The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World

by Luciano Canfora

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The Library of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the Ancient World, has haunted Western culture for over 2,000 years. The Ptolemaic kings of Egypt--successors of Alexander the Great--had a staggering ambition: to house all of the books ever written under one roof, and the story of the universal library and its destruction still has the power to move us. But what was the library, and where was it? Did it exist at all? Contemporary descriptions are vague and contradictory. The fate of the precious books themselves is a subject of endless speculation. Canfora resolves these puzzles in one of the most unusual books of classical history ever written. He recreates the world of Egypt and the Greeks in brief chapters that marry the craft of the novelist and the discipline of the historian. Anecdotes, conversations, and reconstructions give The Vanished Library the compulsion of an exotic tale, yet Canfora bases all of them on historical and literary sources, which he discusses with great panache. As the chilling conclusion to this elegant piece of historical detective work he establishes who burned the books. This volume has benefited from the collegial support of The Wake Forest University Studium.… (more)

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This is a clever reconstruction of the probable history of the scholarly community that we describe as the "Library at Alexandria" generally regarded as the focus of Hellenistic scholarly activity. There is a historical sketch of its provenance and a reasoned history of its survival until its likely dispersal and destruction. The Author has also provided a lengthy discussion of the various references to the library and the reasons why the various authors recorded the information they have passed to us. It is a clever and informative discussion. there is also discussion of the rivalry with the library at Pergamum. This book is definitely a keeper. (

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DinadansFriend | Sep 26, 2017 |

An immensely fascinating book if you get past the second chapter. Instead of trying a literary fiction or a pure biography, Mr. Canfora has opted to string together a number of anecdotes from various early sources to tell the story of the Library of Alexandria. Unfortunately as a reader you have to add a lot yourself. An introduction would have been nice or a small paragraph before each chapter that explains why the text is relevant to the famous library.

Even so, I would highly recommend this short book to anyone learning or teaching about the reality behind the legend of both the library and the city of Alexandria. (

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TheCriticalTimes | Feb 26, 2013 |

This is history in the form of investigative narrative. The author presents sixteen narratives about the Library of Alexandria constructed from classical sources including Homer, Plutarch and Diogenes. He goes on to present commentaries on sources of information about the Library ranging from Gibbon to a discussion of the archaeologists knowledge of the construction and plan of the library. The combination is both a fascinating and unique approach to the history of one of the wonders of the ancient world. (

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jwhenderson | Aug 13, 2012 |

A somewhat unusual history, in that it consists of a series of rather loosely connected episodes relating to the famous library of Alexandria, starting with a visit by Hecataeus of Abdera to the tomb of Rameses II and ending with the caliph Omar's command to burn the contents of the library on the grounds that if the books contradicted the book of the Prophet, they deserved to be destroyed, and if they were in accordance with the book of the Prophet, they were superfluous and therefore deserved to be destroyed. The final episode in the series, "The Dialogue of John Philoponus with the Emir Amrou Ibn el-Ass while Amrou prepared to burn the Library", could easily have been a story written by Borges. (

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jburlinson | Mar 21, 2010 |

Everything you ever wanted to know about the lost Library at Alexandria. A fascinating read. (

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Autodafe | Apr 11, 2008 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Canfora, Luciano	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Bruin, Leo de	Designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Llano Caelles, Xilberto	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Loftus, David	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Pluym, Els van der	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Ryle, Martin	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Hellenistic Culture and Society (7)

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Canonical title

The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1987 (Italian)

1989 (English: Ryle)

1990 (English: corrected translation)

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Alexandria, Egypt

Egypt

Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt

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Epigraph

Dedication

First words

During the reign of Ptolemy Soter, Hecataeus of Abdera visited Egypt.

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Destruction of the Library of Alexandria

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The Library of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the Ancient World, has haunted Western culture for over 2,000 years. The Ptolemaic kings of Egypt--successors of Alexander the Great--had a staggering ambition: to house all of the books ever written under one roof, and the story of the universal library and its destruction still has the power to move us. But what was the library, and where was it? Did it exist at all? Contemporary descriptions are vague and contradictory. The fate of the precious books themselves is a subject of endless speculation. Canfora resolves these puzzles in one of the most unusual books of classical history ever written. He recreates the world of Egypt and the Greeks in brief chapters that marry the craft of the novelist and the discipline of the historian. Anecdotes, conversations, and reconstructions give The Vanished Library the compulsion of an exotic tale, yet Canfora bases all of them on historical and literary sources, which he discusses with great panache. As the chilling conclusion to this elegant piece of historical detective work he establishes who burned the books. This volume has benefited from the collegial support of The Wake Forest University Studium.

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The Library of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the Ancient World, has haunted Western culture for over 2,000 years. The Ptolemaic kings of Egypt—successors of Alexander the Great—had a staggering ambition: to house all of the books ever written under one roof, and the story of the universal library and its destruction still has the power to move us.

But what was the library, and where was it? Did it exist at all? Contemporary descriptions are vague and contradictory. The fate of the precious books themselves is a subject of endless speculation.

Canfora resolves these puzzles in one of the most unusual books of classical history ever written. He recreates the world of Egypt and the Greeks in brief chapters that marry the craft of the novelist and the discipline of the historian. Anecdotes, conversations, and reconstructions give The Vanished Library the compulsion of an exotic tale, yet Canfora bases all of them on historical and literary sources, which he discusses with great panache. As the chilling conclusion to this elegant piece of historical detective work he establishes who burned the books.

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