The oldest known library. Legendary Libraries of the Ancient World (9 photos)

22.03.2013

In past top 10 the most large libraries in the world. But apart from the big ones, there are old libraries. And to your attention the top 10 rating the oldest libraries in the world.

10. Bodleian Library Oxford University Library

(London, 1602)

It bears the name of Sir Thomas Bodley, who was a popular and world-famous man who collected manuscripts. Although many believe that the founder is still Bishop Thomas de Cobham. Through his efforts at the university, the first collection of books was collected, which were chained to the shelves in order to prevent theft. Along with the Vatican Library, they claim the right to be called the oldest in Europe.

9. Royal Library of Belgium

(Brussels 1559)

National science Library. Founded by order of Philip II. Contains 8 million books, manuscripts, drawings, engravings, a large numismatic collection. The main purpose of the activity is the collection and storage of all Belgian publications and works of Belgians published abroad. In addition to national, there are a large number of foreign books. Available for visiting citizens, including students.

8. Bavarian State Library

(Munich 1558)

This old library founded by Albrecht V, Duke of Wittelsbach. In 1663, a law was passed in Bavaria according to which two copies of any printed work must be transferred to this library. The law is still in effect. During World War II, up to 500,000 volumes were lost and the building was 85% destroyed. Despite this, it is considered one of the most extensive European libraries. He does a lot of work on the digitization of old documents and manuscripts.

7. National Library of Malta

(Valetta 1555)

Laid by the 48th Grand Master of the Order of Saint John Claude de la Single. According to his decree, all personal books of the deceased knights were considered the property of the Order. It was developed under Louis Giren de Tencines, the bailiff-executor of the Grand Cross of the Order. The Maltese Library is a significant collection of bibliographic rarities. Here you can see the letter of deed of 1107 from Emperor Charles to King Baldwin I of Jerusalem, documents confirming the noble origin of the knights, minutes of the meetings of the Order of St. John. The library has been open to visitors since 1812.

6. Vatican Apostolic Library

(Rome Vatican 1475)

Its inspirer and creator were Popes Nicholas V and Sixtus IV. First of all, this is the richest collection of manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Under the auspices of the library, entire expeditions were carried out to search for rare publications in the most different parts Sveta. Includes a wide variety of texts from manuscripts with the works of Cicero, Virgil, Aristotle, to the works of contemporary authors. Naturally, most of the collection consists of texts of religious content. The Vatican school of librarians and a laboratory for the restoration and reproduction of the most important manuscripts were created at the library. Up to 150 scientists and specialists can visit the vaults daily.

5. National Library of France

(Paris 1461)

It existed under Charles V the Wise, but the main part of his collection was lost, as the royal relatives used to not return the taken books. Louis XI began to collect the library almost anew. Among others, the library contains books from various monasteries, books about the revolution, books about Walter, as well as collections of manuscripts sent from various countries. To date, it includes 30 million storage units.

4. National Library of Austria

(Vienna 1368)

It is located in the Hofburg Palace, which served as the residence of the Habsburg imperial family. The collection includes 7.5 million books, ancient papyri, maps, globes, paintings, photographs, scores of works by famous musicians such as Strauss and Bruckner. It is also known for the fact that it has collected about 8,000 incunabula - typesetting early printed editions.

3. National Library of the Czech Republic

(Prague 1366)

It's not just one of oldest, but also one of the, serving about 1 million readers a year. It was founded in connection with the formation of the University of Prague. Provides access to more than 6 million documents, with an annual increase of 70,000 titles. Many library projects are supported by UNESCO.

2. Library of St. Catherine's Monastery

(Egypt Sinai 548-565)

The monastery is located in Egypt at the foot of Mount Sinai. The monastery's library contains 3,304 manuscripts, 5,000 books and about 1,700 scrolls. In terms of historical significance, its collection is second only to the Apostolic Library of the Vatican. The texts are written in Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian and Slavic languages. The most famous manuscripts are the Codex Sinaiticus of the 4th century (now in the British Museum) and the Codex Syriac of the 5th century with quotations from the Bible. In addition to other relics, the monastery also has a collection of ancient icons.

1. Library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal

(British Museum London 7th century BC)

The oldest library in the world was discovered in 1849-51 by British archaeologists Austin Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rasam during excavations on the banks of the Euphrates .. It is considered the most ancient of known to the world libraries. It was conceived by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal as a repository of all the knowledge accumulated by mankind and was based on ancient Sumerian and Babylonian texts. Includes legal, administrative and economic records, descriptions of political events, magical and religious rituals, prophecies, astronomical and historical information, prayers, songs. One of the most famous mythological texts is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is one of the main sources of information about the history and culture of Mesopotamia and the decipherment of cuneiform. The bulk of the 30,000 clay tablets discovered are now in the British Museum.

