The Library of Alexandria
Subtitle: a cultural crossroads of the ancient world : proceedings of the second Polis Institute Interdisciplinary Conference
By: edited by Christophe Rico and Anca Dan
Contributors: Polis - The Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities. Interdisciplinary Conference
Publisher: Polis Institute Press
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Jerusalem
Language: eng
Number of pages: 409
ISBN-13: 9789657698105
Subjects: Congresses; Libraries; History; Intellectual life; Classical Civilization; Alexandrian Library
Description: Created and developed by the Ptolemaic kings, the Library of Alexandria was regarded as the world's main center of scholarship from the 3rd century BC until at least the reign of Cleopatra (48-30 BC). The dream to establish a gigantic library that could assemble all known texts of the Hellenistic period, the outstanding achievements of the scholars who worked inside its walls, and, finally, the mysteries surrounding its disappearance, have bestowed an almost mythic status on this monumental library.  Where was the Royal Library exactly located? What kind of texts were kept in that library? To what extent did the Library of Alexandria become a meeting point for different languages and cultures? Should we distinguish between the Museum and the Library from an institutional point of view? Were the book collections housed in separate buildings? What caused the destruction of those collections and how much was lost? Why do some ancient authors remain silent about the Library's disappearance?   Polis--The Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities held an international conference to seek answers to these question. The 2015 conference on the Library of Alexandria gathered historians, archaeologists, and linguists, as well as specialists on the Septuagint and on Greek literature. This book presents the proceedings of the interdisciplinary conference.
Notes: On January 8 and 9, 2015, the Polis Institute held an international conference on the Library of Alexandria that gathered philologists, historians as well as specialists of the Septuagint and of Greek literature.

Title also in Greek on title page.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [366]-409) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: La Bibliothéque d'Alexandrie: questions de topographie et d'architecture / Hélène Fragaki; title: The library and the Septuagint: between representations and reality / Sylvie Honigman; title: The Egyptian background of the Septuagint / Jan Joosten; title: Josephus and Aristeas' letter: a comparison / Étienne Nodet; title: Words, words, words: Onomastica and onomastic technique in Alexandrian poetry / Jane L. Lightfoot; title: Apollonios de Rhodes et Ératosthène de Cyrène: bibliothécaires et poètes à Alexandrie / Christophe Cusset; title: The first of the Bêta: notes on Erathosthenes' invention of geography / Anca Dan; title: Strabo's choice of sources as a clue to the availability of texts in this time / Daniela Dueck; title: Quelques notes sur la signification historique du silence philonein à propos de la Biblioghèque d'Alexandrie / Emmanuel Friedheim; title: "Read after burning": the end of the Library of Alexandria according to Plutarch (Caesar 49) / Eran Amagor; title: The destruction  of the Library of Alexandria: a reassessment / Christophe Rico.