Libraries in the Ancient World

Rating:
Summary: Readable and Concise
Review: Brisk, compact study of books and libraries from ancient Mesopotamia, through Greece and Rome, to the threshold of the medieval era. I found the discussion of the Library of Alexandria particularly interesting. Another reviewer complained that some maps were mislabeled, but in my copy (a second edition) they're okay. If you're interested in books, writing, and the collection and study of texts, I think you'll enjoy this readable, unpretentious little book.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderfully Concise Intro to Ancient Texts and Libraries
Review: Great! to be concise (as the book was). A very informative and detailed description of early libraries and, to an extent, their role in the ancient world. This work is filled with important facts regarding the institutions we now call libraries. Casson also puts his well researched data into the context of time and place of the Ancient World. It is amazing to learn when and where certain libarary conventions we take for granted today, come from. This book is a great starting point for further exploration of early libraries or libraries in general. It is also sufficient by itself as a quick survey of the first 1000 years of libraries and texts.

Casson also keeps the work interesting by including the derivation of certain words such as "ostracism" and "parchement". He also gives an important sense of how scrolls and tablets were used in ancient times and by whom.

This book would probably not be adequate for a library scholar but I did not think it was intended as such. For the other 98% of us with deep interests in Classical history, antiquity, and libaries in general, it is a wonderful work and well written.

Rating:
Summary: It's all in one small, readable book
Review: I picked up this gem of a book a week or two ago, and it's so short and readable that you can finish it pretty quickly. I agree with the previous reviewer: this book could have been unbearably boring, but Casson enlivens his subject, and you really do learn a lot about the architecture, scope and content of ancient libraries, beginning with those found in ancient Mesopotamia and continuing up until that most ambitious and learned of monks, Cassiodorus, founded his monastery--Vivarium--with its many books in 551 A.D.

There is everything of importance in between, including the history of the most magnificent of libraries--the Library of Alexandria--and the lesser known but very important library in Pergamum. Though this book is about libraries, you can't help learning about literacy, writing, the difference between papyrus and parchment, and the rise of the codex.

This is an invaluable little book that contains within its pages a collection of information that is rarely found between two covers (i.e. it's usually scattered among various books). For this service, Casson deserves praise.

Rating:
Summary: Concise Study of Ancient Libraries, Books & Literacy
Review: In "Libraries in the Ancient World", author Lionel Casson traces the history of libraries from the 3rd millennium B.C. through the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. The libraries discussed are those in the Mediterranean and Near East regions, from which our modern Western library systems ultimately derived. This book includes chapters on the oldest known libraries in the ancient Near East, the Greek libraries in which we begin to see the roots of our own, the extraordinary Library of Alexandria in Egypt, the growth of libraries beginning in the third century B.C., the first truly public libraries in Rome and its empire, the evolution from rolls to codices as the preferred literary medium, and the rise of monasteries as literary repositories in late antiquity. As Casson describes these ancient libraries, he also discusses literacy, publishing, bookmaking, and bibliomania in the ancient world, thereby providing a glimpse into the social history of these cultures from the unusual perspective of their literary values. Through ancient literature, itself, and through archeological finds, Casson is able to piece together a reasonably detailed picture of what early libraries looked like, how they functioned, and whom they served. I recommend "Libraries in the Ancient World" to anyone interested in ancient history or the history of books or literacy. This is a small, easily absorbed volume packed with fascinating facts and insights into the role and reverence of books in the ancient world.

Rating:
Summary: Library Fines Were Not 10 Cents Per Day
Review: In less than 150 pages, Lionel Casson has written a history of libraries of the ancient world that is captivating to read. Most of the chapters are about the libraries of the Classical World from the library of Aristotle to the library of Alexandria to the libraries of Rome to the libraries of the far parts of the Empire. The reader will find out how libraries gained books, who read them, and how they were maintained. There are additional chapters on the rise of libraries in the ancient Near East, the development of the codex, and libraries after the fall of Rome.

What makes this book captivating is that each chapter is filled with anecdotes. For example, a tablet from Uruk warns that anyone who fears Anu and Antu will return the tablet to the owner the same day. In ancient times library fines were not just 10 cents per day.