It was compiled for 25 years in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh by order of King Ashurbanipal (VII century BC). It also served as a state archive.

After the death of the king, the funds were scattered among various palaces. The part of the library discovered by archaeologists consists of 25,000 clay tablets with cuneiform texts. The opening of the library in the middle of the 19th century was of great importance for understanding the cultures of Mesopotamia and for deciphering cuneiform writing.

Ashurbanipal intended to create a library that was supposed to exhaust all the knowledge accumulated by mankind. He was especially interested in the information necessary for governing the state - on how to maintain constant communication with the deities, on predicting the future by the movement of the stars and the entrails of sacrificial animals. That is why the lion's share of funds were texts of conspiracies, prophecies, magical and religious rituals, mythological tales. The bulk of the information was extracted from the Sumerian and Babylonian texts by specially organized teams of scribes.

The library had a large collection of medical texts (with an emphasis on healing through sorcery), but the rich mathematical heritage of Babylonia was inexplicably ignored. There were numerous lists of literary epic legends, in particular, tablets with the epic of Gilgamesh and the mythological translation of Enuma Elish, as well as tablets with prayers, songs, legal documents(for example, the code of Hammurabi), economic and administrative records, letters, astronomical and historical works, records of a political nature, lists of kings and poetic texts.

The texts were written in Assyrian, Babylonian, a dialect of the Akkadian language, and also in Sumerian. A great many texts are presented in parallel in Sumerian and Akkadian, including encyclopedic editions and dictionaries. As a rule, one text was stored in six copies, which today greatly facilitates the work of deciphering the tablets. To date, Ashurbanipal's library is the largest collection of texts in the Akkadian language.

The foundation of the library took place on the orders of the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal, who was distinguished by a great interest in texts and knowledge in general. Ashurbanipal's predecessors had small palace libraries, but none of them had such a passion for collecting texts. Ashurbanipal sent numerous scribes to different regions of their country, so that they make copies of all the texts they come across. In addition, Ashurbanipal ordered copies of texts from all major temple archives, which were then sent to him in Nineveh. Sometimes, during military campaigns, Ashurbanipal managed to capture entire cuneiform libraries, which he also delivered to his palace.

The librarians of Ashurbanipal did a great job of cataloging, copying, commenting and researching the texts of the library, as evidenced by numerous glossaries, bibliography and commentaries. Ashurbanipal himself gave great importance organizing the library. His name was written on each tablet (a kind of ex-libris), the name of the original tablet from which the copy was made was given in the colophon. The library had hundreds of waxed-page codices, which made it possible to correct or rewrite text written on wax. Unlike cuneiform tablets (which are only hardened during fires), wax tablets are short-lived. They have not survived, as well as the scrolls in the library - parchment and papyrus. Judging by the ancient catalogs, no more than 10% of all funds collected by Ashurbanipal have survived to this day.

A huge array of cuneiform texts has come down to our days solely thanks to Ashurbanipal's passion for the written word. In many cases, ancient Mesopotamian writings have survived only in copies made by order of this ruler. Some of the texts on display are thousands of years old (although the tablets themselves are not very ancient, they have rarely been kept for more than 200 years under normal conditions).

Ashurbanipal himself was proud that he was the only Assyrian ruler who could read and write. On one of the tablets, his personal record was found:

“I studied what the wise Adapa brought me, mastered all the secret art of writing on tablets, began to understand predictions in heaven and on earth, participate in discussions of pundits, predict the future together with the most experienced interpreters of divination by the liver of sacrificial animals. I can solve complex, complex division and multiplication problems, I constantly read masterfully written tablets in such a complex language as Sumerian, or as difficult to interpret as Akkadian, I am familiar with antediluvian stone records that are already completely incomprehensible.

Ashurbanipal's own notes (probably compiled by the best scribes) are of high literary quality.

A generation after Ashurbanipal, his capital fell under the blows of the Medes and Babylonians. The library was not plundered, as is usually the case in such cases, but turned out to be buried under the ruins of the palaces where it was kept.

In 1849, the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard found most of the library (which was kept in the northwestern palace on the banks of the Euphrates). Three years later, Layard's assistant, the British diplomat and traveler Hormuzd Rasam, found the second part of the library in the opposite wing of the palace. Both pieces were taken to the British Museum for storage. The opening of the library allowed scientists to get a first-hand idea of ​​the Assyrian culture. Prior to this, Assyria was known only from the works of Herodotus and other historians of Hellas, and the Persians, in turn, served as their source. The biggest sensation in scientific community made the discovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh with a presentation biblical history about the global flood.

