- One of the oldest Libraries of the Ancient World was the Library of Mari in Syria (1800-1750 BCE) with 15,000 clay tablets written in Akkadian script.
- The Great Library of Alexandria was the Mediterranean academic centre of Learning from its foundation in c.300 BCE until the end of the Roman Empire in 476 CE.
Greek Libraries
- Great Library of Alexandria
- It had 400,000 Works. (c.300 BCE – 391 CE)
- At its foundation, it incorporated the much older Ancient Egyptian Library from the Great Temple of Ra-Atum at Heliopolis.
- Great Library of Pergamum
- It had 200,000 Works according to Plutarch.
- This library was supposedly given by Mark Anthony to Queen Cleopatra VII, who added it to the Great Library of Alexandria.
- Library of Appellicon of Teos
- Library of Mithridates VI of Pontus, King of Pontus (120-63 BCE)
- Taken to Rome in 63 BCE by the Roman General Lucius Lucullus.
- Library of Celsus
- Located in Ephesus (117-135 CE) it had 12,000 Works.
- Imperial Library of King Perseus of Macedon
- Its contents were taken to Rome in 168 BCE.
Roman Libraries
- The Seven Libraries of Rome
- Imperial Library of Constantinople
- Founded by Constantius II (337-361 CE) had 100,000 Works.
- The Roman Library of Pantaino
- Located in the Agora of Athens, (dedicated c. 100 CE)
- Hadrian’s Library in Athens (125-132 CE)
- It held 17,000 books.
- St. Catherine's Monastery Library
- It holds the world’s oldest Library to still be in operation since its foundation (548-565 CE)
Other Ancient Libraries beyond the Roman Empire
- Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (c. 650 BCE)
- 30,000 Cuneiform clay tablets in Akkadian, and Assyrian.
- Including the Epic of Gilgamesh
- and the Venus Tablet
- Library of Ugarit in Syria (1200 BCE)
- It held texts in Ugaritic (similar language to Phoenician), Hurrian, Akkadian and Sumerian.
- Library of Mari in Syria, (1800-1750 BCE)
- It held 15,000 clay tablets in Akkadian script.
- All texts refer to the period between 1800-1750 BCE.
- Han Dynasty Imperial Library (206 BCE-220 CE) at Luoyang.
- Liu Xiang (77-6 BCE) was a librarian who compiled a catalogue of the Han Imperial Library known as the Extracts. He also edited several major Works.
- The Works are divided into two periods:
- Pre- 221 BCE:
- The Four Books and the Five Classics, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, The Seven Military Classics.
- Post- 206 BCE:
- Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, Book of Han by Ban Gu, Shan Hai Jing, and others (after the burning of the Imperial Library in 213 BCE).
- Library of Taxila or Takshashila in N. Pakistan, (5th century BCE to 5th century CE)
- Centre of Hindu and Buddhist learning.
- It held the Vedas, the Eighteen Arts, a Law School, a Medical School and a School of Military Science.
- Taxila was located near modern Islamabad
- It was on the Grand Trunk Road which extended 1,615 miles (2,600km), from the mouth of the Ganges to the Khyber Pass.
- The Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (321-297 BCE) was educated at Taxila and went on to found the Mauryan Empire.
- Library of Ctesiphon in Persia.