ANCIENT LIBRARIES Assyria.—In the course of his excavations at Nineveh in 185o, Layard came upon tablets of clay, covered with cuneiform characters. These varied in size from i to 12 in. 'square. It is estimated that this library consisted of some io,000 distinct works and documents. The tablets appear to have been methodi cally arranged and catalogued, and the library seems to have been public. (See BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA and NIPPUR.) Ancient Egyptian Libraries.—At an early date Heliopolis was a literary centre of great importance, with culture akin to the Babylonian. Attached to every temple were professional scribes. We possess a record relating to "the land of the collected works (library) of Khufu," a monarch of the 4th dynasty, and a similar inscription relating to the library of Khafra, the builder of the second pyramid. At Edfu the library was a small chamber in the temple, on the wall of which is a list of books (Brugsch, History of Egypt, 1881, i. 240). The exact position of Ikhnaton's library (or archives) of clay tablets is known. A library of charred books has been found at Mendes (Egypt Expl. Fund, Two Hieroglyphic Papyri), and we have references to temple li braries in the Silsileh "Nile" stelae and, perhaps, in the Harris papyri. The most famous of the Egyptian libraries, that of King Osymandyas (Rameses II., 13oo-1236 B.c.), described by Dio dorus Siculus, was probably in the Ramesszeum at Western Thebes. Papyri from the palace, of a later date, have been discovered by Sir W. Flinders Petrie. According to Eustathius there was a great collection at Memphis. At the Persian invasion many books were carried away by the conquerors.
Amongst known collectors of books were Pisistra tus, Polycrates of Samos, Euclid the Athenian, Nicocrates of Cyprus, Euripides and Aristotle (Athenaeus i. 41). At Cnidus there is said to have been a special collection of works upon medi cine. Pisistratus is reported to have been the first of the Greeks who collected books on a large scale. Plato is known to have been a collector; and Xenophon tells us of the library of Euthy demus. The library of Aristotle was bequeathed by him to his disciple, Theophrastus, and by Theophrastus to Neleus, who car ried it to Scepsis, where it is said to have been concealed under ground to avoid the literary cupidity of the kings of Pergamum.
It is certain that the libraries of Alexandria were the most im portant, as they were the most celebrated, of the ancient world.
Ptolemy Soter had, it seems, already begun to collect books, but it was in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus that the libraries were properly established in separate buildings. There were two libraries at Alexandria ; the larger, in the Bru cheum quarter, was in connection with the museum, a sort of academy, while the smaller was in the Serapeum. The number of volumes was very large, although it is difficult to attain any cer tainty amongst varying accounts, such as those of Tzetzes (42,800 in the Serapeum and 490,000 in the Brucheum), Aulus Gellius (70o,000) and Seneca (400,000). It should be observed that, as the ancient roll or volume usually contained less matter than a modern book, these numbers must be discounted for comparison with modern collections. The first five librarians appear to have been Zenodotus, Callimachus, Eratosthenes, Apollonius and Aris tophanes; they cover about a century. Some of the first experi ments in bibliography were the catalogues of the Alexandrian libraries. Amongst other lists, two were prepared by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, one of tragedies, the other of comedies. The rivaxEs of Callimachus formed a catalogue of all the prin cipal books, arranged in 120 classes. After the time of Aurelian, the Serapeum became the principal library. The usual statement that the libraries continued to flourish until they were destroyed in A.D. 640 can hardly be supported.
German researches in the acropolis of Pergamum (1878-86) revealed four library rooms (Al. Conze, Die pergamen. Bibliothek. 1884). Despite the embargo placed by the Ptolemies upon the export of papyrus, the library, when it was transported to Egypt, numbered 200,000 volumes. We learn from Suidas that in 221 B.C. Antiochus the Great sum moned the poet and grammarian, Euphorion of Chalcis, to be his librarian.