The story is filled with legends and fables that stand the test of time. Someone said that historians, in order to avoid the inconvenience of investigations, are copied each other, so that the legends become an essential part of history will not go into that discussion, but the truth is any myth that has preserved the tenacity of a tendentious legend spread Durate centuries by medieval schools: the burning of the library of Alexandria at the hands of the Arabs when they conquered the city in the seventh century. The Arabs could never fire the Great Library of Alexandria, even the small library, and when the troops of 'Amr came to the city in 641, and for hundreds of years did not exist. What they found was a divided city, Arabs, ruined and exhausted by centuries of civil strife.
We've all heard of the Library of Alexandria, but what is its history? Alexandria, founded near the Nile delta by Alexander the Great on 30 March 331 BC, it housed the largest library of classical antiquity. It appears from the writings of the Greek bishop St. Irenaeus (130-208 AD) Ptolemy I Soter, one of the best generals of Alexander and founder of a dynasty of Greek blood in Egypt, founded the Library and Museum in the year 295 BC, thanks the board of the Greek scholars Eudoxus, Demetrio de Falero, its first director and librarian, and Aristotle himself. His son, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, carried out the construction of the lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World Classic, and the Museum, the latter considered the first university in the world in its modern sense, since he purchased and included in the libraries of Aristotle and Theophrastus, collecting 400,000 books multiple (symoniguís) and 90,000 single (amiguis), as is asserted by the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes (c.1110-c.1180) based on a 'Letter of Aristeas' -century BC
At that time the manuscripts were written on sheets of papyrus, a very abundant plant in Egypt que crece en las orillas del Nilo. Según nos informa Plinio el Viejo (23-79 d.C) en su obra Historia Natural , a causa de la rivalidad de la Biblioteca de Pérgamo (Asia Menor) con la Biblioteca de Alejandría, Ptolomeo Filadelfos prohibió la exportación de papiro; en consecuencia, en Pérgamo se inició el uso del pergamino; éste se conseguía preparando la piel de cordero, de asno, de potro y de becerro, siendo el pergamino más resistente que la hoja de papiro y además ofrecía la ventaja de que se podía escribir sobre ambos lados.
Ptolomeo III Everguétis será el fundador de la Biblioteca-hija en el Serapeum (templo dedicado a Serapis, una divinidad derived from the union of Osiris and Apis identified with Dionysus), the Acropolis hill Rhakotis, which will add 700,000 books, according to the Latin writer Aulus Gellius (123-165 AD). This will eventually replace the Library-mother to the late first century BC, after the arson attack during the struggle between the legionnaires of Caesar and the Ptolemaic forces of Aquila, between August 48 and January 47 BC at the port of Alexandria. The Great Library was the largest, richest and most important of the ancient world, surpassing rivals Athens and Antioch. Not only Greeks but Egyptians, Phoenicians, Arabs, Persians, Jews and Indians looked on file and sat stone in their banks under their porches, watching the lighthouse and the blue sea ... Greek culture was enriched here, like the rest, through contact with others.
Its proximity to the sea was accidental because of his tragic fate. The legendary library burned as a result of military action by Julius Caesar. It has a Hispanic nephew of Seneca, historian Marcus Annaeus Lucan (39-65 AD), in his Pharsalia : Julius Caesar, in 47 a. C., awkwardly engaged in the dynastic rivalries Alexandrian, and besieged by General Achillas in the royal palace of Lochie, beside the sea, fire sent its own fleet, more than sixty ships anchored in the Grand Harbour East. The fire quickly spread to the docks, and from these to the royal city and the tanks of the Library ... "neighboring houses to the docks on fire, the wind contributed to the disaster, the flames were blown to fury like meteors over the rooftops. The Egyptian soldiers had to leave the site of Caesar to try to save Alexandria from the flames " . Lucius Annaeus Seneca mentioned in 'De tranquilitate animi' the figure of forty thousand books were burned, citing his source, Livy, a contemporary of the disaster. Plutarch also records fire in his Life of Caesar. July Caesar, however, in his Bellum Civile describes the battle, but mutes the disastrous fire in the Library, chicanery that only serves to put even more clearly their responsibility in the unfortunate accident. Others also be silent, as Strabo, Appiano or Cicero. And no one, until the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty dare contradict the vesion of Julius Caesar. Only dared to break the political censorship classes and Republican Senate opposed the rule and considered to Julius Caesar as a tyrant.
