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The Library of Alexandria: 400,000-700,000 scrolls

The Library of Alexandria, founded around 280 BC under Ptolemy II (with origins under Ptolemy I), held somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 papyrus scrolls, the figure depending on which ancient source you trust. Keep in mind that a "scroll" was nothing like a modern book. One work might run across several scrolls; the Iliad, for instance, came in 24. That means the catalog of distinct works was a good deal smaller than the headline number suggests. The library sat within the Mouseion and set out to gather every text in the known world, and ships that docked at Alexandria had their scrolls copied as a kind of tax. The decline arrived in stages. There was the fire during Julius Caesar's siege in 48 BC, then the destruction of the daughter library at the Serapeum in 391 AD, and finally the disputed Arab destruction in 642 AD. Each blow added to losses we can no longer measure, and works by Sappho, Aeschylus and dozens of Greek mathematicians survive only as names.

Applications

It works as a reference point for the history of ancient libraries, for history of science classes, for debates about cultural preservation, and as background for the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, opened in 2002 on a site near the original and built to hold 8 million books.

FAQ

Was a scroll equivalent to a book? No. A long work might fill 20-30 scrolls, while a short poem fit on a single one. Counted as modern bound books, the collection would shrink considerably.

Who really destroyed it? There was no single culprit. A series of fires, plain neglect, religious purges and shifting politics took it apart bit by bit over seven centuries.

How much was lost? There's no exact figure, but it was likely most of the Hellenistic scientific and literary output. Only a small fraction came down to us through Byzantine and Arab copies.