A cupboard of the Pinakes

History

ἱστορία

Conjectured Inferred class: standard in modern reconstructions (Blum 1991).

How to read this cupboard: each hole holds a work the evidence puts in the Library's orbit, at the age it arrived, and an empty hole means a lost work and nothing else. Works written in the city by people not attested as Library scholars lie on the table of the city; works of the Egyptian milieu and witnesses to the city lie on the ledge. The closed door stands for the books no one can now name.

History

Behind this door: what the Library held under this class that no one can now name. Our shelves hold 185 works. The ancient claims for the whole collection run from 40,000 to 700,000 rolls, and modern estimates are much lower (see the Ledger of Numbers). The doors are not drawn to scale.

On the table: written in the city

On the ledge: written in Egypt or about the city

This class through time

  1. I Founding: 3 in the city, 3 arriving
  2. II Collection: 5 in the city, 2 arriving
  3. III Librarians: 12 in the city, 7 arriving
  4. IV Purge and Fire: 14 in the city, 2 arriving
  5. V Roman: 19 in the city, 5 arriving
  6. VI Serapeum: 20 in the city, 1 arriving
  7. VII Last Schools: 21 in the city, 1 arriving

This cupboard in the show

+ 33 more, each on its roll's tag.