ancient libraries
Papyrus scroll collections
Ancient libraries were institutions in the classical world that collected and preserved written works—most famously the Library of Alexandria, but also those at Pergamum, Nineveh, and Rome.
The term evokes scrolls, scholars, and the fragility of knowledge: Much of classical literature was lost when ancient libraries were destroyed.
Today it may refer to any very old book collection: The monastery's ancient library held manuscripts from the ninth century.
- scribesProfessional document copiers
- scrollsRolled written records
- NinevehAssyrian empire's seat
- TimbuktuMalian city, byword for remoteness
- Babylonian EmpireAncient Iraqi kingdom, twice-dominant
Epic of Gilgamesh · House of Wisdom · codices · cuneiform tablets · Alexandria · lost knowledge · papyrus scrolls · illuminated manuscripts · digitization · Persian Empire · dead languages · scriptorium · legal contracts · Classical Greece · stone inscriptions · catacombs · Roman Empire · columns
- ancient writinghieroglyphs, cuneiform, papyrus, scroll, clay tablets
- historical librariesmedieval libraries, House of Wisdom, national libraries
- Alexandrian scholarshipEratosthenes, philology, literary commentary, Apollonius, emendation
- librarieslibrarians, public libraries, research libraries, university libraries, national libraries
- Latin scholarshipLatin poetry, philology, classical texts, paleography, lyric poetry
- MauritaniaAtlantic coast, one-party rule
ancient librariesdigital databases
Organized computerized information systems
online archives · virtual libraries · cloud storage · Wikipedia · Google Books