites, Mitanni, Caananites and Syrians. The library at Ugarit contained alphabetical cuneiform tablets. Hittites. In the Mediterranean area Minoans and Myceaeans used tablets but these were mainly inventories. In Pylos archives were discovered stored in racks in case, recording troop dispositions.
In Assyria the kings had large libraries with books on all subjects. Lexicography was especially well represented as it was required to help scribes transcribe erlier works accurately. Sumerian signs and their Babylonian equaivlents were shown in parallel columns. There were also annals and astronomical observations. King Assurbanipal was especially interested in learning. He learned Sumerian and Akkadian , established a royal library and sent scribes to trace and copy all possible books.
Babylon revived after the fall of Assyria in 626 and education was very widespread. Many school texts survive from this period. However the use of the clay tablet was set to decline with the spread of the Aramaic language and script and the increased use of papyrus and parchment. There was a brief renaissance under the Seleucids but clay tablets had fallen into disuse by the first century.
The papyrus roll was the main vehicle of literature in the classical world and its use continued for three millennia.
Egypt was the cradle of the book in a nation that venerated literacy. When Khety took his son Khety to school he old hin: "I shall make thee love writing more than thy mother" – part of a school copy text surviving in several examples. Writing developed during the period of the union of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3100 BCE and papyrus was probably used from the first dynasty onwards. The Book of the dead - a Baedeker for the nether world - is an early example. There were probably examples that predated the texts incised on the internal walls of pyramids during the third to fifth dynasties (2,700-2,400 BCE). Later examples were inscribed on coffins and then as the texts increased in length, on papyrus. Beside this there were other texts. The third dynasty pharaoh Djoser and his minister Imhotep were regarded as sages (2,650 BCE). Scientific subjects were also committed to papyrus. For medicine the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus is an early example, dating from around 1850 BCE. For mathematics the Moscow Mathematical papyrus dates from the same period and a papyrus from the reign of Amenhemet III (1860-1814 BCE) was copied in about 1540 BCE as the Rhynd Mathematical Papyrus. The scribe gives details: "This book was copied in regnal year 33, month 4 of Akhet, under the majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Awserre, given life, from an ancient copy made in the time of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Nimaatre. The scribe Ahmose writes this". An astronomical papyrus known as the Cairo Calendar, dated to 1244/1163 BCE, is thought to provide observations on the variable star Algol. Literature is also represented, the earliest examples being the creation myths inscribed on the walls of tombs. Short stories, especially of travel survive from the Middle Kingdom (2100 BCE) onwards. Particularly popular was the Story of Sinuhe which survives in several manuscripts, the earliest from the reign of Amenhemet III. Letters were a popular literary genre, used to display style in school texts. Poetry such as hymns and love songs also survive but, unlike in Mespotamia, there are few law codes.
Manufacture of papyrus. [section to transcribe]
Format of scrolls. [section to transcribe]
The Greek world.
Compared with Egypt and Mesopotamia, few early texts survive as the climate is less favourable to survival of papyrus, the main writing material of Greek literature. It was used in Greece by the sixth century BCE and Herodotus claimed that papyrus was the only civilised writing material. Papyrus remained the main material until the fourth century CE and its use lingered on unitl the end of the millennium. As did Rome, Greece used materials supplied by Egypt. The name biblos for book tends to date the introduction of writing extended texts to a date before the decline of Byblos in the tenth century BCE. Certainly the Greeks must have had alphabetic writing from an early date, even if the syllabic script of the Mycenean world did not survive. No complete manuscripts are known to survive from ancient times.
Homeric poems. The sagas which make up the Iliad and the Odyssey were probably written down in the late eighth or early seventh century BCE, based on cycles of earlier sagas recited by wandering bards, perhaps from as early as the ninth century. The existence of Homer as an actual individual is uncertain and surrounded by legends and the sagas were probably dictated to scribes, edited and divided into 24 books, based on the letters of the Greek alphabet. Copies of the written texts would probably have been retained by the reciter and often amended to aid the rhapsody of his performance.
Poetry began to spread widely in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE. The poet Sappho who is thought to have lived between around 630 and 570 BCE on the island of Lesbos. Her lyric poetry was written to be sung accompanied by a lyre. Most of her poetry is now lost, and only survives in fragmentary form except for her Ode to Aphrodite and the Tithonus poem. The same is true of other poets. Written copies of their works must have existed; many are not suitable for mere reciting and there is evidence that poets knew each other works in detail. The works were probably only collected later in Alexandria and there is no evidence of an organised book trade in this period.
