Demetrius of Phaleron

The first mention we have of the library is in The Letter of Aristeas (ca. 180-145 B.C.E.), a Jewish scholar housed at the Library chronicling the translation of the Septuagint into Greek by seventy-two rabbis. This massive production was commissioned by the Athenian exile Demetrius of Phaleron under his patron, Ptolemy I, Ptolemy Soter. Demetrius himself was a former ruler of Athens in exile, and a first-generation Peripatetic scholar. That is, he was one of the students of Aristotle along with Theophrastus and Alexander the Great. After Ptolemy I Soter, secured the kingship of Egypt, Theophrastus turned down the Pharoah's invitation to tutor Ptolemy's heir, and instead recommended Demetrius, who had recently been driven out from Athens.

Precedents for the Mouseion

The Mouseion

Archaeologists have not uncovered the foundations of the Mouseion, although they have excavated portions of the Library in the nearby temple of Serapis. From scattered sources this much seems relatively clear: it was in the Brucchium (northeast) sector of the city, probably in or adjacent to the palace grounds. It was surrounded by courts, gardens, and a zoological park containing exotic animals from far-flung parts of the Alexandrian empire. According to Strabo, at its heart was a Great Hall and a circular domed dining hall with an observatory in its upper terrace; classrooms surrounded it. This is very similar to the layout of the Serapeum, which was begun by Ptolemy II Philadelphus and completed by his son. An estimated 30-50 scholars were permanently housed there, fed and funded first by the royal family, and later, according to an early Roman papyrus, by public money.

The Septuagint

Aristeas, writing 100 years after the library's inception, records that Ptolemy I handed over to Demetrius the job of gathering books and scrolls, as well as letting him supervise a massive effort to translate other cultures' works into Greek. This process began with the translation of the Septuagint, the Old Testament, into Greek, for which project Ptolemy hired and housed 72 rabbis at Demetrius' suggestion.

Acquisition of Books

At the time of Demetrius, Greek libraries were usually collections of manuscripts by private individuals, such as Aristotle's library of his own and other works. Egypt's temples often had shelves containing an assortment of religious and official texts, as did certain Mouseions in the Greek world. It was Ptolemy I's great ambition to possess all known world literature that pushed these collections into the realm of a true library. John Tzetzes records several centuries later that Callimachus cataloged 400,000 "mixed" scrolls (probably those that contained more than one chapter, work, or even author) and 90,000 "unmixed", plus an additional 42,000 in the Serapeum. Ptolemy's successors' methods for achieving his goal were certainly unique. Ptolemy III wrote a letter "to all the world's sovereigns" asking to borrow their books. When Athens lent him the texts to Euripides, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, he had them copied, returned the copies, and kept the originals. Supposedly, all ships that stopped in the port of Alexandria were searched for books which were given them same treatment.

The First Librarians

While Demetrius was a convert of Serapis and thus probably an official of the new Graeco-Egyptian cult invented by Ptolemy, the Serapeum was not yet built at his death and he is remembered neither as librarian of that institution nor at the The Mouseion. The first recorded Librarian was Zenodotus of Ephesus, holding that post from the end of Ptolemy I's reign until 245 BC. His successor Callimachus of Cyrene was perhaps Alexandria's most famous librarian, creating for the first time a subject catalog in 120,000 scrolls of the Library's holdings, called the Pinakes or Tables. It was by no means comprehensive, but was more like a good subject index. Apollonius of Rhodes, his younger rival and the writer of the notoriously meticulous epic, Argonautica, seems to have been Callimachus' replacement. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, Stoic geographer and mathematician, succeeded him in 235 BC, and compiled his "tetagmenos epi teis megaleis bibliothekeis", the "scheme of the great bookshelves". In 195 BC Aristophanes, a Homeric scholar of no relation to the comic playwright, took up the position, and updated Callimachus' Pinakes. The last recorded librarian was Aristarchus of Samothrace, the astronomer, who took up the position in 180 BC and was driven out during dynastic struggles between two Ptolemies. While the library and The Mouseion persisted for many centuries afterwards, from that time onward scholars are simply recorded as Alexandrian, and no Librarians are mentioned by name.

While it is doubtful the library had a perfectly systematic organization, but rather tended to house new chests and shelves of papyri in the groups in which they were acquired, the Alexandrians from Callimachus onwards tried to keep track of their holdings via a subject catalog. In this they followed Aristotle's divisions of knowledge, or at least his style of breaking up what had previously fallen under the umbrella of "philosophy" into subdivisions of observational and deductive sciences.

Sorcery

Many of the Mouseion's most scholarly names were sorcerers, who built upon early Egyptian research into Thaumic Energy and Harmonics. Indeed, sorcerers travelled to Alexandria just to gain access to the vast library of magickal lore amassed from all the nations of the known world at that time. It is probable that the Mouseion was the world's first Order of Sorcery, concerning which Zenodotus of Ephesus wrote his treatise on the "conjunction of energies by sorcerers of one mind". The work of Archimedes and Hero in combining sorcery with mechanics and technology far exceeded those designs of the earliest Egyptians, for the first time creating true sorcerous automata.

