Mouseion

Muse statue, a common scholarly motif in the Hellenistic age.

The Mouseion of Alexandria (Ancient Greek: Μουσεῖον τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας; Latin: Musaeum Alexandrinum), which arguably included the Library of Alexandria,[1] was an institution said to have been founded by Ptolemy I Soter and his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus.[2] Originally, the word mouseion meant any place that was dedicated to the Muses, often related to the study of music or poetry, but later associated with sites of learning such as Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum.[3][4]

The Ptolemies reputedly established their Mouseion and Library with the intention of bringing together some of the best scholars of the Hellenistic world and collect all the books known at the time.[5][6] Although it did not imply a collection of works of art, the word mouseion is the root for the modern usage of the word museum.

  1. ^ The relation of the institutions is still a matter of debate. The Mouseion is discussed by P.M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria (1972: vol. I: 213–219 etc), and Mostafa el-Addabi, The Life and Fate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria (Paris 1990: 84–90).
  2. ^ Russo, L. (2004). The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why It Had to Be Reborn. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-18904-3. ISBN 978-3-540-20068-0.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Natali, C. (2013). Aristotle: His Life and School. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-4600-9.
  5. ^ Berti, M.; Costa, V. (2009), The Ancient Library of Alexandria. A Model for Classical Scholarship in the Age of Million Book Libraries 1, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.158.2953
  6. ^ Lynch, J. P. (1972). Aristotle's school; a study of a Greek educational institution. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02194-5. OCLC 548489.

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