PT Journal
AU Vymetalova, K
TI Habent sua fata libelli (The Fates of Books and Libraries in Antiquity)
SO Historica Olomucensia
PY 2016
BP 13
EP 28
VL 51
IS 2
DI 10.5507/ho.2016.029
DE Hellenistic culture; history of books; library; Mouseion; Pergamon
AB In the 4th century BC books increasingly became a property of individuals who began to found their private libraries. The most significant of them was the library of Aristotle in Athens. Fates of a part of its works are a proof of political convulsions of this period but also an evidence of the fact that a book became not only a source of education but a treasurable property or a welcomed loot. At the beginning of the 3rd century BC, this private initiative is took over by the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, a hundred years later by the Attalid dynasty in Pergamon, who used a foundation of a library, its funding and organisation, as a tool for self-representation and entrenching their own power. It has been Mouseion and its library in Egyptian Alexandria, which has become the symbol of the Hellenistic culture and education, and of which fates are followed until its destruction in this article.
ER