On Libraries

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Creator

MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO (116–27 B.C.E.)

Title

On Libraries

Coverage

Venetiis

Publisher

Apud Paulum Manutium, Aldi Filium,

Date

1554 C.E.

Subject

Lost in antiquity.

Description

While he was sniffing around Alexandria, Cleopatra showed Caesar her library. He was impressed: on returning to Rome, he told his friends that Rome should have a library, too, a Roman library. He enlisted Marcus Varro, who wrote the De bibliothecis (now lost) as the plan for the library. Asinius Pollio kicked in the money, and Faustus Sulla his Dad’s books, and c. 30 BCE, they opened the Atrium Libertatis, Rome’s first public library.

Source

De Bibliothecis