The Musaeum or Mouseion of Alexandria ( grc, Μουσεῖον τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας; ), which arguably included the
Great Library of Alexandria
The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, t ...
, was an institution said to have been founded by
Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I Soter (; gr, Πτολεμαῖος Σωτήρ, ''Ptolemaîos Sōtḗr'' "Ptolemy the Savior"; c. 367 BC – January 282 BC) was a Macedonian Greek general, historian and companion of Alexander the Great from the Kingdom of Macedon ...
and his son
Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
Originally, the word ''mouseion'' meant any place that was dedicated to the
Muses, often related to the study of music or poetry, but later associated with sites of learning such as
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...
's
Academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
and
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...
's
Lyceum.
The
Ptolemies reputedly established their Mouseion and Library with the intention of bringing together some of the best scholars of the
Hellenistic world and collect all the books known at the time.
Although it did not imply a collection of works of art, the word ''mouseion'' is the root for the modern usage of the word
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...
.
History
According to
Johannes Tzetzes, the Mouseion was an institution founded by Ptolemy I Soter (c. 367 BC–c. 283 BC) at
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandr ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...
, though it is more likely that Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC) saw to its completion.
[There is no ancient source for the founding either of the Library or the Musaeum, ]Roger S. Bagnall
Roger Shaler Bagnall (born August 19, 1947 in Seattle) is an American classical scholar. He was a professor of classics and history at Columbia University from 1974 until 2007, when he took up the position of first Director of the Institute for the ...
notes, in "Alexandria: Library of Dreams", ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 146.4 (December 2002:348-362) p. 348. We rely instead on the self-confident but unreliable Byzantine scholar Johannes Tzetzes' remarks in an introduction to Aristotle. As a community gathered together under the protection of the Muses, the Mouseion remained supported over the centuries by the patronage of the royal family of the Ptolemies, and later by that of the
Roman emperors.
[Entr]
Μουσείον
at Liddell & Scott
Unlike the modern
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...
in the sense that has developed since the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
, the Mouseion of Alexandria did not have a collection of sculpture and painting presented as works of art, as was assembled by the Ptolemies' rival
Attalus Attalus or Attalos may refer to:
People
*Several members of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon
** Attalus I, ruled 241 BC–197 BC
** Attalus II Philadelphus, ruled 160 BC–138 BC
** Attalus III, ruled 138 BC–133 BC
*Attalus, father of ...
at the
Library of Pergamum. Instead, it was an institution of learning that attracted some of the best scholars of the
Hellenistic world, as
Germain Bazin puts it, "analogous to the modern
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
in
Princeton or to the
Collège de France in Paris."
It is uncertain how many scholars lived in the Mouseion at any given time, as surviving reports are few and rather brief.
Nonetheless, it appears that scholars and staff members were salaried by the State and paid no taxes. According to
Strabo, they also received free room and board, and free servants.
The Mouseion was administered by a priest appointed by the King of Egypt.
Based on extant works of scholars associated with the Mouseion, it seems likely that
literary criticism and other similar activities (possibly including
scientific research
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific ...
) took place there.
In addition to Greek works, some foreign texts were translated from Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Jewish, and other languages.
Many of the edited versions of the
Greek canon that we know today, from
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...
and
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...
forward, exist in editions that were collated and corrected by the scholars assembled in the Mouseion and the Library of Alexandria.
Appearance
In the first century AD, the Greek geographer Strabo described the Mouseion as part of a bigger, richly decorated campus of buildings and gardens:
The ''Mouseion'' is also part of the ''Brucheion'' (palace complex), possessing a ''peripatos'' (lobby), an ''exedra'' (columned hall), and large ''oikos'' (dining hall), in which the common table of the ''philologoi'', men who are members of the ''Mouseion'', is located. This ''synodos'' (assembly) has property in common and a priest in charge of the ''Mouseion'', formerly appointed by the kings, but now by Caesar.
According to this description, the Mouseion featured a roofed walkway, an arcade of seats, and a communal dining room where scholars routinely ate and shared ideas.
The building may have also hosted private study rooms, residential quarters, and lecture halls, based on
similar structures found in Alexandria,
though it is unclear if the premises provided accommodations for anatomical research or astronomical observations.
In addition to the Great Library, another smaller library was housed in the nearby
Serapeum (Temple of
Serapis), which may have been open to people other than Mouseion scholars.
Decline
During the reign of
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, at a time of territorial losses and political turmoil in Egypt, most intellectuals were either killed or expelled from the city, including the last recorded head librarian of the Great Library,
Aristarchus of Samothrace, who supposedly was forced to resign his position in 145 BC and died in exile a few years later.