Drama began in Athens in the sixth century BCE where it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, honoring the god Dionysus. In 532 BCE Thespis was the earliest recorded actor, from which we derive the term "thespian". To prepare a new drama for performance a script would certainly be required. Aeschylus (c. 525–456 BCE), Sophocles (c. 495-406 BCE) and Euripides (c. 480–406 BC) are the three tragedians whose works survive, and for comedy there are only two writers, Aristophanes (c. 446-388 BCE) and Menander (c. 342-291 BCE). The names of many other writers are known but only fragments survive.
In the time of Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE) literature had reached its zenith. While no manuscripts survive from this period, there are occasional but casual references which imply the use of books although oral teaching appears to have been the norm and Socrated denigrates reliance on books. A class of booksellers, bibliopoloi, appears to have existed as early as the fifth century BCE and by end of the century there was certainly a book market in Athens, Xenophon tells of the wreck of a ship off Asia Minor with many books in its cargo. In about 405 BCE Aristophanes in his comedt The frogs mentions the audience having copies of the script. The sophist philosopher Euthydemus is known to have been an avid book collector.
By the time of Aristotle (384–322 BCE) it is clear that reference to books was replacing oral teaching and it is known that he possessed a large library. This would be necessary for producing his many writings. Alexander the great ordered the purchase of dramas in Athens and Aristotle says that the speeches of orators were sold in large numbers in Athens.
The gathering of libraries survived the Roman conquest of Greece. In Athens Apellicon of Teos owned a large private library on his death around 84 BCE. A wealthy man from Teos who became an Athenian citizen, h not only spent large sums in the acquisition of his library, but stole original documents from the archives of Athens and other cities of Greece. He bought the library of Aristotle, but also stole original documents from the Athenian Metroon, which housed the city’s archives. His collection included an old copy of the Iliad.
Hadrian's Library was founded on the north side of the Acropolis in 132 CE. It had one entrance with a propylon of the Corinthian order, a high surrounding wall with protruding niches on its longer sides, an inner courtyard surrounded by columns and a decorative pool in the centre. The library itself was on the eastern side with adjoining halls used as reading rooms. The library was severely damaged in the Herulian invasion of 267. It was repaired by the prefect Herculius 407-412 but during Byzantine times the site was occupied by churches.
The Great Library of Alexandria. This, the most important library of antiquity, was established in Egypt by the pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter. It became more than just a library, being also a museum and sheltering an academy that directed the revision and commentaries of texts.
Demetrius of Phaleron served Ptolemy I from about 290 to 282 BCE. He was a Greek orator and statesman, forced to flee Athens for Thebes in 307 BCE, arriving in Egypt in 297 BCE. He inspired the creation of the Mouseion, the location of the Great Library of Alexandria, dedicated to the muses and modelled after Aristotle's school. The Mouseion contained a peripatos (covered walkway), a syssition (room for communal dining) and a large categorized organization of scrolls. A pupil of Theophrastus, he wrote extensively on history, rhetoric, and literary criticism and was dismissed on the accession of Ptolemy II.
In 284 BC Ptolemy II appointed Zenodotus of Ephesus as first director of the library and also the official tutor to the royal children. His colleagues in the library were Alexander of Aetolia for tragic writers and Lycophron of Chalcis for comic writers. Homer and other epic poets were assigned to Zenodotus who produced critical editions of Homer and Hesiod. Zenodotus organised the contents of the Library of Alexandria by assigning texts to different rooms based on their genre and subject matter: verse or prose, literary or scientific, with various sub-classifications within each class. Within their subjects, Zenodotus organized the works alphabetically by the first letter of the name of their author, the first recorded use of alphabetical arrangement. A small tag was atached to the end of each scroll giving authors' names and other information but often no title. Many rolls contained more than one work and the tags enabled the scrolls to be easily returned to their correct storage bin. This was the first recorded use of metadata.
Callimachus of Cyrene worked in the library from around 260 to 247 BCE, although he was probably never the director. Born about 305 BCE in Cyrene, Libya, he was a Greek poet and scholar who created a subject catalogue in 120 volumes of the library's holdings, called the Pinakes or Tables, named after the tablets hung above each storage bin. The Pinakes are are a set of index lists based on the arrangement devised by Zenodotus.
