Post Three

The library of the Vatican

The Vatican Apostolic library commonly known as the Vatican library is the library of the Holy See. The Holy See is the Episcopal Jurisdiction of the Catholic Church. The library is located in the Vatican City, Rome.

The Vatican Library was established in 1475 however it has 75,000 much older codices than its established date. Codices are collected papers, all bound by a cover, like a book but doesn’t have the specifics of a book.

The Vatican Library holds manuscripts and printed books, these resources all tell many stories. These texts explain the renaissance through art, scholarship and science in Rome and elsewhere. They shed light on Catholic Counter Reformation and reveal conflicts that appeared when the church policy could not be carried out.

The Vatican has an online resource library which can be viewed at: http://www.vatican.va/archive/index.htm

The Vatican Library’s resources can be viewed to the public but some resources are forbidden to be seen by the public, “The popes had always had a library, but in the middle of the fifteenth century they began to collect books in a new way. Nicholas V decided to create a public library for "the court of Rome"--the whole world of clerics and laymen, cardinals and scholars who inhabited the papal palace and its environs. He and Sixtus IV provided the library with a suite of rooms. These were splendidly frescoed, lighted by large windows, and furnished with elaborate wooden benches to which most books were chained. And, unlike some modern patrons, the popes of the Renaissance cared about the books as well as about the buildings that housed them. They bought, borrowed, and even stole the beautiful handwritten books of the time. The papal library soon became as spectacular a work of art, in its own way, as the Sistine Chapel or Saint Peter's. It grew rapidly; by 1455 it had 1200 books, 400 of them Greek; by 1481, a handwritten catalogue by the librarian, Platina, showed 3500 entries--by far the largest collection of books in the Western world. And it never stopped growing, thanks to bequests, purchases, and even, sometimes, military conquests...”- [Books for popes and scholars]

To know more please view the video below- great resource!

I found this information through using Google which led me to various websites referenced below, I think these websites were very helpful and interesting because I discovered things I had no idea about.

Books for popes and scholars, The Vatican Library, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/a-vatican_lib/Vatican_lib.html>

Vatican: the Holy See, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://www.vatican.va/archive/index.htm>

The Vatican library 2010, Rome reborn: the Vatican library & the renaissance, viewed 22 April 2012, < http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/vatican.html>

Vatican Library 2012, Wikipedia, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Library>

Knowing the Vatican library through a new expedition 2010, Youtube, viewed 22 Aprip 2012, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMkMsbU-30A>

Post Two

The library of Alexandria

The library of Alexandria was situated in Egypt and was the biggest and most significant library of the world, so significant that it was charged with collecting all the worlds’ knowledge.

The library of Alexandria was considered so important because it was the most important centre of learning in the world as this was the place men from all over the world came to learn about the size of the earth, the stars and more. This library educated so many brilliant minds and lasted over six centuries. The library was considered the world research centre. Dignitaries were invited to study in the halls, there they stayed and brought more knowledge to the library.

It is such a tragedy what happened to this library because it came to an end through Julius Caesar. During the attack on Pompey the library was set a light and 400,000 scrolls were burned to nothing but ashes- so much knowledge lost! Because of this tragedy no one today really knows what it looked like, where it exactly was, what books/scrolls were kept in there and more.

To learn more about the library please watch the below video:

Now that we know about the library itself let us look at the man it was named after; Alexandria the Great.

“Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, single-handedly changed the nature of the ancient world in little more than a decade.

Alexander was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia in July 356 BC. His parents were Philip II of Macedon and his wife Olympias. Alexander was educated by the philosopher Aristotle. Philip was assassinated in 336 BC and Alexander inherited a powerful yet volatile kingdom. He quickly dealt with his enemies at home and reasserted Macedonian power within Greece. He then set out to conquer the massive Persian Empire.

Against overwhelming odds, he led his army to victories across the Persian territories of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt without suffering a single defeat. His greatest victory was at the Battle of Gaugamela, in what is now northern Iraq, in 331 BC. The young king of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor and pharaoh of Egypt became 'great king' of Persia at the age of 25.

Over the next eight years, in his capacity as king, commander, politician, scholar and explorer, Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles, founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that stretched across three continents and covered around two million square miles. The entire area from Greece in the west, north to the Danube, south into Egypt and as far to the east as the Indian Punjab, was linked together in a vast international network of trade and commerce. This was united by a common Greek language and culture, while the king himself adopted foreign customs in order to rule his millions of ethnically diverse subjects.

Alexander was acknowledged as a military genius who always led by example, although his belief in his own indestructibility meant he was often reckless with his own life and those of his soldiers. The fact that his army only refused to follow him once in 13 years of a reign during which there was constant fighting, indicates the loyalty he inspired.