Johannes Tzetzes and other Byzantine sources do not mention any further directors after him, albeit four obscure 'caretakers' are mentioned in an
Oxyrhynchus fragment, and an inscription from the 80s BC speaks of a certain Onesander of
Paphos being appointed to the Great Library. Despite the fact that the Mouseion continued as an institution under Roman rule, when
Strabo gave his description of it, it never regained its former glory.
According to
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
,
[Suetonius, ''Claudius'', 42] the emperor
Claudius added an additional building.
[Edward Jay Watts, (2008), ''City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria'', page 147. University of California Press] Under the emperors, membership of the Mouseion was not limited to prominent scholars but included politicians, athletes, and other people rewarded for their support of the emperor.
[Edward Jay Watts, (2008), ''City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria'', page 148. University of California Press] Emperor
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor ...
temporarily suspended membership in the Mouseion in 216 AD,
[ Butler, Alfred, ]
The Arab Conquest of Egypt – And the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion
', p. 411. and it appears that by this time the center of learning in Alexandria had moved to the
Serapeum.
Destruction
The last known references to the old Mouseion still functioning occur in the 260s AD.
[Edward Jay Watts, (2008), ''City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria'', page 150. University of California Press] The Brucheion, the complex of palaces and gardens that included the Mouseion, was probably destroyed by fire on the orders of Emperor
Aurelian
Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited ...
in 272 AD, although we do not know for sure how much of the original buildings still existed at the time.
Scattered references in later sources suggest that another ''mouseion'' was established in the 4th century at a different location, but little is known about its organisation and it is unlikely to have had the resources of its predecessor.
The mathematician
Theon of Alexandria (ca. 335– ca. 405), father of the philosopher
Hypatia, is described in the 10th century ''
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...
'' as "the man from the Mouseion," but it is not clear what connection he actually had with it.
Zacharias Rhetor and
Aeneas of Gaza both speak of a physical space known as the "Mouseion" in the late 5th century.
Legacy
The Ptolemies founded their Mouseion at a time of transition in
Greek history, during the passage from a predominantly oral to a more literary culture. The scholars gathered there included:
*
Callimachus
Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide variet ...
, a poet and the first to publish a comprehensive book catalogue (the ''
Pinakes'').
*
Zenodotos
Zenodotus ( grc-gre, Ζηνόδοτος) was a Greek grammarian, literary critic, Homeric scholar, and the first librarian of the Library of Alexandria. A native of Ephesus and a pupil of Philitas of Cos, he lived during the reigns of the fi ...
, the first
head librarian of the Great Library, who laid the foundations for
Homeric philology.
*
Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius of Rhodes ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος Ῥόδιος ''Apollṓnios Rhódios''; la, Apollonius Rhodius; fl. first half of 3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek author, best known for the ''Argonautica'', an epic poem about Jason and t ...
, epic poet and author of the ground-breaking ''
Argonautica
The ''Argonautica'' ( el, Ἀργοναυτικά , translit=Argonautika) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''Argonautica'' tells the myth of the voyage of Jas ...
.''
*
Eratosthenes of Cyrene, head librarian under
Ptolemy III Euergetes and a polymath, who worked on literary criticism, philosophy, geography, and mathematics (e.g., his
sieve for prime numbers and his
measure of the earth’s circumference).
* Aristarchus of Samothrace, arguably the greatest grammarian of antiquity, who invented conventional signs nowadays used in
critical editions.
*
Didymos of Alexandria, known as βιβλιολάθας (“Book-Forgetting”), who composed more than 4,000 commentaries on classical authors.
The members of the Mouseion ensured the preservation and production of historical, literary, and scientific works, which would remain part of the Western heritage, and thanks to their efforts today one can still read Homer and the tragedians.
As an institution dedicated to the Muses, the name ''mouseion'' became the source for the modern word ''
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...
''.
In early modern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
, it denoted as much a community of scholars brought together under one roof as it did the collections themselves. French and English writers often referred to these collections originally as a "
cabinet of curiosities." A catalogue of the 17th century collection of
John Tradescant the Elder and his son
John Tradescant the Younger was the founding core of the
Ashmolean Museum in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...
. It was published as ''
Musaeum Tradescantianum: or, a Collection of Rarities. Preserved at South-
Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area ex ...
near
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
by John Tradescant'' (1656).
References
Further reading
*M MacLeod, Roy, ''The Library of Alexandria: Centre of learning in the ancient world,'' 2000.
*El-Abbadi, Mostafa, ''The life and fate of the ancient library of Alexandria,'' 1990.
*Canfora, Luciano, ''The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World,'' 1987.
*Young Lee, Paula, "The Musaeum of Alexandria and the formation of the 'Museum' in eighteenth-century France," in ''The Art Bulletin,'' September 1997.
{{Authority control
Ptolemaic Alexandria
Defunct museums in Egypt
Former buildings and structures in Egypt
History museums in Egypt
Museology
*
Types of museums
Museums in Alexandria