Presentation on when the first libraries appeared. What is a library? Books in Ancient Greece

Libraries of antiquity Completed by students of class 2 “B” “Books are compressed time” Marietta Shaginyan

Introduction to ancient history There are many large libraries known that were collected by the rulers of the great ancient states in order to preserve the most valuable information from the knowledge accumulated by previous civilizations for the benefit of future generations. However, the vast majority of books from these archives are now considered irretrievably lost.

What is a library? A library is a cultural, educational and scientific auxiliary institution that organizes the public use of printed works. Libraries systematically collect, store, promote and issue printed works to readers, as well as information and bibliographic work.

The library of Pharaoh Ramses 11 is considered one of the most ancient. It was above its entrance, trimmed in gold, that the inscription “Pharmacy for the Soul” was carved. Founded around 1300 BC. near the city of Thebes, she kept papyrus books in boxes, clay jars, and later in wall niches. They were used by pharaohs, priests, scribes, and officials. They were inaccessible to the common population.

The first libraries appeared in the first millennium BC in the ancient East. According to history, the very first library is considered to be a collection of clay tablets dating back to approximately 2500 BC. BC, discovered in the temple of the Babylonian city of Nippur (present-day Iraq). This collection of books was located in 70 huge rooms and consisted of up to 60 thousand clay tablets, on which texts containing information about religious events (for example, the tale of the Great Flood), lyrics to deities, legends and myths about the emergence of civilization, were recognized. various fables, sayings and proverbs. Each of the books had labels with inscriptions about the content: “Healing”, “History”, “Statistics”, “Cultivation of plants”, “Description of the area” and others.

Library found during excavations in the city of Nippur

Nineveh Fireproof Library The city of Nineveh was still known from the Bible, and was discovered only in 1846 by G. Layard, an English lawyer who accidentally found several tablets from the Nineveh Library. Visitors were greeted by the inscription: “The palace of Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom the great gods gave ears to hear, and open eyes to see, which represents the essence of government. This wedge-shaped letter I wrote on the tiles, I numbered them, I put them in order, I placed them in my palace for the instruction of my subjects."

The library of Nineveh contained on the clay pages of its books everything that was rich in the cultures of Sumer and Akkad. The Books of Clay told the world that the wise mathematicians of Babylon did not limit themselves to four arithmetic operations. They calculated percentages and were able to measure the area of ​​different geometric shapes, they had their own multiplication table, they knew squaring and extraction square root. The modern seven-day week was also born in Mesopotamia, where the foundation of modern astronomy concepts about the structure and development of celestial bodies was laid. The books were kept in strict order. At the bottom of each plate was the full title of the book, and next to it was the page number. The library also had a catalog in which the title, number of lines, and the branch of knowledge to which the book belonged were recorded. Finding the right book was not difficult: a small clay tag with the name of the department was attached to each shelf - just like in modern libraries.

Library of Nineveh

In ancient Greece, the first public library was founded in Heraclea by the tyrant Clearchus (IV century BC).

The largest and most famous library of antiquity, the Alexandrian library, was founded in the 111th century BC.

Libraries Ancient Rus' The first library in Rus' was founded in the city of Kyiv in 1037 by the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise. Books for the library were also bought from other countries. The prince placed some of these books in the Church of St. Sophia, founding the first library. The first library in Rus', created in this way in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, grew and was enriched with book treasures in subsequent years.

Library of the Church of St. Pieters (Netherlands)

Library of the monastery in Waldsassen (Germany)

British Museum Library (London)

Conclusion Libraries began to be created by the kings of the ancient kingdoms. Legends tell of amazing libraries Ancient World, such as the library of the Assyrian Kingdom, the Babylonian Kingdom, the Library of Thebes in Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman Libraries, the famous Library of Alexandria. Every city has its own library and every country has its own State National Library. And no matter in what form books exist - on papyri or CD-roms - their repositories - libraries - have always been, are and will be needed by humanity!

Library, translated from Greek – “biblio” - book, “teka” - repository, that is, “storehouse of books”.

The role of libraries in people's lives can be judged by the figurative names that have long been assigned to them. They were called temples of wisdom, the memory of humanity, repositories of the treasures of civilization.

The library is ordinary and at the same time amazing place, because books live in this room. We are accustomed to a book, we rarely think of it as a miracle, as a treasure, and it happens that we do not always appreciate and take care of it. But think about it, until recently the book was the only means of transmitting knowledge from generation to generation. As soon as people invented writing, it became possible to collect and accumulate knowledge.

The entire history of the human mind is connected with books and libraries. This is not a calm story at all! They fought for books, burned them, lost them, found them, dug them up in the ruins of cities buried by time, saved them from enemy invasion as the most precious thing. Today's library seems to be the epitome of peace, quiet and order.