Rating:
Summary: In search of the roots of modern libraries.
Review: In this amazingly complete 150-page volume, renowned author Lionel Casson, takes us on a wonderful journey of discovery of the role of libraries in the ancient world, from their origins in the Near East in 3000 BC through their evolution until the fall of Roman Byzantium in 1453 AD.
Written in a lively prose, this well-researched, fact-filled book explains when, where, why, and how the forerunners of today's modern libraries were created and developed, treating in detail topics such as:
*How did they acquire their materials?
*How were they physically organized?
*Which, if any, system of cataloguing they used?
*Who had access to their holdings?
*How they solved problems like theft and damage of their collections?
*What was their connection with the rise and fall of education?
The author also presents a concise account of the history of books from clay tablet to papyrus roll to parchment codex to our modern day volumes. He shares fascinating insights into the development of writing and the evolution of writing technology, including:
*What was the purpose of writing?
*Which topics were more commonly written about?
*Which materials were used and why?
*Who did the writing?
The best part of this book is the entertaining and charming way in which the author illustrates his exposition. By employing captivating anecdotes from sources contemporary to the facts, literary sources that have survived to this day, and archaeological finds combined with modern technology that make possible the reconstruction of ancient library buildings, he makes what would otherwise be a very boring topic feel like a true adventure.
As a bonus, the book also explains where many modern words related to libraries and books come from, and includes many drawings and pictures, which perfectly illustrate the points being made, and a thorough bibliography that is an excellent starting point for further exploration.
If you are at all interested in the history of writing, books, and libraries this pleasurable and compact volume is definitely a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Small, but complete
Review: In this delightful little book, Professor Lionel Casson traces the history of libraries from the archives of ancient Mesopotamia, through the extensive libraries of classical Greece, the Hellenistic kingdoms, and on to those of Rome, from its beginning to its final fall. Accompanying this, the author gives the history of literacy, and the evolution of writing technology--from the clay tablets of Sumer, through papyrus scrolls, to parchment codices.

For such a small work, this book is remarkably complete. The author covers literacy, the technology of book making, the architecture of libraries, the physical organization of the books, how the libraries were used, who had access to them, and so much more. I really enjoyed this book, and think that you will too!

Rating:
Summary: Archeological evidence well presented
Review: Libraries in the ancient World is a honest introduction to the argument of book collection and text transmission in the ancient classical and pre-classical world.

It tells the story of ancient libraries from their very beginning (the royal libraries of the Ancient Near East) down to the first Christian monastic institutions of the Middle Age, focusing on the topic of library, both as building and institution.
As far as the analysis of archaeological data is involved, Casson is able to build a strong argument with detail and precision of analysis: he reviews all the relevant evidence and is able to balance and present the different hypotheses and the sources of his study.
Exposition is far weaker when it comes to take into consideration the extant literary testimonies and appraise the place of libraries in the larger context of literacy and books in the Greek and Roman Civilization.

Graeco-Roman Philology is a fascinating field, since it is open to almost unending surprises.
It is also a field that can command enormous appeal as well as almost infinite boredom, depending on how it is presented. This is due to the distance - both temporal and cultural - from our world and that society.
It is natural that when we think about a library, a bookshop, a writer, a book - we ask for the help of everyday experience. A bookstore is a bookstore. A book a book... like in everyday experience. .
And yet, under the surface of apparent similarity, we come to discover a far different truth.

This truth is unendingly announcing the miracle of historical, literary, medical, philosophical, ... texts, most of them dating back about 2500 years that have been able to reach us in adventurous and often incredible ways.
The strong archaeological approach, is probably responsible for the difficulty to present is a comprehensive analysis of libraries, books, literacy in the larger context of a far different society and the problems of text transmission in an age still far from Gutenberg.

Ancient World was different from our own (and different as well the Latin World from the Greek)
Just to name some differences that are not considered in the exposition:
- Problems in reading and spelling - contrary to our books, the ancient rolls and codices were written in almost exclusively in capital letters, and with no spacing between words. This presented insurmountable difficulties for people with low literacy and asked for far better knowledge of language and language skills than we have today. Besides it made text corruption far easier.
- Reading aloud - today reading conveys the idea of a quiet space and of silence. Actually one of the most astonishing differences between us and them is signalled by Augustine, when he writes in the "Confessions" that his master Ambrose (bishop of Milan) was capable to read "without emitting any sound nor moving the tongue".... that is: reading in the classical times consisted only in reading aloud... in turn the act of making a copy of a text is to be more properly described as being dictated, and libraries were not the silent sanctuaries we know today, but rather different noisy places more similar probably to modern Koranic schools.
- Spreading of illiteracy. In this, Greek and Latin world were probably different. In the west, literacy resented early of a progressive decline, that coupled with the passage from roll to codex created a momentous phenomenon of deterioration, especially in some fields (not just many technical and scientific books were lost, but as well many less read writers (it is funny that a technical innovation ended speeding the process of decadence). This phenomenon of progressive narrowing of scope was further aggravated by the spreading of illiteracy during the early Middle Age: in many mosaics of this period painters end up to represent books as closed, both because unable themselves to write and because people around them are no more able to read. Illiteracy, difficulty in text reading, all coupled with a worsening of Latin and Greek knowledge (specially in the West), had big impact on the transmission of texts.

