Private library
The earliest libraries belonged to temples or administration bodies, resembled modern archives, and were usually restricted to nobility, aristocracy, scholars, or theologians.
[1] The nucleus of these private libraries were primarily texts which had been transcribed by the proprietors themselves from the time they acquired their education in the art of the scribe.
In addition, extensive clusters of papyrus scrolls have been unearthed in association with domiciliary arrangements, confirming that some type of library endured there.
[2] The Middle Kingdom Period (2055–1650 BC) offers the best clues to the presence of private libraries in ancient Egypt.
This library embodies nearly 50 manuscripts, accommodating a collection of disparate subjects from correspondence missives to astrological recipes such as incantations and dream interpretations.
[2] A manuscript known as the Westcar Papyrus from this same period alludes to an individual whose residence occupies spaces for a private library.
[2] The text of the manuscript is a fanciful narrative; however, it proves that ordinary citizens were literate and accumulated books for their own use.
[2] One Middle Kingdom tomb, associated with a healer and lector priest, contained over 20 books, one of which was the now-famous Tale of the Eloquent Peasant.
[3] Finally, a private library in a New Kingdom tomb at the site of Deir el Medina housed books on medicine as well as on love poetry and wisdom literature.
However, private book collections owned by the elite and leading citizens were growing, along with the glorious homes and structures used to store them.
[4] Private libraries were not only built by the wealthy, but also by professionals who needed information nearby, including doctors and scholars.
Notable scholarly figures like Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, and even Plato had their own private libraries with large collections.
[9] Likewise, in 86 BC, the Roman general Sulla appropriated the library of the infamous Greek bibliophile and kleptobibliophile Apellicon of Teos.
[9] Finally, around 73 BC, Lucullus removed and brought back to Rome the private library of King Mithridates VI of the Pontus region.
One author proposed that a library is better suited if it meets the rising sun in the east in order to ensure that it does not succumb to bookworms and decomposition.
[9] In the 5th century BC, on the island of Cos outside the city of Pergamum, a medical school complex with a library was built in the sanctuary of Asclepius.
[10] Acquiring books for personal use in order to cultivate oneself was all the rage in the Roman world, partially galvanized by the monarchs who were often prolific writers.
This library marked the establishment of a binary collection with individual rooms supporting the literatures of Greek and Roman writers respectively.
[10] Both the philologist Aulus Gellius and the emperor Marcus Aurelius acknowledge the existence of a private library housed in the Domus Tiberiana.
While Aurelius makes a passing reference to a bibliothecarius or palace librarian, Gellius commented on how he and author Sulpicius Apollinaris were engaged in erudite disquisition within the library.
[10] The Roman sovereign Hadrian had a fondness for all types of literature; his private sanctuary, the Villa Adriana, had its own library.
Apparently, the original owner of this library was the father of scholar and polymath Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, whom Gordion was a student of.
Pope Nicholas V helped to renew the Vatican Library by donating hundreds of personal manuscripts to the collection.
William Brewster was one of the many passengers on board the Mayflower on its maiden voyage to America who transported his library, which consisted of nearly 400 volumes.
The Virginia colony sovereign John Smith described a private library owned by the Reverend Good Master Hunt which was incinerated during a fire that destroyed much of the town.
[20] The collection was abundant in books on law, philosophy, and history, but it accommodated volumes on many subject areas such as cooking, gardening, and more exotic avocations like beekeeping.
Inspired by Francis Bacon's tripartite categorization of knowledge (Memory, Reason, and Imagination), Jefferson divided his library's catalog into History, Philosophy, and Fine Arts before further subdividing topics out into a total of 46 categories.
His appetite for enlightenment led to the establishment of a private library of nearly 3000 titles, acknowledged as one of the largest in colonial America.
Additionally, corporations maintain libraries that specialize in collections pertaining to research specific to the areas of concern to that organization.
Generally, it is a relatively large room that is open to all family members and household guests, in contrast to a study, which also often contains a collection of books but is usually a private space intended to be used by one person.
