Of Grandeur and Intellectual Gold; Int’l Museum Day
Of Grandeur and Intellectual Gold; Int’l Museum Day 𓁿
April showers are said to bring May flowers, but there’s so much more to what this month showcases and pays respect to. Whether you pronounce it May, Mai, Mei, Maggio, Mayo, or the like; May honours our dear Mothers of the world, the birth of Summer, yet calling forth light & attention to Mental Health, and also a sweet ode to International Museum Day. Did you know?
PHOTOGRAPH © 2021 The Collector.com.
Museums play a crucial role in preserving culture, as they are so much more than buildings cradling relics and historical storytellers. Metropolitan Museum of Art president, Thomas Campbell says “Nothing replaces the authenticity of the object presented with passionate scholarship. Bringing people face-to-face with our objects is a way of bringing them face-to-face with people across time, across space, whose lives may have been different from our own but who, like us, have hopes and dreams, frustrations and achievements in their lives.” Got the chills, even a little? I do!! That’s why this week’s post shines a light on a museum to always remember, and honour. The Museum and Library of Alexandria.
The Great Library of Alexandria 3D Models by Kevin Kok.
Built-in Egypt in 283 B.C., this structure was a complex shrine modeled after the Lyceum of Aristotle in Athens. Compelled as a center for intellectual and philosophical lectures and discussions. It was envisioned and cultivated as a library and museum that would house a copy of every book in the world, an institution to revival that of Athens. More than 100 scholars were housed within the Museum, whose job was to carry out scientific research, lectures, yet to also collect, copy, translate, and publish original manuscripts of Greek authors. As well as translated works from Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Buddhist texts and Hebrew scriptures.
From AncientWorldMagazine.com’s, Making the myth of the Library of Alexandria.
This Royal Library was an unfortunate casualty of war. Sadly in 48 BCE Julius Cesar became involved in a civil war in Egypt between Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII, in which fire and siege destroyed this iconic structure. Estimates of the total number of books in the library vary. The earliest surviving figure, from the 3rd century BCE, was reported as more than 200,000 books. However, later research between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE records a higher estimate of nearly 700,000 editions.
To learn more, visit The Musaeum of Alexandria and the Formation of the Muséum in Eighteenth-Century France by Paula Young Lee.
Thank you Antuan and Curatorial Labs for this editorial feature and sharing this privileged and special place of honour to always be remembered.