There is also a second trait of the account I do not agree.
This is the over-simplification according to which we have a Greek and Latin Culture in total opposition to other "barbarian" (i.e. of lesser species) cultures, that contributed more or less to the decline into the Middle ages.
Actually this is not so.
And especially so for the main opposition presented: that between Greek Byzantine Empire and "Eastern" cultures.
There's an implicit assumption (sometimes annoyingly made explicit) according to which Arabs erased all sign of Greek culture in the newly conquered lands - a newly presented argument for a learned and cultured West versus inferior and unsophisticated East.
Actually there are strong indications this is far from correct and that an osmosis between Greek culture and "Eastern" cultures was well established at least since the reign of emperor Justinian. Not only does the contemporary historiographer Agatia tell us the story about translations into Persian commissioned by Corsoe I, king of Persia (Historiae, B28.1), but the same king did give sanctuary to many philosophers of the School of Athens, after this pagan institution was forcibly closed by order of the emperor.
As for the Arabs, since the very beginning of their rule, there was a momentous activity of translation (at least three great waves are recorded of this phenomenon) from Greek to Arab (often through Syriac) that in turn caused a new osmosis from Arabic lands to the Byzanthine empire since the IX century and from Arab Spain and Sicily to the Latin West as far as XII Century, well before the fall of Byzantium and the looming of European Renaissance (the Salernitan School, St Tomas Aquinas,...).
We must thank all these Arab scribes, philosophers, booksellers, translators and enlightened rulers if we can enjoy today so much of the Greek literature.

One of my passion (if you did not guess already) is the history of the transmission of books - specially in the larger context of classical western culture.
If anyone does share this interest, could be interested in a few books I had the chance to read in the past about this argument:
- "The Vanished Library" by Luciano Canfora (possibly the most authoritative story of the Royal Library in Alexandria),
- "Scribes and Scholars" by L.D. Reynold & N.G. Wilson, still unsurpassed introduction to classical philology. One of the few books in which academic and poetical are not incompatible adjectives
- "Greek Thought and Arabic Culture" by Dimitri Gutas, a very interesting survey of the continuous exchanges from East to West and back from the rise of the Persian Empire to the advent of Islamism
- "A History of Reading" by Alberto Manguel, brilliant and entertaining, written by a disciple - and in the dense style -of Borges
- "A Gentle Madness.Bibliophiles Bibliomanes and the Eternal passion for books" by Basbanes, a mine of anecdotes that is both fascinating and witty

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: The New York Times gave this book a huge rave, so yesterday I scampered just as fast as I could to buy two (count 'em -- 2!) copies. But what a disappointment it is! How dispiriting!

Yes, it tells about the libraries and that's interesting. It tells about the birth and infancy of writing and that's fascinating, of course. It shows library architecture and gives plenty of historical insights. That's all absolutely great! I'm just a general reader, not a scholar at all, but I found a true shiny nugget every couple of pages.

But it seems the book wasn't edited. Jeezum crow! The very first things I saw were two maps of the Graeco-Roman world, the western part labelled "the east" and the eastern part labelled "the west" (pages xi, xii). Huh? How come? Or maybe the book intends at last to throw off the old oppressive grammar. For example: if a name ends in "s," then let's always form its possessive with an apostrophe only --"Pappus' incumbency," "Dionysius' background." And, hey! Let's relax the rules about the subject and object of a sentence -- now they can sometimes disagree in number: "They spent their lifetime in it." (All these on page 95.)

Am I a pedant merely? Maybe. But trivial errors of this kind -- and there are tons of 'em -- made me distrust the book's details and made the book disappointing and difficult to read.

Rating:
Summary: Libraries Before Books
Review: There were libraries before there were books. A fascinating survey, _Libraries in the Ancient World_ (Yale University Press) by Lionel Casson, explains how the libraries were similar and different from our own, and how they managed without printing and without books as we know them. The similarities are reassuring and often delightful. We suspect there were Egyptian libraries, but we have never found one, because there are no masses of papyrus documents; such collections may have been lost in fires. The Sumerians, however, had written records were in cuneiform letters, pressed into clay. Some of the collections of these tablets offered the privilege of borrowing, and librarians then seem to have been bothered by two of the same problems that beset librarians now, theft and damage. Tablets bore warnings or curses calling upon the services of the local gods: "Whoever removes the tablet... may Ashur and Ninlil, angered and grim, cast him down, erase his name, his seed, in the land", "He who carries it off, may Adad and Shala carry him off!", and "Who rubs out the text, Marduk will look upon him with anger."

It was the Greeks who instituted libraries with aims similar to our own, shelves full of books on a wide range of subjects, available to readers who could come in and consult them. There was a demand for books, and by the fourth century BCE, bookselling was a flourishing industry. The booksellers probably employed scribes to turn out copies of works. There were no such things as royalties or author's rights. Rome conquered all, but Greece held intellectual sway over the Romans, who continued the library tradition. Roman libraries had bookshelves of a particular type set into the walls, and archeologists can spot the tell-tale imprint of the bookshelves and thereby identify a chamber as a library. Independent public libraries faded as the libraries became incorporated, surprisingly, into other structures, the baths. Here they served as part of a recreational and cultural center. Casson ends his story with the codex and the great monastic libraries. The codex is very much like a modern book, not a scroll, but a mass of pages sewn together with covers (perhaps of wood). It was less bulky (both sides of the paper being used) and could be held in one hand, with the other hand taking notes. It took a long time for the scrolls to die out, except among the Christians who used codices for their scriptures, possibly because of the pagan association to scrolls.

Casson, a Professor Emeritus of Classics, has gathered together an important tale not just of libraries but of reading and publishing. It is the first full study of libraries in the ancient world. If you love libraries and books, this is a fine book for learning about their earliest foundations.