When extracting the tablets from the wreckage, careful accounting of the place of their discovery was not carried out. In the British Museum, both parts were placed in a common depository, so it is now impossible to judge which tablets were found where. Scientists are still working on sorting separate fragments("joints"), cataloging and deciphering texts. The British Museum is working with Iraqi scientists to establish a museum-library in Iraq, where reproductions of the original tablets are to be displayed.

clay tablet N 11 with a fragment of the myth of Gilgamesh,which describes the history of the flood ; (Located in the collection of the British Museum.)

In the palace was small library, but Ashurbanipal did not like it. Like a decent maniac, Ashurbanipal obtained items for his collection by any means. He sentscribes in different parts of the country to make copies of any texts that come across. In addition, Ashurbanipal ordered copies of texts from all major temple archives, which they sent to him in Nineveh. Well, robbery for a collector is sacred!

During military campaigns, Ashurbanipal combined business with pleasure: he captured entire cuneiform libraries and dragged him to his palace. Maybe that's why he loved to fight so much. The tsar collected his library for almost 25 years.

He dearly loved his collection, and attached great importance to its ordering. Each plate hadpeculiarbookplate- the name of the king.AND the name of the original from which the copy was made was written.The librarians of Ashurbanipal did not eat their bread in vain. They did a great job of cataloging, copying, commenting and researching the texts of the library. Numerous glossaries, bibliography and commentaries were compiled.The bulk of the books were translations from Sumerian and Babylonian texts. They were written by translators.As a rule, each text was kept in six copies, and often in several languages.

synonym tables

Books were written on clay and wax tablets, parchments and papyri.
The king was justly proud of his education. He didn't just collect books. He read them.

"I learned what the wise man brought me Adapa, I mastered all the secret art of writing on tablets, began to understand predictions in heaven and on earth, participate in discussions of pundits, predict the future together with the most experienced interpreters of predictions from the liver of sacrificial animals. I can solve complex, difficult problems of division and multiplication, I constantly read masterfully written tablets in such a complex language as Sumerian, or as difficult to interpret as Akkadian, I am familiar with antediluvian inscriptions on stone that are already completely incomprehensible.

(Looking at these inscriptions, I understand why the king was proud. To voluntarily read SUCH, one must be a very strong-willed person!)

The library had books about everything: Booksconspiracies, prophecies, magical and religious rituals; Myths; medical texts; Books on healing by sorcery; Plates withthe epic of Gilgamesh and mythological translation enuma elish ; Books with prayers, songs, legal documents (eg.laws of Hammurabi ), economic and administrative records, letters, astronomical and historical works, records of a political nature, lists of kings and poetic texts. There were books about everything in the world except mathematics. Probably all the mathematical texts were kept separately and they were not found. Or they stole it when they robbed the palace. Or they died in fires ... Well, there are spots on the sun. Ashurbanipal created a library that covered all the knowledge accumulated by mankind.

Text about Ishtar

A generation after Ashurbanipal, his capital fell under the blows of the Medes and Babylonians. The library was not looted. Probably not all robbers liked to read. Most of the books that were written on wax tablets, papyrus and leather simply burned down. There were books on clay tablets that turned out to be buried under the ruins of the palaces where they were kept. Preserved25,000 clay tablets.Judging by the ancient catalogs, no more than 10% of all funds collected by Ashurbanipal have come down to us. The library was not small at all, even by our standards. And inVII century BC, it had no equal: 250 thousand books!!!

List of astrological signs for the Moon, and comments

Library, translated from Greek - “biblio” - a book, “teka” - a repository, that is, a “storehouse of books”.

The role of libraries in people's lives can already be judged by the figurative names that have long been assigned to them. They were called temples of wisdom, the memory of mankind, repositories of the treasures of civilization.

The library is an ordinary and at the same time an amazing place, because books live in this room. We are accustomed to a book, we rarely think of it as a miracle, as a treasure, and it happens that we do not always appreciate and cherish it. But think about it, because the book until recently was the only means of transferring knowledge from generation to generation. As soon as people invented writing, it became possible to collect and accumulate knowledge.

The whole history of the human mind is connected with books and libraries. This is not a quiet story! They fought for books, burned them, lost them, found them, dug them up in the ruins of cities buried by time, saved them from enemy invasion as the most expensive. Today's library seems to be the epitome of silence, peace and order.

As always, she serves people. It is interesting that even the first libraries were not just a room where books were stored: they were real libraries in the full sense of the word. There were special tablets on which the first lines of works stored in the library were written, which helped to conveniently group and then find the required literary source.

