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