Ancient Libraries of Mediterranean Basin.

Please click the LINK.

Ephesus Library Photographs

Anatolia

• Hattusa (1900 B.C. - 1190 B.C.) (modern Bogazkoy)This archive constituted the largest collection of Hittite texts discovered with approximately thirty thousand inscribed cuneiform tablets.^[2] The tablets had also been classified according to a precise system.^[2]
• Royal Library of Antioch (221 B.C. - 363 A.D.) (Modern Antakya)The library was commissioned in the third century B.C. by Euphorion of Chalcis by the Greek sovereign Antiochus III the Great.^[3] Euphorion was an academic and was also the chief librarian.^[4]
• Library of Pergamum (197 B.C. - 159 B.C.) (modern Bergama)The Attalid kings formed the second best Hellenistic library after Alexandria, founded in emulation of the Ptolemies. When the Ptolemies stopped exporting papyrus, partly because of competitors and partly because of shortages, the Pergamenes invented a new substance to use in codices, called parchment, or pergamum after the city. This was made of fine calfskin, a predecessor of vellum and paper. The library had collected over 200,000 volumes and the reason why the library was so successful was because of Pergamum's hegemony which was a purveyor of scholarship.^[5]
• Library of Celsus (135 A.D. - 262) (located within the city of Ephesus)This library was part of the triumvirate of libraries in the Mediterranean which included the aforementioned Library of Pergamum and the great Library of Alexandria listed below. The library was actually a tomb and a shrine for the deceased Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus for whom the library is named.^[6] 12,000 volumes were collected at this library which were deposited in several cabinets along the wall.^[6]
• The Imperial Library of Constantinople (337–361 A.D. – 29 May 1453) (Constantinople, modern Istanbul)The library was established by Constantius II who was the son of the first Christian emperor Constantine. Constantius requested that the rolls of papyrus should be copied onto parchment or vellum in order that they would be preserved.^[7] It is known that several documents from the Library of Alexandria were spared incineration and secured here at the library.^[7] Some assessments place the collection at just over 100,000 volumes which included papyrus scrolls and codices bound in parchment,^[7] although 120,000 volumes had been destroyed in a fire in a.d. 473.

Egypt

• The Royal Library of Alexandria, Egypt, fl. 3rd century BC (c. 295 BC).Founded by Ptolemy, this library was said to have amassed an estimated 400,000 manuscripts and was considered the leading intellectual metropolis of the Hellenistic world.^[5] The Serapeum in Alexandria served as an extension of the library.
• Serapeum of Alexandria, offshoot collection of the great Library of Alexandria
• Temple of Edfu Archive/Library (237–57 B.C.)This library was an extension of the Temple itself. The walls of this chamber are bestrewn with engravings and captions depicting numerous receptacles filled with manuscripts of papyrus as well as scrolls bound in leather.^[8] These documents chronicled the circadian workings of the temple, but also detailed construction drafts and directives on how the temple walls should be decorated.^[8]
• Nag Hammadi Library (Upper Egypt)The Nag Hammadi Library is the label used to collectively refer to thirteen codices comprising fifty texts about Gnosticism.^[9]

Greece

• The Library of Aristotle (Athens) (384–321 B.C.)The Library of Aristotle was a private library and the earliest one reported on by ancient chroniclers. It is not known what books nor the number of books that were included in the library. Accounts in antiquity state that the library formed part of the later Library of Alexandria in Egypt.^[10]
• Kos Library (Kos) (100 A.D.)The library was a local public library situated on the enclave Kos known as a crossroads for academia and philosophical faculties.^[11] A record of individuals who were supposedly responsible for the establishment of the library are acknowledged in an inscription near the monument.^[11]
• The Library of Pantainos (Athens) (100 A.D.)Sanctified to the doublet of Athena Archegetis and the Roman emperor Hadrian, the library articulated itself to the Agora in Athens.^[12] The individual who apportioned this building was Titus Flavius Pantainos and he, along with his children also devoted it to the citizens of Athens.^[13] While the precise date of its dedication is not clear, it is believed to have been dedicated between 98 AD and 102 AD.^[13] There is speculation that the library may have been built by the father of Pantainos.^[13] Being a Roman-period library, the design is quite unconventional. A spacious alcove with an adjoining courtyard enclosed by three galleries formed the arrangement of the structure.^[13] An inscription discovered dictates proper library etiquette: "No book is to be taken out because we have sworn an oath. The library is to be open first hour until the sixth."^[12] The library was ultimately consumed by the invading Germanic Heruli tribe in 267 AD.^[12]
• The Library of Rhodes (Rhodes) (100 A.D.)The library on the island of Rhodes was a distinct component of the larger gymnasium structure. An enclosure that had been excavated revealed a section of a catalog analogous to modern library catalogs. The catalog, which classified titles by subject, displayed an inventory of authors in consecutive order together with their published efforts. It has also been determined that the library employed a qualified librarian.^[11]

