"The true, the most glorious monument of the Macedonian kings of Egypt is the Museum. Its influences will last when even the pyramids have passed away."
"The Alexandrian Museum was commenced by Ptolemy Soter, and was completed by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was situated in the Bruchion, the aristocratic quarter of the city, adjoining the king's palace. Built of marble, it was surrounded with a piazza, in which the residents might walk and converse togethr. Its sculptured apartments contained the Philadelphian library, and were crowded with the choicest statues and pictures. This library eventually comprised four hundred thousand volumes. In the course of time, probably on account of inadequate accommodation for so many books, an additional library was established in the adjacent quarter Rhacotis, and placed in the Serapion or temple of Serapis. The number of volumes in this library, which was called the Daughter of that in the Museum, was eventually three hundred thousand volumes in these royal collections."
"For the perpetuation of knowldge: Orders were given to the chief librarian to buy at the king's expense whatever books he could. A body of transcribers was maintained in the Museum, whose duty it was to make correct copies of such works as their owners were not disposed to sell. .....
"One of the chief objects of the Museum was that of serving as the home of a body of men who devoted themselves to study, and were lodged and maintained at the king's expense......in connection with the Museum were a botanical and a zoological garden...for the purpose of facilitating the study of plants and animals. There was also an astronomical observatory ....
"The library in the Museum was burnt during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar."
After a siege of fourteen months, and a loss of twenty-three thousand men, the Saracens captured the city. In his dispatch to the khalif, Amrou enumerated the splendors of the great city of the West." (no date given)
Another interesting tidbit: " His (Cyril, Bishop at Alexandria)hold upon the audiences of the giddy city was, however, much weakened by Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, who not only distinguished herself by her expositions of the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, but also by her comments on the writings of Apollonius and other geometers. Each day before her academy stood a long train of chariots; her lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and fashion of Alexandria. They came to listen to her discourses on those questions which man in all ages has asked, but which never yet have been answered; "What am I? Where am I? What can I know?"
(Cyril, promted by jealousy) "As Hypatia repaired to her academy, she was assaulted by Cyril's mob...a mob of many monks. Stripped naked in the street, she was dragged into a church, and there killed by the club of Peter the Reader. The corpse was cut to pieces, the flesh was scraped from the bones with shells, and the remnants cast into a fire. For this frightful crime Cyril was never called to account. It seemed to be admitted that the end sanctified the means."
"So ended Greek philosophy in Alexandria, so came to an untimely close the learning that the Ptolemies had done so much to promote. The "Daughter Library," that of the Serapion, had been dispersed. The fate of Hypatia was a warning to all who would cultivate profane knowledge." (A.D.414)
This book is part of my colletion of old books and has some fascinating things in it.