page_title: Library of Pergamum
section_title: The Library of Pergamum
hierarchical_section_title: Library of Pergamum / The Library of Pergamum
caption_attribution_description: English: library of pergamon before excavation
context_page_description: The Library of Pergamum in Pergamum, Turkey, was one of the most important libraries in the ancient world.
context_section_description: Pergamum was home to a library said to house approximately 200,000 volumes, according to the writings of Plutarch. Built by Eumenes II between 220 and 159 BC and situated at the northern end of the Acropolis, it became one of the most important libraries in the ancient world. The cultured Pergamene rulers built up the library to be second only to the Great Library at Alexandria. Flavia Melitene, who was a distinguished citizen of Pergamum and wife of a town councillor, was instrumental in supplying the library. She also presented a statue of Hadrian to the library as a gift. It is known that a certain Artemon was employed in the library during the second century B.C. though his personification is obscure. No index or catalog of the holdings at Pergamum exists today, making it impossible to know the true size or scope of this collection.
  The library consisted of four rooms, the largest of which was the main reading room (44.5 feet x 50 feet), lined with many shelves. An empty space of approximately 50 centimetres (20 in) was left between the outer walls and the shelves to allow for air circulation, intending to prevent the library from becoming overly humid in the warm climate of Anatolia, an early attempt at library preservation. A 3-meter (10 foot) statue of Athena, modeled after her statue in the Parthenon, stood in the main reading room.
  Manuscripts were written on parchment, rolled, and then stored on the shelves. In fact, the word "parchment" itself is derived from Pergamum (via the Latin pergamenum and the French parchemin). Pergamum was a thriving center of parchment production during the Hellenistic period. The city so dominated the trade that a legend later arose indicating that parchment had been invented in Pergamon to replace the use of papyrus, which had become monopolized by the rival city of Alexandria. This however is a myth; parchment had been in use in Anatolia and elsewhere long before the rise of Pergamon. Parchment reduced the Roman Empire's dependency on Egyptian papyrus and allowed for the increased dissemination of knowledge throughout Europe and Asia.
caption: Library of Pergamum before excavation, 1885
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