Libraries in the ancient world
By: Lionel Casson.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New Haven, USA
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 177
Copyright date: 2001
Subjects: Libraries -- History -- To 400
First sentence: It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia, lands abundantly watered by great rivers, that civilization arose.
Description: "This 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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: label: Preface
title: ix; label: Maps
title: xi, xii; label: 1. The beginnings : the ancient Near East
title: 1; label: 2. The beginnings : Greece
title: 17; label: 3. The library of Alexandria
title: 31; label: 4. The growth of libraries
title: 48; label: 5. The beginnings : Rome
title: 61; label: 6. Libraries of the Roman Empire : the city of Rome
title: 80; label: 7. Libraries of the Roman Empire : outside the city of Rome
title: 109; label: 8. From roll to codex
title: 124; label: 9. Toward the Middle Ages.
title: 136; label: Abbreviations
title: 147; label: Notes
title: 149; label: List of illustrations
title: 167; label: Index
title: 171