Today in @PleiadesProject places, we are traveling to ancient Mediterranean libraries other than the well known library of Alexandria: https://pleiades.stoa.org/@@search?SearchableText=library Why not explore some of the great libraries and archives from antiquity up to 800 CE? #adfines

First, a note about bibliography. I adore König, Oikonomopoulou, & @Woolf_Greg's edited volume, "Ancient Libraries" as a start point: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ancient-libraries/5333C8AFDCC74B8F0EA3EF0C49163DC7 Second, Images will be attributed but are also included in the "Alt" Twitter image descriptions: https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/picture-descriptions

The first image above is from @LoyolaChicago's Digital Special Collections and is an image of the 3rdC CE public library donated by Marcus Julius Quintianus Rogatianus at Timgad in Roman North Africa (=modern Algeria). http://www.lib.luc.edu/specialcollections/items/show/1627. See Johnson: http://people.duke.edu/~wj25/uc_web_site/libraries/timgad.html

I only learned about this library because I often worked alongside George Houston in the epigraphy room at UNC while writing my dissertation and while he was writing this magnificent book from @uncpressblog: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469639208/inside-roman-libraries/. He even goes into the book niches & door locks!

In terms of what the word "public" meant for Roman libraries, see Dix's work: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25542662?seq=1. But now we must travel to the Library of Celsus at Ephesus (=Turkey), picture number 2: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Celsus_library_in_Ephesus. Did you know it is actually also a tomb commissioned in 114 CE?

As Ive written on before, ancient libraries were often adjacent to Temples of Minerva or Athena, who watched over them & protected volumes. But there were also curses! https://sarahemilybond.com/2016/02/26/creating-a-public-space-open-access-book-theft-and-the-epigraphy-of-ancient-libraries/ Here is one from the Library of Pantainos in Athens: http://agora.ascsa.net/id/Agora/Image/2008.20.0059 @ascsapubs

But we shouldn't think of ancient libraries as a Greco-Roman thing at all! I learned a lot from the new edited volume "Libraries before Alexandria: Ancient Near Eastern Traditions": https://global.oup.com/academic/product/libraries-before-alexandria-9780199655359?cc=us&lang=en&#. Libraries go back to Mesopotamia c.2600 BCE. See: https://ccp.yale.edu/introduction/cities-and-libraries

Ancient libraries also existed in other areas of the globe as well. Perhaps most famously the circa 4thC CE library at Nalanda, India. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8446&=&context=libphilprac&=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252Fsearch%253Fclient%253Dfirefox-b-1-m%2526sxsrf%253DALeKk01Zam1mwk4XtXQG1YtrBgD2Z34AZw%25253A1610812505429%2526ei%253DWQwDYLfnGcmMtAaJkIL4AQ%2526q%253Dnalanda%252Blibrary%252Bjator%2526oq%253Dnalanda%252Blibrary%252Bjator%2526gs_lcp%253DChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyBwghEAoQoAE6BAgAEEc6BAgAEEM6DQgAEMcBEK8BEBQQhwI6CAgAEMcBEK8BOgIIADoFCCEQoAE6BQghEKsCUPHlA1jBgARg6YIEaAhwAXgAgAG5AYgBtweSAQMwLjaYAQCgAQHIAQjAAQE%2526sclient%253Dmobile-gws-wiz-serp#search=%22nalanda%20library%20jator%22

Adding just a few more libraries this morning, since there are many more to discuss! Library fans may want to know more about the Library of Pergamum (modern Turkey), for instance: https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/117689032. Attalid ruler Eumenes ll established it ca. 197 BCE w ca. 200,000 scrolls.

These were not papyrus rolls. Pergamum famously used parchment rather than papyrus and in 133 BCE, Rome acquired the library holdings––which Antony may have later given to Cleopatra for the Library at Alexandra. Berlin has some component parts of it today: https://www.smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/pergamonmuseum/home/

There are many more to explore but one thing to reverse now is the idea there was a decline & fall of libraries in Late Antiquity. That doesn't seem to be the case: https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.AT.3.56?mobileUi=0 e.g. the 5thC side chambers of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna: https://www.jstor.org/stable/767103?seq=1

Libraries were a huge part of ancient life in the Mediterranean––not just in Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome & Athens. + We must question Ammianus & others who may have noted a decline & question long-held assumptions. I'll give Dirk Rohmann the last word https://www.google.com/books/edition/Christianity_Book_Burning_and_Censorship/_O3CDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=late%20antiquity%20libraries%20public&pg=PA213&printsec=frontcover