As at all times, she serves people. It is interesting that the first libraries were not just a room where books were stored: they were real libraries in the full sense of the word. There were special tablets on which the first lines of the works stored in the library were written, which helped to conveniently group and then find the required literary source.

The very first libraries appeared in Ancient Egypt. They were called "houses of papyrus" and "houses of life." They were created at palaces and temples. Egyptian pharaohs gave great importance education. During excavations above the entrance to one of the rooms of the palace of Ramses II, archaeologists discovered the inscription: “Pharmacy for the soul.” According to the ancient Egyptians, books can be compared to a medicine that makes a person’s mind strong and ennobles his soul.

In the 19th century, archaeologists excavated the capital of the Assyrian kings, Nineveh, on the banks of the Tigris River and discovered a cuneiform library there, established by King Ashurbanipal. It was called the “House of Instructions and Advice” and was a huge collection of clay tablets, which, at the direction of the king, were taken from the temples and from the houses of noble and educated Assyrians.

The tablets remained for about twenty years in the British Museum in London. When scientists managed to decipher the cuneiform, it became clear that this was a whole library of clay books. Each such “book” consisted of “sheets” - tablets of the same size. On each tablet was the title of the book - the initial words of the first tablet, and also the number of the “sheet”. The books were placed in strict order, there were catalogs - lists indicating the names of the books and the number of lines in each tablet. It is noteworthy that this library had a thematic catalogue. All her books were divided into topics: history, law, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, legends and myths. The catalog reflected the title of the work. As well as the room and shelf where one should look for the desired sign. About 30 thousand clay books were kept there, each of which had a cuneiform stamp on it: “Palace of Ashurbanipal, King of the Universe, King of Assyria.” The Library of Nineveh is the most famous ancient library.

Ancient Greece, or Hellas, was famous for its scientists and philosophers who created schools and academies with libraries. The first public library was founded by the tyrant Clearchus in Heraclea. The largest private library was considered to be the collection of the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle. Aristotle's library in Lyca, in the Athens region, where the great ancient philosopher gave his lectures, contained tens of thousands of scrolls. After the death of the scientist, his library became part of the Museion, the Temple of the Muses. During excavations at Geherculaneum, the library of the poet Philodemus was discovered, which contained about 1860 scrolls.

The center of Egyptian culture was Alexandria, where the Ptolemaic dynasty ruled. At the beginning of the third century BC, Ptolemy I decided to turn Egypt into a center of culture and the arts and founded the famous Museion (following the example of the Athenian one). It was a huge ensemble: a university with classrooms and living quarters, an observatory, a botanical garden, a zoo and a famous library of papyrus scrolls. Ptolemy II expanded the Library of Alexandria, sending his people to all corners of the world to obtain the most valuable works.

Under Ptolemy II, the patron saint of scientists and poets, the Museion and the Library of Alexandria reached their greatest prosperity. The son of Ptolemy II, Ptolemy III, issued a decree according to which anyone arriving in the harbor was obliged to give up or sell the books he had. They were transferred to the library, and copies were returned to the owners with a note that they corresponded to the original. The library's collection consisted of 700-800 thousand texts in many languages.

In 47 BC, part of the library burned down, the other was destroyed during clashes between pagans and Christians.

Modern Library of Alexandria. Egypt.

The Library of Alexandria was rivaled by the Library of Pergamon, which was created in the second century BC and contained about 200 thousand papyrus and parchment manuscripts. The Pergamon Library was second only to the Library of Alexandria in terms of the size of its collection. Most of it consisted of medical treatises - Pergamum was considered the center of medicine. The history of the library ended in 43 BC, when Pergamum became a province of Rome, and most of the books ended up in the Library of Alexandria.

Today Pergamum is located in Turkey, and the ruins of the library are among the tourist sites.

The first Roman public library was created according to Greek models by Sesonius Pollio. Later, libraries arose in the Roman Empire, established by the emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Trajan, and Byzantine rulers. The earliest Christian libraries arose in large Episcopal churches.

In 1037, the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise (about 980 - 1054) founded the first library in Kievan Rus. She was in the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral. It was the most complete collection of written monuments of Ancient Rus' - the Gospel, books of prophets, lives of saints. Important government documents were also kept here. 500 volumes - not many European libraries could boast of such a collection at that time. It is unknown where the library of Yaroslav the Wise disappeared: perhaps it perished during a great fire in 1124 or was destroyed in 1240 during the defeat of Kyiv by the troops of the Mongol Khan Batu.

One of the most mysterious libraries is the library of the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1530 – 1584). He possessed a unique book collection, which he kept in the deep dungeons of the Kremlin. Foreigners who saw the book collection said that there were, among other things, very rare books. After the death of the king, his library became a legend, as it disappeared without a trace. The mystery of the library has haunted historians and archaeologists for centuries. To this day, the search for the library has not been successful.

