History of Books Libraries under Civilizations

           Name of the Civilization

      History of Books and Libraries

Mesopotamian

The Sumerians
The earliest libraries of archives
The classification of the tablets
The period of Hamurabi
The library of Assurbanipal

Egyptian (From the Pharaohs to the Ptolemie)

1. The papyrus roll
2. Egyptian writing: Hieroglyphics
3. The Book of the Dead
4. Popular reading matter
      A. Subject matter
      B. Readership
5. Libraries

Prehistoric Aegean

Minoan and Mycenaean civilisation
The pictorial and linear scripts
      a) The Cretan pictorial (or hieroglyphic) script
      b) The Linear A script
      c) The Linear B script

Hellenic

From pre-Socratic times to the end of the Hellenistic period
The pre-Socratic period
The Classical period
The contribution of the Sophists to the spread of books
The first private libraries
Book distribution in ancient Greece
Aristotle's library
Hellenistic period
The holdings of the libraries
The fate of the Library
Architecture

Roman

Roman times
The first libraries
Cicero
Publishing activity
Public libraries
Architecture
Trajan's library

Byzantine

The Byzantine World
From Constantine the Great to early Byzantine humanism
The crisis of the 6th century: from Justinian to Leo IV
Monasticism and monastery libraries
Byzantine humanism in the 9th century
An encyclopedic library in the palace
From Constantine VII to the capture of Constantinople by the Franks
The empire of Nicaea
The final Byzantine renaissance. From 1262 to the Fall of Constantinople
Byzantine libraries in the West: from 1400-1453

Medieval Western

The early Christian centuries
A. The Dark Ages
      Book production in the Late Roman period
      The Celtic and Anglo-Saxon worlds
B. The Carolingian renaissance
      Alcuin: Educational reforms and the revival of libraries
      Libraries during the Carolingian renaissance
C. Books and libraries at the universities

Renaissance

The Renaissance
The first humanist libraries
The revival of the double library
The libraries of rulers and princes
The achievements of the first presses
The humanist presses
Architecture
a) Three-aisled libraries
b) Illustrated libraries