Demetrius of Phalerum

Due to the passage of time, the scarcity of records from his time, and the varied scholarly examinations and interpretations of those records which do exist, the exact details of the life of Demetrius of Phalerum are hard to determine.

The information which follows is admittedly approximate in nature, but is designed to shed some light on the life of a man, who by all accounts, was a seminal, though largely forgotten, figure in the rise of librarianship, as it is known today.

Demetrius of Phalerum's life spanned a period
somewhere between 355 BC and 280 BC.

He has been variously described as a philosopher, scholar and statesman,
a pupil of Theophrastus, disciple of Aristotle, an Athenian politician,
an overseer of Athens - whose rule was marked by a decade of peace,
a member of the Peripatic school, and a prolific writer.

However, the greatest legacy of his life is his preeminent position of involvement
in the establishment of the ancient Library of Alexandria.

Whether the great Library of Alexandria was actually conceived by
Demetrius of Phalerum, as stated by some, or given to him as a mandate by
Ptolemy of Egypt, as stated by others, he is unquestionably the person who was instrumental in seeing that it was built and established
as the greatest library of that period.

The Library of Alexandria

A few facts about the ancient Library of Alexandria.

At its zenith, the Library of Alexandria held between 30,000 - 40,000 books, consisting of up to 750,000 scrolls.
It is difficult to determine the exact count, due to the different interpretations of information, by the scholars of today.

The library was the first truly universal library in history. It was meant to contain "all the books of the world" and "the writings of all nations." The Library of Alexandria was also a truly ecumenical institution, housing books of every religion of the known world. Works about the Greek gods and the gods of Egypt, Hebrew scriptures, as well as Buddhist texts all found their place in the library's collections.

After its establishment, as a part of The Mouseion (Museum) or Temple of the Muses,
it attracted many of the preeminent scholars of the day.

These scholars, whose names are still known today, included:
Euclid - the inventor of geometry
Herophilus - the father of anatomy
Ptolemateus - founder of cartography
Hero - who wrote on geometry and mechanics
Erastohenes - who calculated the circumference of the Earth, and others.

According to stories and legends passed down, ships and passengers
arriving in the port of Alexandria were searched for documents
which were not already in the Library of Alexandria.
Any such items found were seized and kept for the library, though some sources indicate that cheap copies of the originals were returned to the original owners.

Funds from the royal treasury paid the chief librarian and his scholarly staff.
To serve as director of the library was a great honor and seen as a stepping stone
for those whose ambitions included becoming government servants.

This page was mounted by Lizz Sims as a part of the "Dead Germans" project for the Spring - 2004,
IS490 (now IS510) class in the SIS program at the University of Tennessee,
under the direction of Dr. Gretchen Whitney.

Page last updated on: 01/24/07