The Great Library of Alexandria: The Lost History of 700,000 Books | Boring History For Sleep скачать в хорошем качестве

The Great Library of Alexandria: The Lost History of 700,000 Books | Boring History For Sleep

What really happened to the Library of Alexandria? Dive into the greatest intellectual loss in history as we explore the legendary Mouseion, the massive collection of 700,000 scrolls, and the scholars like Euclid and Eratosthenes who changed the world from within its marble halls. Picture yourself in Alexandria in 280 BCE —a city of unprecedented ambition. This wasn't just a library; the Mouseion was a research institute where scholars could live and work, completely supported by the royal treasury. Their only job was to think, study, and produce knowledge. Inside the Ancient World's Cathedral of Knowledge: A Staggering Collection: The library attempted to gather every book ever written. Though estimates vary, some sources claim the collection reached 700,000 scrolls. The Acquisition Hunt: The Ptolemies were obsessed with gathering texts. They famously paid a king's ransom to keep the original manuscripts of the great Athenian playwrights. The Royal Decree: A systematic royal decree required that any ship docking in Alexandria’s harbor had to surrender all books on board. Officials would confiscate the originals and return only the copies. The Scholars: This was the home of genius. Euclid, whose Elements became the standard geometry textbook for over two thousand years, worked here. Eratosthenes used the library's knowledge to calculate the circumference of the Earth with astonishing accuracy. The physician Herophilos pioneered human dissection and determined the brain was the center of intelligence. The Slow Fade of a Legend: The library did not disappear in one single catastrophe. Discover the true history of its long, slow demise: The Body Blow: In 145 BCE, Ptolemy the Eighth expelled foreign scholars from Alexandria, scattering the intellectual community that sustained the library. The Roman Fire: The library's collection suffered significant damage in 48 BCE when Julius Caesar ordered the Egyptian fleet burned in the harbor, causing the fire to spread to nearby buildings and possibly the collection itself. The End of Pagan Learning: The daughter library at the Serapeum, the last stronghold of classical learning, was sacked by a mob of Christians in 391 CE. Hypatia's Murder: The city's greatest female scholar, the philosopher Hypatia, was brutally murdered in 415 CE, driving remaining scholars away. We explain why the dramatic tale of Caliph Omar burning the books in the 7th century is a myth that appeared centuries after the library was already gone.