Ancient Civilization - History, Building Types - General & Miscellaneous Architecture, Libraries - General & Miscellaneous, Libraries - History, General Ancient History, Archaeology - General & Miscellaneous

Libraries in the Ancient World

Name: Libraries in the Ancient World
Author: Lionel Casson
ISBN: 9780300097214

by Lionel Casson

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Overview

This delightful book tells the story of ancient libraries from their very beginnings, when "books" were clay tablets and writing was a new phenomenon. Renowned classicist Lionel Casson takes us on a lively tour, from the royal libraries of the most ancient Near East, through the private and public libraries of Greece and Rome, down to the first Christian monastic libraries. To the founders of the first public libraries of the Greek world goes the credit for creating the prototype of today's library buildings and the science of organizing books in them.

Casson recounts the development of ancient library buildings, systems, holdings, and patrons, addressing questions on a wide variety of topics, such as:

What was the connection between the rise in education and literacy and the growth of libraries?
Who contributed to the early development of public libraries, especially the great library at Alexandria?
What did ancient libraries include in their holdings?
How did ancient libraries acquire books?
What was the nature of publishing in the Greek and Roman world?
How did different types of users (royalty, scholars, religious figures) and different kinds of "books" (tablets, scrolls, codices) affect library arrangements?
How did Christianity transform the nature of library holdings?

Just as a library yields unexpected treasures to a meandering browser, this entertaining book offers to its perusers the surprising history of the rise and development of ancient libraries-a fascinating story never told before.

A Selection of The Readers' Subscription.

Synopsis

In this paperbound reprint of a 2001 book, Casson (emeritus, classics, New York U.) chronicles the history of libraries from the storage of clay tablets in the ancient Near East to the Middle Ages. He examines the gathering of collections of writings, the means used to store them, the sponsorship of libraries by emperors and other notables, and the layout of library buildings. The text revolves around the period of the Roman Empire and the city of Rome. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Preservation - Garry Wills

Anyone interested in library architecture, procedures, or financing will find this book rewarding. So, in fact, will anyone just interested in books.

About the Author, Lionel Casson

Lionel Casson is Professor Emeritus of Classics, New York University, and the author of Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World as well as many other books on ancient maritime history and ancient travel.

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Editorials

Garry Wills

Anyone interested in library architecture, procedures, or financing will find this book rewarding. So, in fact, will anyone just interested in books.
—Preservation

Virginia Quarterly Review

This wonderful book. . .considers from a most apt vantage point the nature of education and culture.

Publishers Weekly

This, according to the author (Travel in the Ancient World; etc.), "is the first full-scale study of libraries in the ancient world." This alone will make the book very attractive to a readership well beyond those with professional interests in the ancient world. And yet the book's title sells its contents short since it is really about a great deal more than the curatorship of the written word through its very specialized beginnings in the Near East c. 3000 B. C. until the collapse of cities in the Western Roman world. Casson's book is not limited to where and when important libraries existed; it offers a social history transcending the idea of a library as we know it. Casson discusses literacy in the ancient world; the techniques of production and the materials from which books were made (clay tablets in the oldest repositories in the Near East; papyrus and parchment in the West); trade in books; the centrality of libraries as the predecessors of modern universities and research institutions; the organization of Greco-Roman libraries, which continues, necessarily modified, in today's libraries; the differences and intersections among royal, private and public libraries; the kinds of books favored by libraries and even observations on the concept of the rare book in antiquity. Detailed consideration of the architectural elements of ancient libraries (what did these libraries look like? Where and how were books stored? How were reading rooms arranged?) makes the book as appealing to the archeologist as the bibliophile. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

To find an English-language work comparable to this one in content, size, and scope, one has to go all the way back to James Westfall Thompson's 1940 Ancient Libraries (Univ. of California. o.p.). Casson, a professor emeritus of classics at New York University and author of numerous books on ancient history, provides an overview of the development of libraries (and, to some extent, of writing, literacy, bookselling, and archives), starting with Egypt and Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C.E. and continuing through the periods of the political and cultural predominance of Greece and then Rome, ending around the fifth century C.E. Among the libraries featured are those of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, Alexandria, Pergamum, and the Forum of Trajan in Rome. Numerous other specific royal, temple, private, and public libraries are also mentioned. Drawing upon the scholarship of the last several decades, Casson describes, wherever possible, the acquisition, format, cataloging, arrangement, subjects, and use of the library materials and the staffing, architecture, and size of the libraries. He makes clear when the archaeological or literary evidence is scant or lacking. General readers will find this book informative and engaging. Scholars will also be interested in the 18 pages of notes at the end. Libraries in the Ancient World now supersedes Ancient Libraries and should be in library science and ancient history collections in public and academic libraries.--Thomas F. O'Connor, Manhattan Coll. Libs., Bronx, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.