The very first libraries appeared in ancient Egypt. They were called "houses of papyrus" and "houses of life". They were created at palaces and temples. The Egyptian pharaohs attached great importance to education. During excavations above the entrance to one of the rooms of the palace of Ramses II, archaeologists discovered the inscription: "Pharmacy for the soul." According to the ancient Egyptians, books can be compared with a medicine that makes a person’s mind strong and ennobles his soul.

In the 19th century, archaeologists excavated the capital of the Assyrian kings, Nineveh, on the banks of the Tigris River and discovered there a cuneiform library established by King Ashurbanipal. It was called the "House of Instructions and Advice" and was a huge collection of clay tablets, which, at the direction of the king, were taken from temples and from the houses of noble and educated Assyrians.

The tablets lay for about twenty years in the British Museum in London. When scientists managed to decipher the cuneiform, it became clear that this was a whole library of clay books. Each such "book" consisted of "sheets" - tablets of the same size. Each tablet had the title of a book. initial words the first plate, and also stood the number of the "sheet". Books were placed in a strict order, there were catalogs - lists indicating the titles of books and the number of lines in each tablet. It is noteworthy that this library had a thematic catalog. All her books were divided into topics: history, law, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, legends and myths. The title of the work was reflected in the catalog. As well as a room and a shelf where you should look for the right plate. About 30,000 clay books were stored there, each of which had a cuneiform stamp: "The Palace of Ashurbanipal, King of the Universe, King of Assyria." The Nineveh Library is the most famous ancient library.

Ancient Greece, or Hellas, was famous for its scientists and philosophers, who created schools and academies, in which libraries were opened. The first public library was founded by the tyrant Clearchus in Heraclea. The collection was considered the largest private library. ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle. Aristotle's library at Lika, near Athens, where the great ancient philosopher lectured, contained tens of thousands of scrolls. After the scientist's death, his library became part of the Mouseyon, the Temple of the Muses. During excavations in Heerculaneum, the library of the poet Philodemus was discovered, which consisted of about 1860 scrolls.

The center of Egyptian culture was Alexandria, where the Ptolemaic dynasty ruled. At the beginning of the third century BC, Ptolemy I decided to turn Egypt into a center of culture and arts and founded the famous Museion (following the example of Athenian). It was a huge ensemble: a university with teaching halls and living quarters, an observatory, Botanical Garden, a zoo and an illustrious library of papyrus scrolls. Ptolemy II expanded the Library of Alexandria, sending his people to all corners of the world, who obtained the most valuable works.

Under Ptolemy II, the patron saint of scientists and poets, Museion and the Library of Alexandria reached their peak. The son of Ptolemy II, Ptolemy III issued a decree according to which anyone who arrived in the harbor was obliged to give or sell the books he had. They were transferred to the library, and copies were returned to the owners with a note that they corresponded to the original. The library stock consisted of 700-800 thousand texts in many languages.

In 47 BC, part of the library burned down, the other was destroyed during clashes between pagans and Christians.

Modern Library of Alexandria. Egypt.

The Library of Alexandria competed with the Library of Pergamon, which was created in the second century BC and consisted of about 200 thousand papyrus and parchment manuscripts. The Pergamon Library was inferior to the Library of Alexandria only in terms of the size of the fund. Most of it was made up of medical treatises - Pergamum was considered the center of medicine. The history of the library ended in 43 BC, when Pergamum became a province of Rome, and most of books ended up in the Alexandria Library.

Today, Pergamum is located in Turkey, and the ruins of the library are among the tourist sites.

The first Roman public library was created on Greek models by Seasonius Pollio. Later, libraries arose in the Roman Empire, established by the emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Trajan, and Byzantine rulers. Earliest Christian libraries originated in large episcopal churches.

In 1037 Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise (about 980 - 1054) founded the first library in Kievan Rus. She was in the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral. It was the most complete collection written monuments Ancient Russia- The Gospel, the books of the prophets, the lives of the saints. Important government documents were also stored here. 500 volumes - not many libraries in Europe could boast of such a collection at that time. It is not known where the library of Yaroslav the Wise disappeared: perhaps it died during a big fire in 1124 or was destroyed in 1240 during the defeat of Kyiv by the troops of the Mongol Khan Batu.

One of the most mysterious libraries is the library of the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584). He possessed a unique book collection, which he kept in the deep vaults of the Kremlin. Foreigners who saw the book collection said that there were, among other books, very rare. After the death of the king, his library became a legend, as it disappeared without a trace. The mystery of the library haunts historians and archaeologists for more than one century. Before today The search for the library was never successful.