He died of a fever in Babylon in June 323 BC.”- [Alexander the Great (356-323 BC)]. 

I found this information through using Google which led me to various websites referenced below, I think these websites were very helpful and interesting because I discovered things I had no idea about.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) 2012, BBC History Channel, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/alexander_the_great.shtml>

The mysterious fate of the great library of Alexandria 2003, BEDE’S LIBRARY, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm>

Library of Alexandria 2012, Wikipedia, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria>

History channel 2010, History Channel-Ancient Mysteries-The lost treasure of the Alexandria library 1/5 2010, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwc_KmzFYDk>

Post One

The library of Ashurbanipal

This library is situated in Nineveh, which is near what we know as Mosul in Iraq.

The library was recovered by Austen Henry Layard an archaeologist. Austen recovered the library in the mid 19^th century. The library included 25,000 clay tablet fragments adding up to about 1,200 texts written in cuneiform. Cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of writing. The symbols are formed from wedge shaped objects pressed into clay tablets.

The libraries tablets cover many different areas such as religion, science, mathematics, poetry, medicine and more. The tablets were written when the Assyrian King, Ashurbanipal reigned, this was between 668-627 BC.

A photograph of the tablets with the cuneiform writing styles:

 These writings were considered to be the writings of god. They were believed this because the tablets held multiple layers of meanings embedded within the multiple possible interpretations of every sign and word.

Some of the stories that have been uncovered are:

“...the Enuma Elish , also known as the Epic of Creation,[20] which depicts a traditional Babylonian view of creation where the god Marduk slays Tiamat, the personification of salt water, and creates the world from her body. In this particular version, man is created from the blood of a revolting god, Quingu, in order to toil on behalf of the gods. Also found in Nineveh, The Epic of Gilgamesh[21] is a compelling account of the hero and his friend Enkidu seeking out to destroy the demon Humbaba. The Gods punish the pair for their arrogance, however, by having Enkidu die from illness. After Enkidu’s death Gilgamesh seeks Ut-napishtim, the survivor of the Deluge, in order to find out the secret of immortality.”- [Ashurbanipal 2012]

Now that we know about the library and its resources let’s look at the King who shares its name.

King Ashurbanipal- He was born toward the end of a fifteen-hundred-year period of Assyrian ascendancy. He was brought up in the small palace called bit redui, meaning house of succession. He did not expect to become heir to the throne, due to his father and grandfather being assassinated so he became trained in scholarly pursuits as well as the usual horsemanship, hunting, charioty, soldierliness, craftsmanship, and royal decorum. Ashurbanipal considered his youthful scholarly pursuits as having included oil divination, mathematics, and reading and writing. He was the only Assyrian king who learned how to read and write.

Ashurbanipal was proud of his scribal education. He was one of the few kings who could read the cuneiform script in Akkadian and Sumerian, not only could he read these but he claimed that he could understand texts from before the great flood. Along with reading he could solve mathematical problems. Because of his interests and abilities he collected cuneiform texts from all over Mesopotamia.

He achieved many remarkable military accomplishments, due to this he became feared and hated by other kings because of his cruelty to defeated kings. One story is recorded of him keeping a defeated king on a chain and had him live like a dog.

I found this information through using Google which led me to various websites referenced below, I think these websites were very helpful and interesting because I discovered things I had no idea about.

A great resource for this library would be the British museum in London.

The history of king Ashurbanipal and the library of Nineveh 2012, Yahoo! Voices, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://voices.yahoo.com/the-history-king-ashurbanipal-library-of-10988876.html>

Cuneiform 2012, About.com, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/cuneiform.htm>

Ashurbanipal 2012, NetHelper, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://nethelper.com/article/Ashurbanipal>

Google is used for all images

Introduction

This topic is a huge topic so I have decided to simplify it by making my fist blog post an introduction to what to expect in my next blog posts.

I will discuss three ancient world libraries using various resources. The libraries I will be blogging about and researching are:

      1. The library of Ashurbanipal

      2. The library of Alexandria

      3. The library of the Vatican

These libraries were located in three different countries. I found out about these libraries through Wikipedia, I believe Wikipedia is a very resourceful website but one should be careful because all its materials can be edited by various amounts of people, so on using it's information always double check if you are not one hundred percent sure.

Ancient libraries are sacred places that hold resources of many different kinds such as scrolls, clay slates etc that hold information from centuries ago. These materials are irreplaceable and are studied by professionals to help create and shape the history books we own today.

List of libraries in the ancient world 2012, Wikipedia, viewed 22 April 2012, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_libraries_in_the_ancient_world>

All images sourced through GOOGLE.