Since the time when the first libraries arose, their custodians have been concerned that books do not go missing. The book sign has long served this purpose. Nowadays it is called bookplate.

The first public library in Russia was the Public Library in St. Petersburg. It was founded in 1795. It was allowed to be visited by “all decently dressed citizens” three days a week from 9 am until sunset.

The largest in Russia, and the second in the world in terms of the number of stored materials (after the US Library of Congress) is the Russian State Library in Moscow (until 1992 - Lenin Library). It contains about 40 million publications. Currently, microfiche, microfilms, transparencies, audio and video cassettes are becoming more and more widespread and included in the collection of libraries, and electronic media are also becoming more widespread.

Libraries are: state, municipal, private, educational and scientific.

There are special libraries: historical, medical, technical, pedagogical, artistic, agricultural, etc.

And there are the most ordinary libraries, which are always close to home - regional ones, where you can just go and read a few pages about something interesting or leaf through a magazine that you have no longer been able to subscribe to or buy.

And there are probably also personal (home) libraries in every family, at least those about which Conan Doyle wrote: “Let your bookshelf be poor, let it decorate your home. Close the door of the room from the inside... You have left everything low, everything vulgar behind. Here, waiting for you, your silent friends stand in rows. Look around their formation. Choose the one that is closest to your soul now. Now all that remains is to reach out to him and go with him to the land of dreams.”

Eternal companions: writers about books, reading, bibliophilia / Comp. A. Blum. - M: Book, 1983. - 223 p.

School Student's Handbook. History of world culture / Comp. F. Kapitsa.- M.: Philological. society “Slovo”, TKO “AST”, 1996.- 610 p.

Great libraries // Book world Terra – 2000- No. 2 – p.44-45

In very distant times, when people could neither read nor write, they stored their thoughts, laws, and legends in their memory. Those who told stories were called “storytellers.” They were always welcome guests at feasts. People listened to their story to the sounds of the lyre and gusli...

PICTOGRAPHY “pictorial writing”, a way of transmitting information through the image of some objects or events. It is considered the oldest stage in the development of writing. Pictograms can be any rock carvings or inscriptions or drawings scratched on bones, painted on skin, etc.

In northern Spain there is a cave with beautiful name Altamira, drawings left by primitive people were first discovered on its walls. Nowadays, there are many such art galleries around the world. These are the first books in the history of mankind - “stone books”. Ancient hunting scene. Image of a bull.

Petroglyph (Greek petra - rock, glyphe - carving) are images of animals, birds, fish, boats, people and strange signs carved on stones and rocks. Karelian petroglyphs are outstanding monuments that are world famous. “Stone Chronicle”, “Stone Age Bible” - that’s what researchers call them.

In the Asian city of Pergamon, a replacement for papyrus was found. Finely dressed sheep skins served as a new material for writing. This is how parchment appeared. It differed favorably from its predecessors; it could be bent, cut, stitched... Long haul made sheep skin to become a book...

Tsai Lun “Take old rags, lumps of cotton wool, pieces of fishing nets, tree bark, throw it all into a vat of water and shake until you get a homogeneous paste. Strain this paste through a mesh, roll out into a thin layer and let it dry...”

“Those who cannot write cannot appreciate what great and hard work it is. It ruins your vision and bends your back. Therefore, O reader, turn the pages slowly, and be careful not to keep your fingers on the text. An ignorant reader who destroys a book is like hail that destroys a harvest.”

Clerk Ivan Fedorov is the founder of book printing in Rus'. His “Apostle” is a true example of the remarkable printing art of that time. The entire life and work of Ivan Fedorov, as far as we now know from scanty and fragmentary information, was imbued with the desire to develop national culture and education.

The cover is the face of the book. It can be soft, then it is called a “cover”. Soft covers are usually thin books whose pages are held together with a paper clip, like your notebooks. Or maybe it’s made of hard cardboard, in which case it’s called “binding.” Thick books with big amount pages that are difficult to secure with simple paper clips.

A book block consists of paper sheets collected in a notebook, in a certain order and fastened together. The place where the notebooks are held together in the finished book is called the spine. Pieces of colored braid - captal - are glued to the top and bottom of the spine. In modern editions, the capital is preserved, rather, according to tradition and serves to decorate the book.

The flyleaf is a double sheet of paper connecting the book block to the binding cover. Translated from German, flyleaf means “before typesetting.” Frontispiece is a drawing placed on the back of the flyleaf. Translated from French it means “looking into the forehead”

The title page is one of the first pages of the book, preceding the text of the work. The title page contains the main output information: name of the author, title of the book, place of publication, name of the publisher, year of publication. Sometimes additional information is included on the title page: names of persons who took part in the publication, executive editor, translator, etc.

Slide 2

ANCIENT LIBRARIES