Great Library

The most famous of all ancient libraries was founded in 288BC as part of the Alexandrian Museum by Demetrius of Phaleron. Originally based on the library of Athens, it housed mainly Greek scrolls but was open to poets, scientists, scholars and philosophers from all peoples. It was the vision of Alexander, as Aristotle’s pupil, to bring together all the knowledge in the known world under one roof, and some 70,000 scrolls were held. Much medical, scientific and scholarly work was undertaken, including the first star atlas. Aristarchus, a scholar using the library, worked out that the world revolved around the sun nearly 2,000 years before Copernicus, and it was here that the Old Testament was first translated into Greek. For six centuries the Great Library embodied academic research and study. It declined after the Roman occupation and was destroyed by fire in AD272.