The famous Library of Alexandria was created by Ptolemy I Soter and its first librarian was Zenodotus of Ephesus.
BTW, the second librarian was Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who was the first to measure the Earth's cicumference... "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
My mind acheth.
So...I have read up on the library and have some questions.
1) Why were the greeks running a library in Alexandria?
My initial assumption: because the Pharaoh stumped up the cash.
After Ptolemy I Soter, on of Alexander's successful generals, secured the kingship for himself of conquered Egypt, Theophrastus turned down the Pharoah's invitation in 297 B.C.E to tutor Ptolemy's heir, and instead recommended Demetrius, who had recently been driven out from Athens as a result of political fallout from the conflicts of Alexander's successors
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Ellen/Museum.html#RTFToC3
Oh, intrigue! Greek generals bashing about, establishing a centre of learning in Egypt. Why Egypt?
Well...was it a historic centre of learning? Or was it...opportune?
So. It was founded by a greek dictator exile, another greek declared himself king of Egypt, and soon enough the dictator was translating, starting with the Old Testament.
Sounds to me as though the greeks had the cultural and economic clout to set up a "world library" and had greeks as librarians, and the works of greeks such as Aristotle and Plato; but the idea was to collect the world's knowledge which, for me, pre-supposes a world of knowledge they wanted to capture, for many reasons but I assume at least some were scientific.
But Ikernov nussink! I'm just following a thread...in my head...
...What about the vedic traditions?
I can't see that knowledge was unshared. My guess: the various knowledge bases were seeking to coalesce under the shadow of power-battles among the rich and powerful.
So I'd expect some greek bias in the library, but I'm only interested in...what? In the capacities of human thought and invention I suppose. And also (look around us!) at the power of...human power...to break knowledge, to destroy information deleterious to the human power...that would seek to break it.
I must thank you, Melanchthon, and you too, DoDo! Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
