The Library of Alexandria
The Ptolemies try to collect every book in the world in one building.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 554 years
- Known to
- ± 20 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
Founded around 285 BCE alongside the Museum, a state-funded research institution, the Library aimed at universality — ships docking at Alexandria were searched for books to copy. It housed perhaps hundreds of thousands of scrolls and employed Euclid, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus and Callimachus, who produced the first library catalogue. It was not destroyed in one dramatic fire but declined over centuries through funding cuts, purges of scholars and repeated damage. Neglect did most of the work.