Iraq

• The Library of Ashurbanipal (established 668–627 BC) in Nineveh (near modern Mosul, Iraq)Long considered to be the first systematically collected library, was rediscovered in the 19th century. While the library had been destroyed, many fragments of the ancient cuneiform tablets survived, and have been reconstructed. Large portions of the Epic of Gilgamesh were among the many finds.^[16][17][18]
• Nippur temple library (2500 B.C.)The earliest version of the Great Flood was discovered here.^[19]
• Nuzi (Modern Yorgan Tepe) (1500 B.C.)This archive consisted of over 6,000 tablets written primarily in Babylonian cuneiform, however a select few were composed in the indigenous Hurrian language.^[20]
• The House of Wisdom (Baghdad) (9th–13th centuries)An Abbasid-era library and Arabic translation institute in Baghdad, Iraq. 8th century – 1258. The academy was expressed by not only the library, but a celestial observatory.^[21] There is a dearth of information on this institution and the majority of knowledge about it comes from the accounts of the Muslim scholar and bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim.^[21]

Italy

• Libraries of the Forum, consisted of separate libraries founded in the time of Augustus near the Roman Forum that contained both Greek and Latin texts, separately housed, as was the conventional practice. There were libraries in the Porticus Octaviae near the Theatre of Marcellus, in the temple of Apollo Palatinus, and in the Bibliotheca Ulpia in the Forum of Trajan.
• Atrium Liberatatis public library of Asinius Pollio^[22]
• The Villa of the Papyri, in Herculaneum, ItalyThe only library known to have survived from classical antiquity. This villa's large private collection may have once belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus in the 1st century BC. Buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the town in 79 AD, it was rediscovered in 1752, around 1800 carbonized scrolls were found in the villa's top story. Using modern techniques such as multi-spectral imaging, previously illegible or invisible sections on scrolls that have been unrolled are now being deciphered. It is possible that more scrolls remain to be found in the lower, unexcavated levels of the villa.^[23]

Israel

• The Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima, a late 3rd century AD establishment, was a great early Christian library. Through Origen of Alexandria and the scholarly priest Pamphilus of Caesarea, the school won a reputation for having the most extensive ecclesiastical library of the time, containing more than 30,000 manuscripts: Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Jerome and others came to study there.^[24]

Syria

• Ebla (2500 B.C. – 2250 B.C.)Constitute the oldest organized library yet discovered: see Ebla tablets.^[25]
• Ugarit (Modern Ras Shamra) (1200 B.C.)Several thousand texts consisting of diplomatic archives, census records, literary works and the earliest privately owned libraries yet recovered.^[26] Even though the tablets were written in several different languages, the most important aspect of the library were the 1400 texts written in a previously unknown tongue called Ugaritic.^[26]
• Tell Leilan (Northeast Syria) (1900 B.C.)This archive housed over a thousand clay tablets ^[27]
• Mari (Modern Tell Hariri) (1900 B.C.)The archive held approximately 15,000 tablets which included works on litigation, letters, foreign negotiations, literary, and theological works ^[28]
• Sufiya Mosque Library, Grand Umayyad Mosque (Aleppo) (12th Century)More than 10,000 volumes were housed in this library which were entrusted to the mosque by Prince Sayf al-Dawla.^[29]