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The Library of Alexandria was founded in Egypt in the 3rd century BC by the Ptolemies, the Greek-speaking kings who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great. It set out to gather the writings of the known world, held tens of thousands of papyrus scrolls and drew leading scholars.

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The library was part of the Mouseion, an institute devoted to the Muses, the goddesses of the arts, which gave us the word ‘museum’. According to the physician Galen, books found on ships entering the harbour were taken and copied, and the owners were given the copies. Estimates of the collection range from 40,000 to 700,000 scrolls. Scholars who worked there included Eratosthenes, who calculated the Earth's circumference remarkably closely, and Callimachus, whose Pinakes is often called the first library catalogue. The library was not lost in one great fire. Its decline began when Ptolemy VIII drove scholars out of the city in 145 BC; a fire during Julius Caesar's war in 48 BC destroyed part of it; it dwindled under Roman rule, and fighting in the 270s AD probably destroyed what was left.

Türkçe oku
İskenderiye Kütüphanesi MÖ 3. yüzyılda Mısır'da kuruldu. Kurucuları, Büyük İskender'den sonra Mısır'ı yöneten, Yunanca konuşan Ptolemaios hanedanıydı. Kütüphane bilinen dünyanın bütün yazılarını toplamayı amaçladı; on binlerce papirüs tomarına ulaştı ve dönemin önde gelen bilginlerini kendine çekti.

Kütüphane, sanat tanrıçaları Müzlere adanmış Mouseion adlı bir kurumun parçasıydı; “müze” sözcüğü de buradan gelir. Hekim Galenos'a göre limana giren gemilerde bulunan kitaplar alınıp kopyalanır, kopyalar sahiplerine verilirdi. Koleksiyonun büyüklüğüne ilişkin tahminler 40.000 ile 700.000 tomar arasında değişir. Burada çalışan bilginler arasında Dünya'nın çevresini şaşırtıcı bir doğrulukla hesaplayan Eratosthenes ve ilk kütüphane kataloğu sayılan Pinakes'i hazırlayan Kallimahos vardı. Kütüphane tek bir büyük yangında yok olmadı. Gerilemesi, VIII. Ptolemaios'un MÖ 145'te bilginleri kentten sürmesiyle başladı. MÖ 48'de Julius Caesar'ın savaşı sırasında çıkan bir yangın bir bölümünü yaktı. Roma döneminde giderek sönükleşti; MS 270'lerdeki çatışmalar da geriye kalanı büyük olasılıkla yok etti.

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Background reading: Library of Alexandria
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