Ever since the first libraries arose, their keepers have been concerned that books do not go to waste. For a long time, this purpose has been served by a book sign. Nowadays it is called an ex-libris.

The first public library in Russia was the Public Library in St. Petersburg. It was founded in 1795. It was allowed to visit "all decently dressed citizens" three days a week from 9 am until sunset.

The largest in Russia, and the second in the world in terms of the number of stored materials (after the US Library of Congress) is the Russian State Library in Moscow (until 1992 - Leninskaya). It contains about 40 million titles. At present, microfiches, microfilms, transparencies, audio and video cassettes are increasingly being distributed and are included in the library fund, and electronic media are also becoming more widespread.

Libraries are: state, municipal, private, educational and scientific.

There are special libraries: historical, medical, technical, pedagogical, artistic, agricultural, etc.

And there are the most ordinary libraries, which are always close to home - regional ones, just to go in and read a few pages about something interesting or look through a magazine that has long been impossible to subscribe or buy.

And there are, probably, personal (home) libraries in every family, at least those about which Conan Doyle wrote: “Let your poor bookshelf let it decorate your home. Shut the door of the room from the inside ... You left everything low, everything vulgar behind you. Here, waiting for you, your silent friends stand in rows. Take a look around their formation. Choose the one that is now all closer to the soul yours. Now it remains only to reach out to him and go with him to the land of dreams.

Eternal companions: writers about the book, reading, bibliophilia / Comp. A. Blum. - M: Book, 1983. - 223 p.

Student's handbook. History of world culture / Comp. F. Kapitsa.- M .: Philological. society "Slovo", TKO "AST", 1996.- 610 p.

Great Libraries // Book World Terra - 2000- №2 - p.44-45

IN early III millennium BC. e. on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was one of the centers ancient civilization- Mesopotamia. Her South part was called the Two Rivers. Excellent geographical and climatic conditions created conditions for the life and development of people in this territory long before the period we are considering. Several dozen small city-states were built on hills and surrounded by walls. It was the ancient Lagosh, Ur, Nippur and others that became the main carriers of the Sumerian civilization. The youngest of them, Babylon, developed so rapidly that in the 1st millennium BC. e. the Greeks began to call Mesopotamia by his name Babylonia.

For a long time, scientists conducted archaeological excavations at the site ancient cities Mesopotamia. The ruins of palaces and temples arose before archaeologists, numerous household items, works of art, and tools were found. Among all other finds, they saw a large number of Sumerian cuneiform tablets of various sizes and shapes, which contained information about state structure Sumer, its economy and social life. Household records, memorization lists, school texts and essays, accounting documents scribes of the III millennium BC. e. and various other information was left for posterity by the inhabitants of antiquity.

During excavations in the city of Ur, several libraries, small collections of sacred texts, and personal libraries were found. Of particular importance were the finds made by scientists in the city of Nippur (modern Iraq) - the oldest religious center of the Sumerians. About 100 thousand clay tablets, placed in 62 rooms, sometimes split into dozens of pieces or with erased inscriptions, were found at the site of the Nippur temple library.

In total, about 150 monuments of Sumerian literature are known. Among them are poetic records of myths, epic tales, prayers, hymns to gods and kings, psalms, wedding-love songs, funeral laments, lamentations about national disasters, which were part of the church service; didactics is widely represented: teachings, edifications, disputes-dialogues, as well as fables, anecdotes, sayings and proverbs. Of course, such a distribution by genre is completely arbitrary and is based on our modern ideas about genres.

The Sumerians themselves had their own classification - in almost every literary work in the last line its “genre” is indicated: a song of praise, dialogue, lamentation, etc. Unfortunately, the principles of this classification are not always clear to us: works of the same type, from our point of view, fall into Sumerian designations in different categories, and vice versa - monuments of obviously different genres are assigned to one category, say, a hymn and an epic. In some cases, classification designations indicate the nature of the performance or musical accompaniment (crying to the flute, song to the drum, etc.), since all works were performed aloud - they were sung, and if they were not sung, then they were read in a singsong voice after memorization from the tablet.

Tablets found in Sumerian libraries were kept in closed boxes or baskets. Each of them had labels with inscriptions about the nature of the materials contained in them: “Documents relating to the garden”, “Sending workers”, etc. There were tablets with marks about the loss of texts, a list of 87 works - a kind of prototype of the catalog. long work by deciphering the records, it allowed scientists to get an idea not only about the “funds” and conditions for storing the tablets, but also to replenish knowledge about the history of the people who once lived in this territory.

At the beginning of the II millennium BC. e. The temple library of Nippur was burned down by the Elamite conqueror Kudur-Mabuk.