The Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Abstract

The Alexandrian Library has been the cultural center of the world for six centuries. It congregated scholars, from different origins, that developed works and researches of fundamental importance for knowledge. The learned librarians made accessible the works from many sources to the western world. Callimachus created a kind of organization for registered knowledge, which influenced ancient and medieval libraries, until our days. The etymology of words used in Antiquity explains their contemporary use in bibliographic representation. The destruction of the ancient Library is involved by legends of all kinds, including ones of preconceived historical statements. A brief report about the revival and the main characteristics of the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina establishes a parallel between the ancient and the new one, as symbols of knowledge and coexistence between different human beings and their views.