Callimachus' system divided works into six genres and five sections of prose: rhetoric, law, epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, medicine, mathematics, natural science, and miscellanies. The Pinakes assigned authors to these classes and within these classes if necessary into subdivisions. Within the classes or subdivisions authors were arranged alphabetically. Where possible biographical data were added to the name of each author: his birthplace, father's name, any teachers he trained under, his educational background and other relevant details. Under an author’s name were listed the titles of his works, combining works of the same kind into groups. The opening words of each work were cited as well as its extent, usually the number of lines, a summary of its contents, and information about the origin of the roll, as well as any doubts about the genuineness of the attribution.
Apollonius of Rhodes who succeeded Zenodous as director in about 270 BCE was also a scholar, writing many works on grammar and the epic poem Argonautica on Jason and the search for the glden fleece.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene was called to Alexandria by Ptolemy III Eugertes about 246 BCE to direct the library and tutor the Pharaoh's children. He was perhaps the greatest scholar librarian in Aleandria, a mathmatician, astronomer and geographer who measured the size of the earth with great accuracy and produced a catalogue of fixed stars. He expanded the library's holdings. All books in Alexandria had to be surrendered for copying. This was so accurately that it was impossible to tell if the library had returned the original or the copy. He sought to maintain the reputation of the Library of Alexandria against competition from the Library of Pergamum. The Serapaeum was built by Ptolemy III Euergetes in about 246BCE with a temple containing the image of the god Serapis and a collection of scrolls selected from the the great Library of Alexandria in the Mouseion. Eratosthenes compiled his "tetagmenos epi teis megaleis bibliothekeis" the "scheme of the great bookshelves."
Aristophanes of Byzantium who succeeded Eratosthenes after he became blind in 195 BCE, updated the Pinakes. He was renowned for his Homeric scholarship and also worked on other classical authors such as Pindar and Hesiod. Born in Byzantium he moved to Alexandria and studied under Zenodotus, Callimachus, and Dionysius Iambus. As a grammarian he is credited with the invention of the accent system to designate pronunciation, and also one of the first forms of punctuation.
Aristarchus of Samothrace, also an important Homeric scholar, continued his work until about 145 BCE but after that the list of librarians becomes confused and the history of the library less certain. Apollonius the Eidograph, Cydas of the Spearmen and the grammarians
Ammonius, Zenodotus, Diocles, Apollodorus are listed in the confused Papyrus Oxyrhyncus 1241 and may have served in the later second century BCE.
Livy reported that the fire started by Julius Caesar's troops when he was besieged at Alexandra in 48 BCE destroyed 40,000 scrolls from the Library of Alexandria. After Alexandria came under Roman rule, the city's status and, consequently that of its famous Library, gradually diminished. While the Mouseion continued to exist, membership was granted not on the basis of scholarly achievement, but distinction in government, the military, or even in athletics. The only known head librarian from the Roman Period Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, who lived in the middle of the first century CE, a politician, administrator, and military officer with no record of scholarship. Members of the Mouseion were no longer required to teach, conduct research, or even live in Alexandria. Other libraries also sprang up within Alexandria, and scrolls from the Mouseion may have been used to stock some of these smaller libraries. The Caesareum and the Claudianum in Alexandria are both known to have had major libraries by the end of the first century CE. The Serapeum, originally an offshoot of the Mouseion, probably expanded during this period. In 272 AD, the emperor Aurelian fought to recapture the city of Alexandria from the forces of the Palmyrene queen Zenobia. During the fighting, Aurelian's forces destroyed the Broucheion quarter in which the main library was located. If the Mouseion and Library still existed at this time, they were almost certainly destroyed during the attack.
The Serapeum was closed in July 325 probably on the orders of the Christian Emperor Constantine during the persecution of pagans. The Serapeum was the last stronghold of the pagans who fortified themselves in the temple and its enclosure. The sanctuary was destroyed by a Christian mob or Roman soldiers under the instigation of Bishop Theophilus probably in 391.
The philosopher Theon was probably the head of a school called the Mouseion, named in emulation of the Mouseion that had once included the Library of Alexandria, Theon's school was exclusive, highly prestigious, and doctrinally conservative with no connections to the militant Neoplatonists who had taught in the Serapaeum. In around 400 AD, Theon's daughter Hypatia (born c. 350–370; died 415 AD) succeeded him as the head of his school. Bishop Theophilus, altough involved in the destruction of the Serapaeum, tolerated Hypatia's school and even encouraged two of her students to become bishops in territory under his authority. Hypatia was extremely popular with the people of Alexandria and exerted profound political influence but she was later implicated in a political feud and, in March of 415 AD, she was murdered by a mob of Christians.
