The Vanished Library

Posted on 17 June 2018 by Luciano Canfora

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. Download The Vanished Library – kino-fada.fr This is farthan the story of the mysterious library at Alexandria, andthan merely a fascinating literary and historical detective story Herein one learns about such things as the competition between the libraries at Alexandria and Pergamum, and how the latter was forced to develop parchment technology which despite its apparent relative crudity produces adurable product The analysis of the fire which Caesar set, burning up 70,000 books which were apparently just commercial pr This is farthan the story of the mysterious library at Alexandria, andthan merely a fascinating literary and historical detective story Herein one learns about such things as the competition between the libraries at Alexandria and ...Luciano Canfora s book is well written and well researched, but his conclusion, that Muslims destroyed the great library of Alexandria, is mistaken Canfora does not take into account that the library was not talked about for three hundred years before the Muslim conquest of Egypt We also know that a Christian crowd destroyed Alexandria s second library located in the Temple of Serapus, and another Christian gang brutally killed Hypatia, the director of the great library There should be little Luciano Canfora s book is well written and well researched, but his conclusion, that Muslims destroyed the great library of Alexandria, is mistaken Canfora does not take into account that the library was not talked...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 sh 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 li...Sono rimasto un po sconcertato dalla lettura di questo libro dal quale ho imparato che la biblioteca di Ramsete non in realt esistita come sala e poco pi Che la biblioteca di Alessandria sia stata bruciata dagli Arabi ai tempi dell espansione dell Islam me lo dissero a scuola elementare, una ventina di anni prima dell uscita di questo libro nel 1986 Sconcertante l uso disinvolto di episodi probabilmente mai avvenuti, come il dialogo tra l emiro Amr e Giovanni Filopono che probabilmente Sono rimasto un po sconcertato dalla lettura di questo libro dal quale ho imparato che la biblioteca di Ramsete non in realt esistita come sala e poco pi Che la biblioteca di Alessandria sia stata bruciata dagli Arabi ai tempi dell espansione dell Islam me lo dissero a scuola elementare, una ventina di anni prima dell uscita di questo libro nel 1986 Sconcertante l uso disinvolto di episodi probabilmente mai avvenuti, come il dialogo tra l emiro Amr e Giovanni Filopono che probabilmente era ben morto all epoca dell invasione araba Altro documento u...The early chapters are pretty fascinating Later digressions left me pretty confused It s as if a grad student discussed every reference they consulted in depth in their dissertation, rather than ever getting to the topic and conclusion of the dissertation Pictures would be really helpful the few sketches in the book make no sense, especially with some typos in the written descriptions perha...2.5 On the plus side, this has lots of fascinating detail about the Library of Alexandria and its history On the down side, Canfora tells the story as a series of anecdotes from different eras, which leaves it feeling incr...A fascinating string of well researched anecdotes, full of violence and politics and life Consensus has moved on somewhat from the book s conclusions about the library s ultimate fate, but this read is nevertheless awe inspiring for any book lover who wonders how books intersected with everything el...Everything Thucydides Left UnsaidCanfora s history is something of a Jekyll Hyde, split evenly between two parts so wildly dissimilar as to make you check the binding occasionally to see if you re still reading the same book The first part, which I suppose we re to refer to as narrative history, offers a series of semi imagined scenesor less related to the Library of Alexandria in the gossipy tone of a psuedo He...This book is a bit perplexing At times it offers clear, oversimplified narrative that fills in many historical gaps At other times it offers deep detailed analysis of primary and secondary sources These two types of narrative sometimes run together The effect is a bit unnerving I was comfortable reading this book because of my expertise in ancient history, but a lay reader is likely to be lured into ...

English
17 June 2018

Luciano Canfora