Editing Library of Alexandria (section)

===In antiquity===
The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most prestigious libraries of the ancient world, but it was far from the only one.{{sfn|Garland|2008|page=60}}{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|pages=3, 10–11}}{{sfn|Casson|2001|page=48}} By the end of the Hellenistic Period, almost every city in the Eastern Mediterranean had a public library and so did many medium-sized towns.{{sfn|Garland|2008|page=60}}{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=3}} During the Roman Period, the number of libraries only proliferated.{{sfn|Nelles|2010|page=533}} By the fourth century AD, there were at least two dozen public libraries in the city of Rome alone.{{sfn|Nelles|2010|page=533}} As the Library of Alexandria declined, centers of academic excellence arose in various other capital cities. It is possible most of the material from the Library of Alexandria survived, by way of the [[Imperial Library of Constantinople]], the [[Academy of Gondishapur]], and the [[House of Wisdom]]. This material may then have been preserved by the [[Reconquista]], which led to the formation of [[Medieval university|European universities]] and the [[Research library#Renaissance|recompilation of ancient texts]] from formerly scattered fragments.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j0q53|title=BBC UK radio program In Our Time: The Library of Alexandria|editor-first=Melvin |editor-last=Bragg|editor-link=Melvin Bragg|date=12 March 2013|access-date=15 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704051818/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j0q53|archive-date=4 July 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

In late antiquity, as the Roman Empire became Christianized, Christian libraries modeled directly on the Library of Alexandria and other great libraries of earlier pagan times began to be founded all across the Greek-speaking eastern part of the empire.{{sfn|Nelles|2010|page=533}} Among the largest and most prominent of these libraries were the [[Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima]], the Library of Jerusalem, and a Christian library in Alexandria.{{sfn|Nelles|2010|page=533}} These libraries held both pagan and Christian writings side-by-side{{sfn|Nelles|2010|page=533}} and Christian scholars applied to the Christian scriptures the same philological techniques that the scholars of the Library of Alexandria had used for analyzing the Greek classics.{{sfn|Nelles|2010|page=533}} Nonetheless, the study of pagan authors remained secondary to the study of the Christian scriptures until the [[Renaissance]].{{sfn|Nelles|2010|page=533}}

[[File:Maqamat hariri.jpg|thumb|Illustration by [[Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti|Yahyá al-Wasiti]] from 1237 depicting scholars at an [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] library in [[Baghdad]]]]

The survival of ancient texts owes a great deal to the fact that they were exhaustingly copied and recopied. At first, they were copied by professional scribes during the Roman period.{{sfn|Garland|2008|page=61}}{{sfn|Nelles|2010|pages=533–534}} Mediaeval Muslim scholars also played a crucial role in preserving and translating the knowledge of the ancient world.{{sfn|Webster|1933|page=466}} The [[Graeco-Arabic translation movement]] translated a significant number of ancient texts into Arabic, keeping the texts intact and preserving them.{{sfn|Ahmed|Ahsani|2005|page=74-77}} Later, they were translated and re-introduced to Europe.{{sfn|Ahmed|Ahsani|2005|page=74-77}} This movement began in earnest under the [[Abbasid Caliphs|Abbasid Caliphate]] where it played a significant role in the [[Islamic Golden Age]]. The translation movement encompassed scholars of various religions in the Abbasid empire. For example, under the patronage of Caliph [[al-Ma'mun]], a Christian scholar and translator named [[Hunayn ibn Ishaq]] completed major translation projects of Aristotle, Hypocrates, and Galen{{sfn|Ahmed|Ahsani|2005|page=74-77}}  so that they remained accessible to scholars. These translations were translated into Latin and re-introduced to Europe.{{sfn|Ahmed|Ahsani|2005|page=74-77}} These texts were copied by monks during [[Middle Ages]] and [[Renaissance]], making them more easily available to European scholars once more.{{sfn|Garland|2008|page=61}}{{sfn|Nelles|2010|pages=533–534}}