ALEXANDRIAN LI'BRARY. The plan for this, the most famous collection of the ancient world, seems to have been formed by Ptolemy L. Soter (died 283 n.e.), perhaps at the suggestion of the Athenian, Demetrius of Phalerum. The development of this plan and the connection of the library with the museum was the work of Ptolemy IL, Philadelphus. about 275 n.c., who collected books on a hitherto unknown scale and placed them at the disposal of the learned men gathered in the museum. The man agement was intrusted to a series of scholars. whose labors led them to a careful study of Greek literary history and the classification of writers, with results of great importance for the transmission of classical texts to our own time. The first librarian was Zenodotus of Ephesus. under whom the poets were arranged. The first catalogue seems to have been the work of Calli machus, and included a classification of the au thors. according to their principal themes, as historians, orators, etc. Under each author's name was given a brief biographical sketch, a list of his genuine and spurious works, the open ing words of each work, a brief table of contents. and the number of lines occupied in the standard NS. Variations in names or titles were carefully noted. In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. the
number of rolls in the main library was 490.000, and in the annex, in the temple of Serapis, 42, 800. At the time of Ctesar's visit, in 47 n.e., the number had risen to 700,000, of which a large part was consumed in a great fire, which spread from the burning fleet. This loss was in part replaced by the library of Pergamus, which Antony gave to Cleopatra. In Roman times, however, the chief literary centre seems to have been the library in the Serapenm which was destroyed when the Christians sacked the tem ple (390 A.D.). The fate of the rest of the li brary after the loss of its most valuable part is unknown, but it seems likely that much of it had been lost before the surrender of the city to the Arabs. The story of the destruction of the books by order of the Caliph Omar is now uni versally discredited, as resting on very unreli able sources. Consult: Ritschl, Die ale.ran drinkehen Bildiothekea, in his 0pnsculs Philalo ;ilea 1. (Leipzig, 1867-79), and Susemihl, ars chirlite der yrirehisehen Littrratur in der Alex andrinerzeit (Leipzig, 1891-92).
ArEXAN'DRIANS, EPISTLE TO TIIE. See ArocityritA, New Testament.