Kallimachos: The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography

by Rudolf Blum, Hans H. Wellisch (Translator)

Overview

The famous library of Alexandria, founded around 295 BCE by Ptolemaios I, housed the greatest collection of texts in the ancient world and was a fertile site of Hellenistic scholarship. Rudolf Blum’s landmark study, originally published in German in 1977, argues that Kallimachos of Kyrene was not only the second director of the Alexandrian library but also the inventor of two essential scholarly tools still in use to this day: the library catalog and the “biobibliographical” reference work. Kallimachos expanded the library’s inventory lists into volumes called the Pinakes, which extensively described and categorized each work and became in effect a Greek national bibliography and the source and paradigm for most later bibliographic lists of Greek literature. Though the Pinakes have not survived, Blum attempts a detailed reconstruction of Kallimachos’s inventories and catalogs based on a careful analysis of surviving sources, which are presented here in full translation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299131739
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	06/01/2011
Series:	Wisconsin Studies in Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Rudolf Blum (1909–98) was library director of the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt, Germany. Hans H. Wellisch (1920–2004) was professor emeritus of the College of Library and Information Services at the University of Maryland, College Park.
 

Table of Contents

Translator's Preface

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Forerunners: Aristotle, His Predecessors and Pupils

2.1 The Beginnings of Greek Philology and Literary History

2.2 The Works of Aristotle on Philology and Literary History

2.3 Aristotle's list of Performances of Plays in Athens (Didaskaliai)

2.4 The Doxographic Works of Aristotle and His Pupils

2.5 The Works of the Peripatetics on Philology, literary History and Biography Until the Middle of the Third Century B.C.

2.6 The Library of Aristotle

3. Preconditions: The Museion and Its Library

3.1 The Museion at Alexandria

3.2 The Library of the Museion According to the Ancient Authors

3.3 The Library According to the Report of Ioannes Tzetzes

4. Kallimachos and His Lists of Greek Authors and Their Works

4.1 The Life and Work of Kallimachos. His Work as a Librarian. His Scholarly Works (Except Lists of Authors)

4.2 His List of Attic Playwrights

4.3 His List of the Works of Demokritos

4.4 His Lists of Greek Authors and Their Works

5. Later Lists of Greek Writers and Their Works

5.1 The Pinakes of Kallimachos as Examples and Sources of Later Lists

5.2 The Inscription of a Library Catalog in Rhodos

5.3 Biographies of Authors with Lists of Their Works

5.4 The List of Aristotle's Writings by Andronikos of Rhodos

5.5 The Treatise of Dionysios of Halikamassos on the Orator Deinarchos

5.6 The Work of Diogenes Laertios on the Lives and Opinions of Famous Philosophers

5.7 The List of Those Renowned in Branches of Learning by Hesychios of Miletos

6. The Development and Character of Kallimachos's lists of Greek Authors and Their Works

7. The Achievements of Kallimachos in the Field of Bibliography

Bibliography

Name and Subject Index

Title Index

Editorial Reviews

Translated from the landmark 1977 German study of the Alexandrian Library, argues that Kallimachos of Kyrene, the library's second director, about 260 B.C., was the inventor of two essential scholarly tools: the library catalog and the reference bibliography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

An invaluable resource for anyone interested in the development of ancient bibliography.”—Jerry Clack, The Classic World

“Blum . . . shows how the potential of the Alexandrian library was realized by its earliest curators. In doing so, he has contributed much to our understanding of the nature of the ancient library at Alexandria and its significance in the history of bibliography.”—Graham Jefcoate, Library Quarterly

From the Publisher