Mathematics

Alexandrian mathematicians concerned themselves for the most part with geometry, but we know of some researches specific to number theory. Prime numbers were a source of fascination from the time of the Pythagoreans onwards. Eratosthenes the Librarian dabbled in numbers along with everything else, and is reported to have invented the "sieve", a method for finding new ones. Euclid also was known to have studied this tricky subject. Eudoxis of Cnidus, Euclid's pupil, probably worked out of Alexandria, and is known for developing an early method of integration, studied the uses of proportions for problem solving, and contributed various formulas for measuring three dimensional figures. Pappus, a fourth century AD scholar, was one of the last of the Greek mathematicians and concentrated on large numbers and constructions in semicircles, and he was also an important transmitter into European culture of astrology gleaned from eastern sources. Theon and his daughter Hypatia also continued work in astronomy, geometry, and mathematics, commenting on their predecessors, but none of their works survive.

Astronomy

Astronomy was not merely the projection of three-dimensional geometry into a fourth, time, although this is how many Greek scientists classified it. The movements of the stars and sun were essential for determining terrestrial positions, since they provided universal points of reference. In Egypt, this was particularly vital for property rights, because the yearly inundation of the river Nile often altered physical landmarks and boundaries between fields. For Alexandria, whose lifeblood was export of grain and papyrus to the rest of the Mediterranean, developments in astronomy allowed sailors to do away with consultation of oracles, and to risk year-round navigation out of sight of the coast. Earlier Greek astronomers had concentrated on theoretical models of the universe; Alexandrians now took up the task of detailed observations and mathematical systems to develop and buttress existing ideas.

Maps of Heaven

Eratosthenes, the versatile third librarian, amassed a poetic catalog of 44 constellations complete with background myths, as well as a list of 475 fixed stars. Hipparchus was credited with inventing longitude and latitude, importing the 360-degree circular system from Babylonia, calculating the length of a year to within six minutes accuracy, amassing sky-chart of constellations and stars, and speculated that stars might have both births and deaths.

Schemes of the Universe

Aristarchus applied Alexandrian trigonometry to estimate the distances and sizes of the sun and moon, and also postulated a heliocentric universe. Hipparchus of Bithynia, during the reign of Ptolemy VII, discovered and measured the procession of the equinoxes, the size and trajectory of the sun, and the moon's path. 300 years later Ptolemy (no known relation to royalty) worked out mathematically his elegant system of epicycles to support the geocentric, Aristotelian view, and wrote a treatise on astrology, both of which were to become the medieval paradigm.

Geometry

The Alexandrians compiled and set down many of the geometric principles of earlier Greek mathematicians, and also had access to Babylonian and Egyptian knowledge on that subject. This is one of the areas in which the Mouseion excelled, producing its share of great geometers, right from its inception. Demetrius of Phaleron is said to have invited the scholar Euclid to Alexandria, and his Elements are well-known to be the foundation of geometry for many centuries. His successors, notably Apollonius of the second century BC, carried on his research in conics, as did Hipparchus in the second century AD. Archimedes is credited with the discovery of pi.

Eratosthenes and Spherical Geometry: Calculating the Earth's circumference

The third librarian of Alexandria, Eratosthenes (275-194 BC), calculated the circumference of the earth to within 1%, based on the measured distance from Aswan to Alexandria and the fraction of the whole arc determined by differing shadow-lengths at noon in those two locations. He further suggested that the seas were connected, that Africa might be circumnavigated, and that India could be reached by sailing westward from Spain. Finally, probably drawing on Egyptian and Near Eastern observations, he deduced the length of the year to 365 1/4 days and first suggested the idea of adding a "leap day" every four years.

Mechanics: Applied Science

Archimedes was one of the early Alexandria-affiliated scholars to apply geometers' and astronomers' theories of motion to mechanical devices. Among his discoveries were the lever and - as an extension of the same principle - the "Archimedes screw," a handcranked device for lifting water. He also figures in the tale of the scientist arising from his tub with the cry of "Eureka" after discovering that water is displaced by physical objects immersed in it.
Hydraulics was an Alexandria-born science which was the principle behind Hero's Pneumatics, a long work detailing many machines and "robots" simulating human actions. The distinction between practical and fanciful probably did not occur to him in his thought-experiments, which included statues that poured libations, mixed drinks, drank, and sang (via compressed air). He also invented a windmill-driven pipe organ, a steam boiler which was later adapted for Roman baths, a self-trimming lamp, and the candelaria, in which the heat of candle-flames caused a hoop from which were suspended small figures to spin.

Medicine

The study of anatomy, tracing its roots to Aristotle, was conducted extensively by many Alexandrians, who may have taken advantage both of the zoological gardens for animal specimens, and Egyptian burial practices and craft for human anatomy. One of its first scholars, Herophilus, both collected and compiled the Hippocratic corpus, and embarked on studies of his own. He first distinguished the brain and nervous system as a unit, as well as the function of the heart, the circulation of blood, and probably several other anatomical features. His successor Eristratos concentrated on the digestive system and the effects of nutrition, and postulated that nutrition as well as nerves and brain influenced mental diseases. Finally, in the second century AD, Galen drew upon Alexandria's vast researches and his own investigations to compile fifteen books on anatomy and the art of medicine.