DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26300#0072
PART I.
tEGYPTIACA.
41
diate preparation, as was deemed fitting and perhaps
neceffary for its reception. We may therefore with
much probability attribute the firfi: defign and com-
mencement of the Serapeum to Ptolemy Soter.
And here I may be permitted to notice one circum-
ftance highly interefting to every lover of facred or of
claffical literature, which diftinguifhed his reign : I mean
his inftitution of a public library within the verge of his
Palace !, which was fituated near the Great, or as we
now call it, the New Port. This library formed by Pto-
lemy Soter I venture to call the firfi: Ptolemsean, or
Palace-Library, in contradiftindtion to a fecond, founded
afterwards by Ptolemy Philadelphus, called the daughter
of the formerk, or the Serapean Library.
j One part of the Palace, fays Strabo, was the Mufeum*: and the ancient
author of the Life of Apollonius Rhodius exprefsly mentions the book-
rooms, or library, belonging to it f. The keeper of thefe literary trea-
fures in the time of Ptolemy Soter, as Suidas informs us, was Zenodotus
the Ephefian t. Strabo aflerts that Ariftotle was the firfi: perfon who in-
ftituted a library, and that the Ptolemies only copied his example §.
* Ttuy Ss fiatriXeicvv pspo; Irk xa) to Mov<r&ov, ayov •meplitaTOv xa) s^sSpav, xa) olxov p-eyav,
iv w to tvtt'iTiov Toijy p.irs’/ivTwv rS Mouirem ftAoAoyuiv avSpcuv. Strabo, p. 1143.
f BiZAioSyxai rS Movtrols. Argonautic. edit. Brunck, p. xi.
J Zt/voSotof ’Eipstriop, eirorfoios xa) ypa^aTixop, rs $iAyp(d, &w) TlroXs^oi'm yeyovws
tS wpuiTts, b; xa) nrpiuTo; tujv 'Opoyps $iop&cvTr)S eysvato, xa) TON EN AAEHANAPEIAi BIB-
AIOQHKilN zspovrrj, xa) too; orobjSas WToXaaais aWalSeutrav. Suid.* Lex. tom. ii. p. 7.
§ [’AoiroriAijy] wpuiTo;, wv )o-p*ev, Tvvayaywv fit?A('x, xa) $i$d£;ai rov; Iv A)yvWTtv (3a<rt\eas
Bi?AjoSijxijj trvvTafyv. Strabo, p. 906.
k - TzguTV BiEAtoSAtr! tYi Iv t« Epxyjoi oixo. ^Etj dl vrtpou Ite/>«
G
tEGYPTIACA.
41
diate preparation, as was deemed fitting and perhaps
neceffary for its reception. We may therefore with
much probability attribute the firfi: defign and com-
mencement of the Serapeum to Ptolemy Soter.
And here I may be permitted to notice one circum-
ftance highly interefting to every lover of facred or of
claffical literature, which diftinguifhed his reign : I mean
his inftitution of a public library within the verge of his
Palace !, which was fituated near the Great, or as we
now call it, the New Port. This library formed by Pto-
lemy Soter I venture to call the firfi: Ptolemsean, or
Palace-Library, in contradiftindtion to a fecond, founded
afterwards by Ptolemy Philadelphus, called the daughter
of the formerk, or the Serapean Library.
j One part of the Palace, fays Strabo, was the Mufeum*: and the ancient
author of the Life of Apollonius Rhodius exprefsly mentions the book-
rooms, or library, belonging to it f. The keeper of thefe literary trea-
fures in the time of Ptolemy Soter, as Suidas informs us, was Zenodotus
the Ephefian t. Strabo aflerts that Ariftotle was the firfi: perfon who in-
ftituted a library, and that the Ptolemies only copied his example §.
* Ttuy Ss fiatriXeicvv pspo; Irk xa) to Mov<r&ov, ayov •meplitaTOv xa) s^sSpav, xa) olxov p-eyav,
iv w to tvtt'iTiov Toijy p.irs’/ivTwv rS Mouirem ftAoAoyuiv avSpcuv. Strabo, p. 1143.
f BiZAioSyxai rS Movtrols. Argonautic. edit. Brunck, p. xi.
J Zt/voSotof ’Eipstriop, eirorfoios xa) ypa^aTixop, rs $iAyp(d, &w) TlroXs^oi'm yeyovws
tS wpuiTts, b; xa) nrpiuTo; tujv 'Opoyps $iop&cvTr)S eysvato, xa) TON EN AAEHANAPEIAi BIB-
AIOQHKilN zspovrrj, xa) too; orobjSas WToXaaais aWalSeutrav. Suid.* Lex. tom. ii. p. 7.
§ [’AoiroriAijy] wpuiTo;, wv )o-p*ev, Tvvayaywv fit?A('x, xa) $i$d£;ai rov; Iv A)yvWTtv (3a<rt\eas
Bi?AjoSijxijj trvvTafyv. Strabo, p. 906.
k - TzguTV BiEAtoSAtr! tYi Iv t« Epxyjoi oixo. ^Etj dl vrtpou Ite/>«
G