The head of the library was a Director which was a post normally appointed by the court. This person also had the duties of serving as a tutor to the royal children. The first person to gain this position was Zenodotus of Ephesus; he was the first person to establish a sound text of Homeric poems. He was also a pioneer in library Science as it is believed that he was the one who developed the system that libraries used for shelving its holdings and the alphabetical order of organisation. It is believed that Zenodotus used Aristotles own collection as a Model for the Library in Alexandria but expanded on it (Casson, L. 2001, pg 37).
He also worked on establishing an Authorative text for Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey which was a long project that was continued by two of his future successors, Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarkhos, who compared newly received Homeric Manuscripts with texts already kept in the library (Lerner, F. 1999, pg 28-29).
In order for Zenodotus to put in place the library’s initial organization, he would have had to recruit other staff such as sorters, checkers, clerks, pages, copyists, repairers and so on. There would have been a lot of these workers helping out in the library but no information on these essential employees has ever been found. Like so many white collar workers of the Greek and Roman world, the majority were very likely to have been slaves (Casson, L. 2001, pg 37-38).
The next in line to Zenodotus position was Apollonius of Rhodes (Macleod, R. 2004, pg 70). He wrote the Argonautica which is a Greek epic poem. It is a mythical story of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts and their attempt to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the land of Colchis (Encyclopedia Britannica, [online], 9/22/2011).
The next person after Apollonius was Eratosthenes of Cyrene, the third chief librarian (Lerner, F. 1999, pg 29). He was a poet, philologist, geographer and literary historian and Mathematician. He successfully calculated the circumference of the earth and whilst serving as head librarian, he wrote a comprehensive essay about the world called Geography. This was the first ever use of the word which means literally “writing about the earth” in Greek. (About.com. Geography, [online], 9/14/2011).
Aristophanes of Byzantium became the 4th chief librarian (Macleod, R. 2004, pg 70). He was a Greek Critic, grammarian and Lexicographer. As a Lexicographer he accumulated collections of archaic and unusual words which included technical terms and proverbs. He was also the producer of a text of Homer and was also responsible for arranging Plato’s dialogues in Trilogies (Academic Universalium, [online], 9/14/2011).
Aristarchus of Samothrace was the 5th head of the Alexandria library who and lived during the rein of Ptolemy VI. He was most renowned for his Homeric scholarship. He was also famous for producing other editions and commentaries on other poets and playwrights (Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, [online], 9/14/2011).
Another person who is worth mentioning who also made important contributions to the library but was not a Librarian; Callimachus; a Greek poet and one of the greatest Scholars to work in the library. Callimachus was the creator of the Pinakes which was a catalogue of Greek authors and their works, along with biographical and literary information (Books and Writers, [online], 9/15 /11). Users of the library were able to determine the existence and location of a particular work; from his shelf-list which he created was a vital reference tool in the library (Casson, L. 2001, pg 41).
Whilst researching the information for this blog post, i was suprised to discover how inventive and tallented some of the librarians at this library were and how their new discoveries and inventions may have helped influenced future libraries from around the world. The books i used as a reference, gave me some information on the individual librarians who worked at the library of Alexandria. But i wasn't really satisfied as i wanted to know more about the individual librarians, so i found websites such as the Encyclopedia Britannica more helpful.
References:
Casson, L. 2001, Libraries in the Ancient World, Yale University Press, New Haven, USA.
Lerner, F. 1999, The Story of Libraries : from the invention of writing to the computer age, Continium Publishing, NY, USA.
MacLeod, R.M. 2004, The library of Alexandria : centre of learning in the ancient world, I.B. Tauris, London.
Information about Apollonius of Rhodes, available at:
Information about Eratosthenes, available at:
Information about Aristophanes of Byzantium, available at:
Information about Aristarchus of Samothrace, available at:
Information about Callimachus, available at:
Lever, T 2007, 'Golden Fleece Anyone'' [image] in Tama Lever's photostream, Flickr, viewed the 14th of September 2011, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamaleaver/689569580/
Ancientimages, 2004, 'Achilles dragging Hector' [image] in Ancientimages photostream, Flickr, viewed the 17th of September 2011, http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503110044@N01/157177/
Ancientimages, 2004, 'Achilles dragging Hector' [image] in Ancientimages photostream, Flickr, viewed the 17th of September 2011, http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503110044@N01/157177/
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