Editing Callimachus (section)

==''Pinakes''==
{{Main|Pinakes}}
[[File:Ancientlibraryalex.jpg|thumb|alt=drawing of column-studded room in which men study rolls of papyrus.|19th-century artistic rendering of the [[Library of Alexandria]], where Callimachus compiled the ''[[Pinakes]]'']]
When working at the [[Library of Alexandria]], Callimachus was responsible for the library's cataloguing.{{Sfn|Casson|2001|pp=38–39}} In this function, he compiled a detailed bibliography of all existing Greek literature deriving from the library's shelf-lists.{{Sfn|Casson|2001|p=39}} His catalogue, named ''Pinakes'' after the plural of the Greek for 'tablet' ({{Langx|grc| πίναξ|translit=pinax}}),{{Sfn|Witty|1958|p=132}} amounted to 120 volumes or five times the length of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]''. Although the ''Pinakes'' have not survived the end of antiquity, scholars have reconstructed their content from references in surviving classical literature. Authors and their works were divided into the broad categories of 'poetry' and 'prose'.{{Sfn|Casson|2001|p=39}} Both categories were further broken down into precise subcategories. For poets, these included, among others, 'drama', 'epic', and 'lyric'; for prose writers, 'philosophy', 'oratory', 'history', and 'medicine'. Entries were sorted alphabetically, giving an author's biography and a list of his works.{{Sfn|Casson|2001|pp=39–40}} According to the classicist [[Lionel Casson]], the ''Pinakes'' were the first comprehensive bibliographic resource for Greek literature{{Sfn|Casson|2001|pp=40–41}} and a "vital reference tool" for using the Alexandrian Library.{{Sfn|Casson|2001|p=41}}