The fate of the Library-daughter was not much better. During the fourth century AD, after the proclamation of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the safety of Greek sanctuaries began to be threatened. The old Christians of the Thebaid and Monophysite adherents Library hated because it was in their eyes, the citadel of disbelief, the last stronghold of pagan science. At that time seemed unthinkable a century earlier there had studied and trained hundreds of disciples as a philosopher Plotinus (205-270), founder of Neoplatonism.
The situation became particularly acute during the reign of Theodosius I (375-395 AD), the emperor did not accept to take the pagan title of Pontifex Maximus and tried to stop with heresy and paganism. By order of Theophilus, Monophysite bishop of Alexandria, who had sought and obtained an imperial decree, the Serapeum, the complex containing the Library precious daughters and other outbuildings were destroyed and looted. After the edict of Emperor Theodosius I ordered pagan temples closed, this magnificent Library-daughter was killed by Christians in 391, when the violent destruction and burning of the Alexandrian Serapeum, the flames swept there last ancient library . According to the Alexandrian Chronicles A V century manuscript, was the Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus (385-412) known for his fanatic zeal in the destruction of pagan temples, the destroyer Serapeum violent. The historian and theologian Visigothic Paulo Orosius (c. 418 AD), disciple of St. Augustine in his History against the pagans certify that the Library of Alexandria in 415 AD there was no .: "Your closet empty of books ... were looted by men of our time " .
His disappearance meant the loss of approximately 80% of science and Greek civilization, as well as very important legacies of Asian and African cultures, which resulted in the stagnation of scientific progress for over four years until it would be reactivated during the Golden Age of Islam (IX-XII centuries) by scholars of the stature of ar-Razi, al-Battani, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Biruni, al-Haytham , Averroes and many others.
We've all heard of the Library of Alexandria, but what is its history? Alexandria, founded near the Nile delta by Alexander the Great on 30 March 331 BC, it housed the largest library of classical antiquity. It appears from the writings of the Greek bishop St. Irenaeus (130-208 AD) Ptolemy I Soter, one of the best generals of Alexander and founder of a dynasty of Greek blood in Egypt, founded the Library and Museum in the year 295 BC, thanks the board of the Greek scholars Eudoxus, Demetrio de Falero, its first director and librarian, and Aristotle himself. His son, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, carried out the construction of the lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World Classic, and the Museum, the latter considered the first university in the world in its modern sense, since he purchased and included in the libraries of Aristotle and Theophrastus, collecting 400,000 books multiple (symoniguís) and 90,000 single (amiguis), as is asserted by the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes (c.1110-c.1180) based on a 'Letter of Aristeas' -century BC
At that time the manuscripts were written on sheets of papyrus, a very abundant plant in Egypt que crece en las orillas del Nilo. Según nos informa Plinio el Viejo (23-79 d.C) en su obra Historia Natural , a causa de la rivalidad de la Biblioteca de Pérgamo (Asia Menor) con la Biblioteca de Alejandría, Ptolomeo Filadelfos prohibió la exportación de papiro; en consecuencia, en Pérgamo se inició el uso del pergamino; éste se conseguía preparando la piel de cordero, de asno, de potro y de becerro, siendo el pergamino más resistente que la hoja de papiro y además ofrecía la ventaja de que se podía escribir sobre ambos lados.