In 642 AD, Alexandria was captured by the Muslim army of and what remained of the lbrary was destroyed by the order of Caliph Omar who is alleged to have said "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them."
In its heyday the Great Library of Alexandria was the cultural centre of Hellenism. It attracted all the great names; Euclid, Archimedes and the geogrpaher Ptolemy all lived and worked there. Many books were published on the sciences and the arts and the library was the largest before the invention of printing. Figures of its size vary and are celarly estimated. One source states a figure of 700,000 rolls before the destruction by Julius Caesar. Plutarch reports that Mark Antony seized the collection of 200,000 rolls in the library at Pergamum and presented them as a gift to his new wife Cleopatra in 43 BCE, presumably to restock the Library of Alexandria after the destruction. Tzestes, a late Byzantine writer, gives a more precise figure of 42,800 scrolls making up the carefully selected collection in the Serapaeum as well as 400,000 "mixed" (symmigeis) books and 90,000 "unmixed"
(amigeis) in the main palace library. Again, the dates are unclear and the number of volumes destroyed by the Muslims is unclear.
The Pergamum Library was the main rival of Alexandria in the early days. It was built by Eumenes II between 220 and 159 BCE at the northern end of the Acropolis. The cultured rulers built up the library to be second only to the Great Library at Alexandria. No index or catalogue of the holdings at Pergamum survives but ruins of the library sit on a hilltop near the Sanctuary of Athena and other buildings of the Pergamon Acropolis, so is known that the library consisted of four rooms, the largest of which was the main reading room (13.5 x 15 meters), lined with many shelves. An empty space of approximately 50 cm was left between the outer walls and the shelves to allow for ventilation and humidity control. A 3-meter statue of Athena stood in the main reading room. Manuscripts were written on parchment, rolled, and then stored on the shelves or bins. The word "parchment" derives from Pergamum (via the Latin pergamenum and the French parchemin). Pergamum was a thriving center of parchment production during the Hellenistic period and a legend later arose that parchment had been invented to replace papyrus, which had become monopolized by the rival city of Alexandria. The two libraries competed for writing materials, books, and scholars. Pergamum hired Homeric scholars, who studied the Iliad and the Odyssey, resulting in a fierce rivalry in which each library tried to obtain the most accurate and oldest copies of Homer's works. Crates of Mallus was head of the library in the midde of the second century BCE. He visited Rome as ambassador of either Eumenes, in 168 BC, or Attalus in 159 BC and delivered lectures on grammar and literature.
The Kingdom of Pergamon fell to the Romans in 133 BC and the library was neglected. According to a legend reported by Plutarch, Mark Antony seized the collection of 200,000 rolls and presented them as a gift to Cleopatra in 43 BCE presumably for the Library of Alexandria, damaged during Julius Caesar's war five years previously. Emperor Augustus returned some of the rolls to Pergamum after the death of Antony, and the library survived well into the Christian era, though it was no longer as significant. Of equal significance in the second century CE was the Asklepion with its medical library where the physician Galen worked.
The Library of Celsus in Ephesus was commissioned in the 110s CE by a consul, Gaius Julius Aquila, as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, and was completed during the reign of Hadrian, sometime after Aquila's death. The building with its beautiful monumental facade is one of the only remaining examples of a library from the Roman Empire and has been claimed as third-largest library in the Roman world behind Alexandria and Pergamum. The interior measured roughly 180 square metres and had a capacity for at least 12,000 scrolls. An inscription records that Celsus left a large legacy of 25,000 denarii to pay for books.The interior of the library and its contents were destroyed in a fire resulting either from an earthquake or a Gothic invasion in 262 C.E.
- The library in Nysa dating from the 2nd century A.D. is considered to be Turkey's second-best preserved ancient library structure after the Celsus Library of Ephesus.
- The library of Patras was visited by Aulua Gellius in the second century CE as it owned a very ancient copy of the Odyssey by Livius Andronicus. Other libraries in the Hellenistic world, often originating during the Roman era, are recorded in:
- Antioch. had an important library. Euphorion of Chalcis a Greek poet and grammarian, born at Chalcis in Euboea about 275 BCE, spent much of his life in Athens. About 221 BCE he was invited by Antiochus the Great of Syria to assist in the formation of the royal Library of Antioch, of which he held the post of librarian till his death.
