Alexandria, Library of

The world's first state-funded scientific institution, founded in 330 BC in Alexandria, Egypt, by Ptolemy I and further expanded by Ptolemy II. It comprised a museum, teaching facilities, and a library that contained up to 700,000 scrolls, including much ancient Greek literature. It sustained significant damage in AD 391, when the Roman emperor Theodosius I ordered its destruction. It was burned down in 640 AD at the time of the Arab conquest.

The Greek scholar Demetrios of Phaleron was employed by Ptolemy to build up the collections. Librarians succeeding Demetrios included Zenodotus, Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes, Eratosthenes, and Aristophanes of Byzantium.