Libraries, History of

Ancient Libraries

The Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia developed the cuneiform method of writing, with clay tablets as the preferred medium for the creation of written [Page 469]documents. The earliest Mesopotamian libraries date to 2,500 BCE, as in the examples of collections of tablets found near Nippur.

Ancient Greece introduced the first libraries open to public use. The impetus for the creation of public libraries in ancient Greece was the alteration of the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides by performers and copyists in the years after their deaths. The Athenian tyrant, Lycurgas, decreed that written copies of the plays would be maintained as public records to ensure that the plays were accurately performed and reproduced.

The most famous Greek library of antiquity was located in Egypt. The Alexandrian library was founded as part of the Museum, a temple that served as a home for intellectuals who were recruited by the Ptolemies. A key function of the Library of Alexandria was the maintenance and reproduction of accurate copies of important Hellenic works. To track the library's vast collection, the poet Callimachus created a 120-volume catalog, called the Pinakes, which listed the most eminent scholars and their writings in alphabetical order. The Pinakes was not a comprehensive catalog of the entire library but a bibliography of the most important works.

Before the Roman conquest of Macedonia and Greece in the second century BCE, Roman library collections were limited to public records. However, after Paulus Aemilius brought back the library of Perseus of Macedonia as the spoils of war in 168, it became common for Roman generals to seize libraries as spoils. Some, like Cornelius Sulla, provided access to these private libraries to other intellectuals.

Julius Caesar planned the first public library of Rome after visiting the Library of Alexandria, but the creation of this library was delayed by his assassination. Gaius Asinius Pollio established the first public library in Rome around 37 BCE, using the spoils of the Illyrian War. Augustus established additional Roman public libraries starting in 28 BCE with the Palatine Library.

European Libraries

Medieval libraries were much smaller than their predecessors in the Roman world, frequently only a few hundred books stored in trunks or locking wardrobes. These libraries were housed in monasteries and churches for the use of monks and priests. Libraries housed in the great cathedrals of Europe were larger and more diverse, as their purpose was to provide educational material for clergy and laity. An important exception was the libraries created by Emperor Charlemagne. Charlemagne procured texts from Europe and the Byzantine Empire and had them copied for use in monasteries and schools throughout his empire. He also pushed monasteries to create rooms for copying books to distribute to other monasteries.

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