- Rhodes preserves an inscription with a decree that forbade the removal of books from the library.
- Sagalassos. The ruins of the library survive.
- Smyrna. The library is mentioned by Strabo.
ROMAN WORLD.
Atrectus. Publisher. Martial recommended that a certain Lupercus obtain a copy of one of his works from Martial’s publisher, Atrectus, instead of visiting Martial himself at home for a copy.
Atticus. Publisher. Cicero's friend. Atticus owned a large number of slaves, trained to be neat and rapid scribes. Fifty or a hundred of these slaves could write from the dictation of one reader Cicero (Att. II. 4) speaks of the publisher Atticus selling manuscripts produced in this way by slave labour on a large scale.
Sosii brothers. Publishers. Referred to by Horace and Ovid. Like Atticus he owned a large number of slaves, trained to be neat and rapid scribes. Horace complained that a good book read around the Mediterranean brought his publisher, Sosii, profit, while bringing him only fame.
Dorus. Publisher. Mentioned by Seneca.
Tryphon. Publisher. He could sell Martial's first book of Epigrams at a profit for two denarii (Mart. XIII. 3).
Some 28 or 29 libraries are listed in ancient Rome. Possibly as early as Augustus the post of Procurator bibliothecarum (Director of libraries) was established. Its precise functions probably varied over time and mention of the post-holders is sparse and scattered. The following list is very tentative and probably incomplete: .
- C. Julius Hyginus. 20 BCE/5
- G. Macenas Melissus. 5/10
- Gn. Pompeius Macer 10/15
- T. Julius Pappus 15/45
- T. Claudius Scirtus 40/55
- Dionysius Alexandrinus. 55/85. Previously director of the Alexanrian library.
- Sextus 85/95
- Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. 0117/0121. The biographer of the Caesars entered imperial service under Trajan or possibly on the accession of Hadrian holding, apparently simultaneously, the posts of controller of the Roman libraries, keeper of the imperial archives, and adviser to the emperor on cultural matters.
- Valerius Eudaemon. 122/130.
- Lucius Iulius Vestinus. 125/135. Previously director of the Alexanrian library.
- Lucius Volusius Luci filius Maecianus. 135/145.
- Gaius Annius Posthumus. 135/150. Possibly procurator of Templum Divi Traiani library under Hadrian.
- Titus Aelius Largus. 120/140.
- Baebus Aurelius Iuncinus. 150/200.
- Sextus Julius Africanus. 200/240
- Quintus Veturius Callistratus. 240/250
Bibliotheca in Atrio Libertatis. 0039BCE. Oldest established soon after 39BC by Asinius Pollio. Contained both Greek and Latin texts. Caesar´s idea for the library was carried out five years later, in the 39 BC, by Caius Asinius Pollio (in words of Saint Isidoro, Primus romae bibliothecas publicavit Pollio, graecas latinasque), general, historian and poet, of whom Pliny the Elder said that ingenio hominum rem publicam fecit, " he made men’s talents a public possession ". Asinius Pollio introduced to Rome the custom of decorating the library with busts of dead writers, although it made an exception with Varro, whose bust included during the writer's lifetime. Referred toi by Pliny, Isidorus and Suetonius.
Bibliotheca in Capitolino.
Bibliotheca in Foro Traiana. 0113. The most important library of all in Rome was the established by Traian (113 a.C.), well-known as the Ulpia, rival of Pergamum and Alexandría, sited in the Trajan’s Forum, to both sides of the famous Trajan’s Column. There were thousands of books and public documents. The books were classified in shelves named pegmata, the hollow sections of the shelves being called nidi, they were further divided into a sort of honeycomb structure with the individual hollows being called foruli or locumenta, hence the books were archived by nidi, foruli et locumenta.
Bibliotheca in Templo Aescipuli.
Bibliotheca in Templo Pacis. Vespasian build another library in Rome, next to the temple of Peace.
Bibliotheca Porticus Octaviae. Augustus, conscious that “a man is remembered by his works”, created in Rome two great libraries with corresponding sections of Latin and Greek: one on the Campus Martius, the Portico of Octavia, in the year 33 b.C. It was one of the architectually most beautiful buildings of Rome, locked by one double colonnade, in the interior of which there were two temples, one dedicated to Jupiter and another one to Juno.
