Libraries in the Ancient World

190 Pages·2008·0.947 MB·English

by  Casson, Lionel

Libraries in the Ancient World

Libraries
in the
Ancient World
LIONEL CASSON
YALENOTABENE
Yale University Press/New Haven and London
First published as a Yale Nota Bene book in 2002.
Hardcover edition first published by Yale University Press in 2001.
Copyright © 2001 by Yale University.
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part,
including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections
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press), without written permission from the publishers.
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Printed in the United States of America
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Casson, Lionel, 1914–
Libraries in the ancient world / Lionel Casson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-300-08809-4 (alk. paper)
1. Libraries—History—To 400. I. Title.
Z722. C37 2001
027(cid:2).09—dc21 00-011668
ISBN 0-300-09721-2 (pbk.)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Judy

Contents
Preface ix
Maps xi, xii
1.The Beginnings: The Ancient Near East 1
2.The Beginnings: Greece 17
3.The Library of Alexandria 31
4.The Growth of Libraries 48
5.The Beginnings: Rome 61
6.Libraries of the Roman Empire: The City of Rome 80
7.Libraries of the Roman Empire: Outside the City
of Rome 109
8.From Roll to Codex 124
9.Toward the Middle Ages 136
Abbreviations 147
Notes 149
List of Illustrations 167
Index 171

Preface
This book is the first full-scale study of libraries in the ancient
world. It presents whatever is known about them from their debut
in the ancient Near East in the third millennium B.C.down to the
early Byzantine period, the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., when
the spread of Christianity and of monasticism fundamentally
changed the course of library history.
Ancient writings contain only haphazard bits of information
about libraries. To fill out the picture we must turn to a variety of
sources. One of the most helpful is archaeology: at a number of
sites excavation has laid bare library remains, and these give us an
idea, in some cases a fairly good idea, of the physical facilities. In-
scriptions relating in one way or another to libraries, from decrees
honoring wealthy benefactors to epitaphs on the gravestones of
humble employees, provide welcome detail on important aspects.
But there are certain matters, such as the nature of the holdings in
the various libraries, the readership they served, the way they
made their acquisitions, their methods for shelving and catalogu-
ing, and so on, for which we are reduced to inference based on
faint clues, or even, at times, to pure speculation.
The book is addressed to both general readers and scholars. For
the latter I have supplied, in a section at the back, complete docu-
mentation; it is keyed to the statements concerned by means of
page references and brief clues rather than footnote numbers to
avoid the distraction these can cause.
It was Harry Haskell of Yale University Press who suggested the
idea of a book on ancient libraries, and I am deeply grateful for his
ix