4 ms·
I appreciate the metaphor with the Library of Alexandria, but TIL that it may not have burned catastrophically and may have been rebuilt after: https://en.m.wik
by lenocinor 4y ago
I appreciate the metaphor with the Library of Alexandria, but TIL that it may not have burned catastrophically and may have been rebuilt after: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
“Despite the widespread modern belief that the Library of Alexandria was burned once and cataclysmically destroyed, the Library actually declined gradually over the course of several centuries. This decline began with the purging of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145 BC during the reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon, which resulted in Aristarchus of Samothrace, the head librarian, resigning from his position and exiling himself to Cyprus...The Library, or part of its collection, was accidentally burned by Julius Caesar during his civil war in 48 BC, but it is unclear how much was actually destroyed and it seems to have either survived or been rebuilt shortly thereafter; the geographer Strabo mentions having visited the Mouseion in around 20 BC and the prodigious scholarly output of Didymus Chalcenterus in Alexandria from this period indicates that he had access to at least some of the Library's resources.”
- Kim_Bruning 4y agoIt's not just a metaphor, btw. IA actually partners with the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina#Internet_Archive_partnership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina#Intern...
- hansoolo 4y agoWow, this is really cool!
- theli0nheart 4y agoCame here to write this. That Julius Caesar burned the library seems to be a common misconception.
- legitimayzer 4y agothe roman catholics burned it so to make their mythical "jesus" figure stick. with the info destroyed in that fire we became 'disconnected' from the real historical jesus; thereby enabling the rise of the mythical figure tweaked to allow easier control of the masses. "what would jesus do?"
- totetsu 4y agoThis is what I was thinking reading the part of the discussion here about IA being too big or important to fail.. Important to who, to which type of society and social order.. In a post truth antagonistic tribal world, archives are not important to society
- tap-snap-or-nap 4y agoIt is few people and their passionate thankless decades of unpaid labour that we all heavily rely on.