Callimachus of Cyrene

The Alexandrian Library  Founded early 3 rd century BC  Once the largest in the world  Destroyed by fire some time before 400 AD  10 great Halls lined with armaria, numbered and titled

10 Great Halls  Each Hall represented a department of learning based on the Pinakes of Callimachus  Larger halls used by scholars for research  Smaller rooms used by individuals or groups for special studies  The Library was a symbol of knowledge

Destruction of the Library Little is known about the library because of its destruction by 400 AD. Few events in ancient history are as controversial as its destruction – the historical record is contradictory and incomplete.

Library’s destruction  There is growing consensus among historians that the Library suffered several destructive events  The destruction of Alexandria’s pagan temples in the late 4 th century AD was the final blow  The Library’s fate will continue to be a subject of heated historical debate

Who was Callimachus of Cyrene?  Greek Poet  Grammarian  Scholar  Literary Historian

Callimachus  Educated in Athens by Hermakorates of Iasos, but was mostly self-taught  Invited by King Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a great arts patron, to the Alexandria Library Ptolemy II

Ptolemies  The Ptolemies desired to include in the collection of the Alexandrian Library all books written in Greek... including cookbooks

Callimachus Considered the most important poet of the Hellenistic period and a major figure of Greco-Roman literature

At Alexandria  Library already had over 400,000 mixed scrolls with multiple works and 90,000 single scrolls  Callimachus innovated poetry  Wrote nearly 800 works in poetry and prose  Developed his Pinakes

Pinakes  Full Title: Pinakes (or Tables) of those who were eminent in every branch of learning, and what they wrote, in 120 volumes.  A critical and chronologically arranged catalog of the library  Laid the foundation for a history of Greek literature

Pinakes  Only a few fragments of the Pinakes remain  Main genres of Greek poetry  At least five genres of prose: History Rhetoric Philosophy Medicine and law Miscellaneous section

Callimachus as Cataloguer  To order everything written before the third century BC  To discern integrity of editions of texts  To determine authorship  Goal: to compile a comprehensive bibliographical list of authors and works to serve as a library catalog

Cataloguer  Callimachus divided every branch of learning into classes: Rhetoric Law Miscellaneous writings Poetry Philosophy History Medicine

Cataloguer  Subdivided classes into genres  For example, poetry: Epic Lyric Tragedy Comedy

Cataloguer  Authors listed alphabetically within genre  Each author had a biographical note  Within each author’s works, titles were listed alphabetically

Callimachus’s Example  To identify works in newly acquired scrolls  To distinguish between authors with the same name  To provide a biography of each author  To separate authentic from fake works

Callimachus the Bibliographer Examples of his bibliographies:  On the Rivers of the World  On Birds  On Contests  Foundation of Islands and Cities, and Changes of Their Names  Designations According to Peoples

Bibliographer The purpose of Callimachus’ compendium on birds is similar to a modern librarian’s special catalog of the ornithological literature in his or her library.

Callimachus’s Specialized Lists  All Greek authors and their works (120 books)  A list of Attic playwrights  A list of glosses and writings of Demokritos

Why Do We Care??  Callimachus is considered the first Cataloguer in Western Civilization  He began for the Alexandrian Library the first subject catalog in the world (the Pinakes)  Scholars used this collection for 700 years

Why we care  One biographer has asserted that all Hellenistic scholars who created catalogs or bibliographies after Callimachus used his methods  He invented the library catalog and bibliography  He created the first real library catalog  He recorded all copies of work contained in the scrolls, with biographical data about authors  He tried to provide complete and reliable access to the library’s holdings

Why we care  “By recording works of Greek literature in the Alexandrian library by author name and from the point of view of literary criticism, he founded cataloguing beyond mere inventorying and created a broader documentary basis for literary criticism.” Rudolph Blum

Conclusion  “Scholarship rests on the work of researchers, but these need the support of other scholars who are able and willing to create the tools for scholarly work. Among these are the compilers of catalogs, bibliographies, dictionaries, and the like. Kallimachos was a scholar of this kind, one of the earliest known to us, and certainly among the most important ones, because he was not only the compiler of such tools but was also their inventor.” Rudolph Blum