Bibliotheca Templi Augusti.
Bibliotheca Templi Appolinis. 0029BCEfounded in the year 28 b.C., was on the Palatine, next to the temple of Apollo, and was constructed, like the temple, to commemorate the battle of Actium. It contained on a great porch, pictures of famous writers and a colossal statue of Apollo. Its books of this one were the collection of the notorious Pompeyus Macer, although the library director was Iulius Higinius, a Spanish freeman of Augustus.
Bibliotheca Thermae Caracallae. 0217. The baths, built between 212 and 217, were the second to have a public library within the complex. Like other public libraries in Rome, there were two separate and equal sized rooms or buildings; one for Greek language texts and one for Latin language texts. The libraries were located in exedrae on the east and west sides of the bath complex. Dionysius, son of Galucus, of Alexandria. Source: Wikipedia (2015).
Bibliotheca Thermae Traiani. 0109. The Baths of Trajan were built between 104 and 109. It is thought that at least one of the exedra served as a sort of library and a holding place for scrolls and manuscripts. Source: Wikipedia (2015).
Bibliotheca Thermae Diocletiani. 0306. Diocletian's Baths were built from 298 to 306. Rectangular halls connected to the hemicycle have been suggested to be libraries because of their similar set-up to those in the Baths of Caracalla. The first notable Roman library of which there is recorded information was the library of Paulus Aemilius. He was a Roman general, who was also a scholar, he defeated King Perseus of Macedonia in 168 B.C. He ransacked everything of value but kept the library for himself. He stated that he preferred it to gold for the benefit of his sons. Lucullus, Lucius Licinius. 0066-0057BCE.Born: 118BE. Died: 57/56 BCE During the Third Mithridatic War,Lucullus captured so much booty that the whole could not be fully accounted. It included many books and he patronized the arts and sciences lavishly, transforming his hereditary estate in the highlands of Tusculum into a hotel-and-library complex for scholars and philosophers. Sources: Dix, T. Keith: "The Library of Lucullus", Athenaeum, 88 (2000), 441-464.
Sulla, Lucius Cornelius. 0078BCE. Private library. Born: 138 BCE. Died: 78 BCE. Sulla seized the collections of Aristotle and Theophrastus from Apellicon of Teos. Much of the collection was in poor conditions after being stored in a cellar. Sulla directed Tyrannio of Amisus to make copies and restore the documents. Cicero, according to his own accounts, consulted the books of the library of Sulla.
Tyrannion of Amisus. Private library. Greek grammarian brought to Rome as a war captive and slave in 72 BC by Lucullus, He was also employed in arranging the library of Apellicon, which Sulla brought to Rome. Cicero employed him in a similar manner, and speaks in the highest terms of his learning and ability. Tyrannion amassed a considerable library himself.
Antium. Cicero. 0059BCE. Private library. Cicero had one of his three libraries at his house in Antium which he acquired 60 BCE. In 59 he writes that he had a "festive supply" of books there.
Antium. Imperial Library. Galen found that rolls had deteriorated seriously due to damp conditions.
Asturica Augusta. Library. In Hispania. Some evidence of library in the town.
Como. Plinius Caecelius Secundus, Gaius. Private library. Born: Gaius Caecilius 61. Died: c. 113. Better known as Pliny the Younger. Gave one million sesterces to build and maintain a library in his native city, Como.
Emerita Augusta. Library. In Hispania. Some evidence of library in the town.
Herculaneum. Villa dei Pisoni. 0079. Library. Buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 79 AD, and in which were founded carbonized papyruses. Perhaps 800 rolls.
Nimes (Nemasius. Bibliotheca Ulpia therma Traianae. Pompeii. Sacellum Larum Publicorum. Probably constructed after 62.
Thamugadi. Library. Built in 3rd century with funding from Marcus Iulius Quintianus Flavius Rogatianus. Tarraco. Library. In Hispania. Some evidence of library in the town.
Tibur. Private library. In Hadrian's villa at Tivoli.
Tibur. Bibliotheca in Templo Herculis. Library. Public library mentioned by Aulus Gellius.
SOURCES
Houston, George W. Inside Roman libraries : book collections and their management in antiquity. University of North Carolina Press , 2014.
Greece.
Alexandrian Library.
Rome.
Destruction and survival of classical works.
Rise of the codex.
Decline of papyrus.
Parchment.
Earliest vellum codices.
This page updated 16 September 2020.
