The Shelves · Philosophy

The library of Aristotle and Theophrastus (Neleus's books)

Known · Probablein Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely classLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

See it on the shelves ›

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy

Conjecturedvery likely class

Aristotle, Theophrastus and the Peripatetics

384–322 BCE. Founder of the Peripatetic school, whose way of collecting books and organising research is the Mouseion's intellectual model. Strabo says he taught the kings of Egypt how to arrange a library, which can only mean through his pupils.

The library of Aristotle and Theophrastus

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in large part

Aristotle's lecture treatises survive through the Roman edition of Andronicus; his published dialogues are lost.

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Probable

Acquired for the Library.

In the cupboard: an ancient source reports it entering the collection or the Pinakes.

Read it today

III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (3)
  • Athenaeus 1.3a-b
  • Strabo 13.1.54
  • Plutarch, Sulla 26
Modern scholarship (3)
  • J. Barnes, 'Roman Aristotle', in J. Barnes and M. Griffin (eds), Philosophia Togata II: Plato and Aristotle at Rome (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 1-69.
  • L. Canfora, The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World, trans. M. Ryle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
  • P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

THE LIBRARY OF ARISTOTLE AND THEOPHRASTUS

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend: told story

Two roads for Aristotle's books

Athenaeus tells, some five centuries later, that Ptolemy II bought all of Aristotle's and Theophrastus's books from Neleus and brought them to Alexandria. Strabo, two centuries before him, tells instead that Neleus's heirs hid the books in a cellar at Scepsis, where Apellicon bought them and Sulla took them to Rome.

Told by Athenaeus, c. 200 CE, some five centuries later

What the evidence supports

Both writers agree that Neleus of Scepsis inherited the books. The two roads cannot both be wholly true; copies sold to Alexandria and originals hidden in Asia would reconcile them, but no source says so.

Sources (3)
  • Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 1.3a–b
  • Strabo, Geography 13.1.54
  • Plutarch, Sulla 26
The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it in the cupboard