Editing Library of Alexandria (section)

===Founding===
[[File:Ptolemy II MAN Napoli Inv5600.jpg|thumb|Bust excavated at the [[Villa of the Papyri]] depicting [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], who is believed to have been the one to establish the Library as an actual institution,{{sfn|Phillips|2010}} although plans for it may have been developed by his father [[Ptolemy I Soter]]{{sfn|Tracy|2000|pp=343-344}}]]

The Library was one of the largest and most significant [[List of libraries in the ancient world|libraries of the ancient world]], but details about it are a mixture of history and legend.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|pp=1-2}} The earliest known surviving source of information on the founding of the Library of Alexandria is the [[pseudepigraphic]] ''[[Letter of Aristeas]]'', which was composed between {{circa}} 180 and {{circa}} 145 BC.<ref name="Lindberg1980" />{{sfn|Tracy|2000|page=343}}{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=2}} It claims the Library was founded during the reign of [[Ptolemy I Soter]] ({{circa}} 323–{{circa}} 283 BC) and that it was initially organized by [[Demetrius of Phalerum]], a student of [[Aristotle]] who had been exiled from Athens and taken refuge in Alexandria within the Ptolemaic court.{{sfn|Tracy|2000|page=343}}{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|page=2}}<ref>''Letter of Aristeas'', [http://www.attalus.org/translate/aristeas1.html#9 9–12].</ref> Nonetheless, the ''Letter of Aristeas'' is very late and contains information that is now known to be inaccurate.{{sfn|Tracy|2000|page=343}} According to [[Diogenes Laertius]], Demetrius was a student of [[Theophrastus]], a student of Aristotle.<ref>{{cite LotEP|year=1925b |chapter=Demetrius |§=75–85 }}</ref> Other sources claim that the Library was instead created under the reign of Ptolemy I's son [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] (283–246 BC).{{sfn|Phillips|2010}}

Modern scholars agree that, while it is possible that Ptolemy I, who was a historian and author{{sfn|Casson|2001|p=32}} of an account of Alexander's campaign, may have laid the groundwork for the Library, it probably did not come into being as a physical institution until the reign of Ptolemy II.{{sfn|Tracy|2000|page=343}} By that time, Demetrius of Phalerum had fallen out of favor with the Ptolemaic court. He probably would not, therefore, have had any role in establishing the Library as an institution.{{sfn|Tracy|2000|pages=343–344}} [[Stephen V. Tracy]], however, argues that it is highly probable that Demetrius played an important role in collecting at least some of the earliest texts that would later become part of the Library's collection.{{sfn|Tracy|2000|pages=343–344}} In around 295 BC, Demetrius may have acquired early texts of the writings of Aristotle and [[Theophrastus]], which he would have been uniquely positioned to do since he was a distinguished member of the [[Peripatetic school]].{{sfn|Tracy|2000|pages=344–345}}

The Library was built in the Brucheion (Royal Quarter) as part of the [[Mouseion]].{{sfn|Wiegand|Davis|2015|p=19}}{{efn|"Mouseion" means "House of Muses", whence the term "museum".<ref>Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2368883 Μουσείον] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912160936/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2368883 |date=12 September 2007 }} at [[Liddell & Scott]].</ref>}} Its main purpose was to show off the wealth of Egypt, with research as a lesser goal,<ref name="Lindberg1980">{{cite book|author=David C. Lindberg|author-link=David C. Lindberg|title=Science in the Middle Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOCriv4rSCUC&pg=PA5|access-date=11 January 2013|date=15 March 1980|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-48233-0|page=5}}</ref> but its contents were used to aid the ruler of Egypt.{{sfn|MacLeod|2000|pp=1–}} The exact layout of the library is not known, but ancient sources describe the Library of Alexandria as comprising a collection of scrolls, Greek columns, a {{wikt-lang|en|Peripatetic|peripatos}} walk, a room for shared dining, a reading room, meeting rooms, gardens, and lecture halls, creating a model for the modern university [[campus]].{{sfn|Lyons|2011|p=26}} A hall contained shelves for the collections of papyrus scrolls known as ''bibliothekai'' (''βιβλιοθῆκαι''). According to popular description, an inscription above the shelves read: "The place of the cure of the soul."<ref name="Alberto2008">Manguel, Alberto (2008).''The Library at Night''. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 26.</ref>