Ptolomeo III Everguétis será el fundador de la Biblioteca-hija en el Serapeum (templo dedicado a Serapis, una divinidad derived from the union of Osiris and Apis identified with Dionysus), the Acropolis hill Rhakotis, which will add 700,000 books, according to the Latin writer Aulus Gellius (123-165 AD). This will eventually replace the Library-mother to the late first century BC, after the arson attack during the struggle between the legionnaires of Caesar and the Ptolemaic forces of Aquila, between August 48 and January 47 BC at the port of Alexandria. The Great Library was the largest, richest and most important of the ancient world, surpassing rivals Athens and Antioch. Not only Greeks but Egyptians, Phoenicians, Arabs, Persians, Jews and Indians looked on file and sat stone in their banks under their porches, watching the lighthouse and the blue sea ... Greek culture was enriched here, like the rest, through contact with others.
Its proximity to the sea was accidental because of his tragic fate. The legendary library burned as a result of military action by Julius Caesar. It has a Hispanic nephew of Seneca, historian Marcus Annaeus Lucan (39-65 AD), in his Pharsalia : Julius Caesar, in 47 a. C., awkwardly engaged in the dynastic rivalries Alexandrian, and besieged by General Achillas in the royal palace of Lochie, beside the sea, fire sent its own fleet, more than sixty ships anchored in the Grand Harbour East. The fire quickly spread to the docks, and from these to the royal city and the tanks of the Library ... "neighboring houses to the docks on fire, the wind contributed to the disaster, the flames were blown to fury like meteors over the rooftops. The Egyptian soldiers had to leave the site of Caesar to try to save Alexandria from the flames " . Lucius Annaeus Seneca mentioned in 'De tranquilitate animi' the figure of forty thousand books were burned, citing his source, Livy, a contemporary of the disaster. Plutarch also records fire in his Life of Caesar. July Caesar, however, in his Bellum Civile describes the battle, but mutes the disastrous fire in the Library, chicanery that only serves to put even more clearly their responsibility in the unfortunate accident. Others also be silent, as Strabo, Appiano or Cicero. And no one, until the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty dare contradict the vesion of Julius Caesar. Only dared to break the political censorship classes and Republican Senate opposed the rule and considered to Julius Caesar as a tyrant.
The fate of the Library-daughter was not much better. During the fourth century AD, after the proclamation of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the safety of Greek sanctuaries began to be threatened. The old Christians of the Thebaid and Monophysite adherents Library hated because it was in their eyes, the citadel of disbelief, the last stronghold of pagan science. At that time seemed unthinkable a century earlier there had studied and trained hundreds of disciples as a philosopher Plotinus (205-270), founder of Neoplatonism.
The situation became particularly acute during the reign of Theodosius I (375-395 AD), the emperor did not accept to take the pagan title of Pontifex Maximus and tried to stop with heresy and paganism. By order of Theophilus, Monophysite bishop of Alexandria, who had sought and obtained an imperial decree, the Serapeum, the complex containing the Library precious daughters and other outbuildings were destroyed and looted. After the edict of Emperor Theodosius I ordered pagan temples closed, this magnificent Library-daughter was killed by Christians in 391, when the violent destruction and burning of the Alexandrian Serapeum, the flames swept there last ancient library . According to the Alexandrian Chronicles A V century manuscript, was the Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus (385-412) known for his fanatic zeal in the destruction of pagan temples, the destroyer Serapeum violent. The historian and theologian Visigothic Paulo Orosius (c. 418 AD), disciple of St. Augustine in his History against the pagans certify that the Library of Alexandria in 415 AD there was no .: "Your closet empty of books ... were looted by men of our time " .
His disappearance meant the loss of approximately 80% of science and Greek civilization, as well as very important legacies of Asian and African cultures, which resulted in the stagnation of scientific progress for over four years until it would be reactivated during the Golden Age of Islam (IX-XII centuries) by scholars of the stature of ar-Razi, al-Battani, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Biruni, al-Haytham , Averroes and many others.
