Library of Alexandria

Introduction

This OpenLearn free course encourages you to reflect upon and critically assess the factors that shape what we know about antiquity, as well as offering some insight into how different approaches to antiquity – whether through texts, material culture, or modern receptions – can work together. It is important to be aware of how studying the ancient world is always, at heart, an interdisciplinary endeavour, a fact which the case study in this free course demonstrates particularly well. You will explore the ancient Library of Alexandria, a great institution of learning and scholarship founded by the Ptolemaic rulers of Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A863 MA Classical Studies part 1 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .