Libraries before Alexandria : ancient near eastern traditions /

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Bibliographic Details
Edition:	First edition.
Imprint:	Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.
Description:	xvii, 491 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour), maps (colour) ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Libraries -- Middle East -- History -- To 400. Libraries. Middle East. History.
Format:	Map Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11982169

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:	Ryholt, K. S. B., editor. Barjamovic, Gojko, editor.
ISBN:	0199655359 9780199655359
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	The creation of the Library of Alexandria is widely regarded as one of the great achievements in the history of humankind - a giant endeavour to amass all known literature and scholarly texts in one central location, so as to preserve it and make it available for the public. In turn, this event has been viewed as a historical turning point that separates the ancient world from classical antiquity. Standard works on the library continue to present the idea behind the institution as novel and, at least implicitly, as a product of Greek thought. 0Yet, although the scale of the collection in Alexandria seems to have been unprecedented, the notion of creating central repositories of knowledge, while perhaps new to Greek tradition, was age-old in the Near East where the building was erected. Here the existence of libraries can be traced back another two millennia, from the twenty-seventh century BCE to the third century CE, and so the creation of the Library in Alexandria was not so much the beginning of an intellectual adventure as the impressive culmination of a very long tradition.0This volume presents the first comprehensive study of these ancient libraries across the 'Cradle of Civilization' and traces their institutional and scholarly roots back to the early cities and states and the advent of writing itself. Leading specialists in the intellectual history of each individual period and region covered in the volume present and discuss the enormous textual and archaeological material available on the early collections, offering a uniquely readable account intended for a broad audience of the libraries in Egypt and Western Asia as centres of knowledge prior to the famous Library of Alexandria.

Table of Contents:

List of Map and Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
1. Libraries before Alexandria
2. The Rise of Libraries in Western Asia, c.2600-2300 BCE
3. Libraries in Ancient Egypt, c.2600-1600 BCE
4. Archives and Libraries in the Old Babylonian Period, c. 1900-1600 BCE
5. The Tablet Collections of the Hittite State, c.1650-1080 BCE
6. Libraries in Syria and the Levant in the Late Bronze Age, c.1450-1100 BCE
7. Libraries in Ancient Egypt, c. 1600-800 BCE
8. Scholarly Tablet Collections in First-Millennium Assyria and Babylonia, c.700-200 BCE
9. Assurbanipal's Library: An Overview
10. Libraries from Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt, c.800 BCE-250 CE
General Index

Libraries before Alexandria : ancient near eastern traditions /

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