Libraries in the Ancient World - Review

Contemporary Review, Sept, 2001

Libraries in the Ancient World. Lionel Casson. Yale University Press. [pound]18.95. 177 pages. ISBN 0-300-08809-4. Anyone who uses libraries, whether public, private or university, anyone who loves books and anyone with an interest in the ancient world will have wondered how books were stored and used.

The author, an emeritus professor of classics in New York University, has answered those questions which such people would wish to ask him. How were books acquired, published and stored? What were 'books' like: scrolls, tablets or codices? How did libraries develop in the ancient world (from 300 BC) and in Greece? What was the famous library in Alexandria? What were libraries like in Rome and the Roman Empire? How did Christianity affect libraries? What was the degree and nature of the continuity between the collapsing Empire and the early Middle Ages? The author uses surviving written evidence, archaeological discoveries and grave stones. He shows that libraries as we know them began with the Greeks who develo ped the use of paper made from the papyrus plant. This is a fascinating account written by an expert who wears his learning lightly. It will interest and educate both the academic and the general reader who loves books and their history.