93 "Alexandria, and you have sealed up articles of 66 every sort, which are to be found in Alexandria.-Concerning those things which may be "useful to you, I presume to say nothing but 66 some of those which are of no service to you, may be suitable to me."-Amrou replied:"And what is it you want?" "The philo"sophical books" (said he.) "This" (rejoined Amrou)" is a request, upon which I cannot "decide."-He accordingly wrote to the Calif Omar, whose well known answer was dictated by the ignorance of a fanatic. "If" (replied he) "these writings of the Greeks agree with "the Koran, or Book of God, they are useless "and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be de"stroyed."-The sentence of destruction was executed with blind obedience: the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such was their incredible number, that six months were barely sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel'. § 7. LIBRARIES OF THE GREEKS. Of Grecian Literature or History we have no authentic information, prior to the wars of 'Gibbon's Decl. and Fall, vol. ix. 440. The elegant historian has endeavoured to disprove the positive account given by Thebes and Troy: it would therefore be fruitless to seek for books in that nation before those events. The Lacedæmonians had no books: they expressed their meaning so concisely, that writing was considered a superfluous accomplishment. LIBRARY AT ATHENS FOUNDED BY PISISTRATUS. At Athens, on the contrary, the sciences and literature were diligently cultivated. Pisistratus, the tyrant, is said to have been the first who established a Library in that city, [B. c. cir. 562.] and deposited therein, the works of Homer, which he had collected with great difficulty, and at a very considerable expense. Afterwards the Athenians themselves, with great care and pains, increased their number: all these books however were seized and carried into Persia by Xerxes, when he obtained possession Ab'ulfaragius, by negative arguments. It should however be considered that the positive evidence of an historian, of such unquestionable credit as Ab'ulfaragius is, cannot be set aside by an argument merely negative. His references (it has well been observed) to Aulus Gellius, (l. 6. c. 17.) Ammianus Marcellinus, (1. 22. c. 15.) and Orosius, (1, 6. c. 15.) are foreign from the purpose: for these writers only refer to the destruction of the Alexandrian Library in the time of Julius Cæsar, which has been noticed in the preceding pages; after which (as already stated) it was renovated and continued to flourish until its utter destruction by the Saracens.-Enfield's Hist. of Phil. vol. ii. p. 227, note. of Athens, and burned the whole of the city except the citadel: but they were subsequently restored to the Athenians by Seleucus Nicanor king of Syria'. The Emperor Adrian is recorded by Pausanias to have founded a Library at Athens2. On the invasion of the Roman Empire by the Goths, A. D. 260, Greece was ravaged, and in the sack of Athens, they had collected all the libraries, and were on the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of antient learning, had not one of their chiefs (possessed of more refined policy than his brethren) dissuaded them from the design; by the profound observation, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books, they would never apply themselves to the study of arms3. 'Aul, Gell. lib. 6. c. 17. Athenæi Deipnosoph. lib. 1. c. 4. -Athenæus has given us a catalogue of illustrious men, who were eminent for their collections. Among these, beside Pisistratus, he mentions Polycrates of Samos, Euclid the Athenian, Nicocrates of Cyprus, Euripides, and Aristotle. It is rather singular, that he has not mentioned Plato, who is known to have been possessed with the Bibliomania, and to have purchased books at an immense price. Aul. Gell. lib. 2. c. 17. 2 Pausan. in Atticis. lib. 1. c. 18. sub fine. 3 Zonaras, lib. 12. p. 635. Gibbon (vol. i. p. 434.) suspects this circumstance to be the fanciful conceit of a sophist. Zonaras, however, states it as a fact, which surely he would not have done, had not the event really taken place in the manner § 8. LIBRARY OF PERGAMUS. Next to the Alexandrian Library, that of Pergamus was the most conspicuous: according to Plutarch, it comprised two hundred thousand volumes'. It was founded, and successively enriched by the Eumenes, kings of Pergamus, all of whom were zealous promoters of the arts; and to one of whom we are indebted for the invention of parchment, Charta Pergamena3.The celebrated Attalus (whose wealth became proverbial among the Romans) surpassed all his predecessors in magnificence: after their example, he appropriated part of his treasures to the purchase of the principal works of his age. The Pergamean Library was given by Mark Antony he has related it.-The Libraries and Schools of Athens sustained great injury during the incursions of the Goths at the close of the fourth century: they however survived that hazardous period, and continued to flourish till after the time of Justinian. Enfield's Hist. of Philos. vol. ii. p. 80. 1 Plutarch in Anton. (Vit. vol. v. p. 125.) Strabo, lib. 13. tom. 2. p. 895. (ed. Oxon.) Pliny relates from Varro, that a dispute having arisen between one of the Ptolemies king of Egypt, and Eumenes king of Pergamus, the former refused to allow the exportation of Egyptian paper; in consequence of which Eumenes invented parchment, and ordered it to be manufactured at Pergamus. Nat. Hist. lib. 13. c. 11. The claim of Eumenes to the invention of Parchment has been questioned:-see, however, this subject noticed, infra, p. 46, 47. to Cleopatra, for the foundation of a new Library at Alexandria, as already noticed'. Vitruvius makes honourable mention of both these Libraries'. § 9. LIBRARIES of Rome. If the antient Greeks had but few books, the antient Romans were possessed of a still smaller number: incessantly occupied by military expeditions, by defensive wars, and by the aggrandizement of their empire, that warlike people had but little leisure for the cultivation of Literature. It was not, until they had accomplished the conquest of Greece, that a taste for the arts, sciences, and books, was diffused among the Romans: the consequence of that event was, a more frequent intercourse with the Greeks; whose literature and arts were well adapted to soften the ruggedness of character and of manners, which distinguished those conquerors of the world. § 10. FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARY, FOUNDED BY Vide note 2. p. x. supra. 2 Tertull. Apol. c. 18. Vitruvius, lib. 7. in præf. Reges Attalici (says he) magnis philologia dulcedinibus inducti, cum egregiam Bibliothecam Pergami ad communem delectationem instituissent; tunc item Ptolemæus, infinito zelo cupiditatisque incitatus studio, non minoribus industriis ad eundem modum contenderat Alexandriæ comparare. p. 190. (Argent. 1807.) |