# Alexandria library **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 4, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012 "2005-12-04T07:12:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lamidave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e4f/32.png) [@lamidave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lamidave)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/1 "2005-12-04T07:12:32Z")
A somewhat different account can be found in the book The Vanished Library by Luciano Canfora. This book is much more than just an account of the library and its disappearance. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/2 "2005-12-04T14:00:35Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **lamidave** , we’re glad to have you with us. When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the Staff Report under discussion. Saves lots of search time, and keep us on the same page. No biggie, you’ll know for next time. In this case, it’s [Straight Dope Staff Report: What happened to the great library of Alexandria?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/malexanderlibrary.html) and which won’t officially appear on the website until next Tuesday Dec 6. (People who [sign up for the mailing list](http://www.straightdope.com/index.html#maillist) get an advance peek.) I confess, I didn’t come across the book you mention. Care to summarize for us? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/3 "2005-12-04T14:33:36Z")
Don Rosa, of course, gave the world the _real_ story of what happened to the great library in his classic _Guardians of the Lost Library_, published in _Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge Adventures #27 (July 1994)_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/4 "2005-12-04T20:06:59Z")
_Library: An Unquiet History_ is a fine, fun book, but hardly a scholarly resource on the Library. The real accessible deep history is [The Library of Alexandria : Centre of Learning in the Ancient World, Revised Edition, by Roy MacLeod (Editor)](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1850435944/qid=1133726082/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-8399751-8664650?n=507846&s=books&v=glance). It even covers such topics as Callimachus’ _Pinakes_, a bibliography and catalogue of the library, of which fragments survive, so we can hardly say there was no organization there. Neither it nor Canfora’s book are in my local library system, but the reviews on Amazon of [The Vanished Library](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520072553/qid=1133726271/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-8399751-8664650?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) scared me off purchasing it when I did my research. I also found [Libraries in the Ancient World, by Lionel Casson](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300097212/ref=pd_sim_b_1/103-8399751-8664650?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155) to give a better history of Alexandria. However, since the point of the report was the destruction, that these sources are much better on the history and organization is somewhat irrelevant. I’m not going to fault your summary, although I would have emphasized different things differently. That’s just the way it is when different people approach a subject, though. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/5 "2005-12-05T12:42:40Z")
Yeah, **Expano** , point taken, I was focused on the destruction rather than the organization and “librariness.” I, too, found that many desired works were not in my local library system, so I made do with what I had. And, even so, note how brief the report was! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/6 "2005-12-07T00:27:20Z")
However, its to-the-question directness is also a virtue in itself – I liked it very much. The report is quite worthy of the Straight Dope, Cecil could do something with it. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/7 "2005-12-07T02:47:26Z")
I’d like to note as well that it wasn’t exactly that Theophilus set his mob on the Serapeum, although I guess that is one (very very concise) way to sum it up. It’s more likely, given the information in the ancient sources (Theodoret and Rufinus, particularly), that there was an original incident of Nicene Christian vs. ‘pagan’ violence, and the ‘pagans’ retreated to the Serapeum as a defensive position. This stand-off might have actually lasted for quite a while, a few weeks or so. Eventually the Christians did storm the temple and destroy it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/8 "2005-12-07T18:41:13Z")
Speaking of the library’s organization, many scrolls had a tag attached and bound to it with a leather string. The tag gave the scroll’s title and a description of its contents. This was known, according to some sources I have read, as the item’s _meta-data_, a term used today of course for our own info organization. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/9 "2005-12-08T05:20:49Z")
Not allof those books are lost–some of them are just still checked out by grad students. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/10 "2005-12-08T05:54:54Z")
And some of us have been in grad school for about that long, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if, when I eventually clean my desk, I find a papayras scroll wrapped with a bit of string and a label in the bottom strata :). ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/11 "2005-12-08T13:12:45Z")
It would explain, **Chronos** , why you’ve been doing so badly on your research, if you’re relying on info from physics scrolls that’re 2K years outta date… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/12 "2005-12-08T16:38:28Z")
Better grad students than tenured professors. If they have them, the works truly are lost for all time. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/13 "2005-12-08T18:11:19Z")
**Dex** , if you’d ever seen my desk, you’d know that there’s no risk at all of anything in the bottom strata getting used. At least, not without a bulldozer. A shame… Millenia-old data could be useful in evaluating whether physical constants have evolved in time. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/14 "2005-12-09T00:10:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And some of us have been in grad school for about that long, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if, when I eventually clean my desk, I find a papayras scroll wrapped with a bit of string and a label in the bottom strata :). Hey, **Chronos**! Trade up for the fancy, modern _papyrus_ scrolls. They might have more and better information. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/15 "2005-12-10T05:50:23Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Hey, **Chronos**! Trade up for the fancy, modern _papyrus_ scrolls. They might have more and better information. 😉 I understand there were lines around the agora on the midnights before the new Papyrus 7.0 BCE was released. It was cheaper and capable of holding more data (at least if you wrote smaller on it). ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-library/334012/16 "2005-12-10T11:56:09Z")
I actually have a card for the Alexandria, VA library. I think our reference and lit. sections compare favorably to old Egypt’s, though the CD selection has some catching up to do.