One of the most intriguing issues we’ve discussed in class is how oppressive regimes often burn books and destroy libraries as a means of controlling certain groups of people (or, limit the public’s access to certain documents, also as a way to govern the masses). Similar to today, ancient libraries acted as fountains of knowledge and sources of culture, and were thus vital to the advancement of a society. However, while libraries (and the books they contain) were often used to promote the progression of culture, they were more often destroyed to delete certain cultures and revise unfavorable events from history.
The library of Alexandria not only “sought to compile and contain the entire corpus of Greek literature, as well as…[that] of many foreign languages,” but it also acted as an ancient think tank with a “community of scholars,” becoming a “prototype of the [modern] university” (Battles 30). In doing so, the rulers of Alexandria—or, Ptolemies—came to realize that “knowledge is a resource…a form of capital to be acquired and hoarded at the pleasure of the regime” (Battles 31). By buying and commandeering books to supply the library of Alexandria, the Ptolemies essentially created a “monopoly on knowledge—especially in medicine, engineering, and theology” (Battles 29). Consequently, the city of Alexandria rose in power, and its citizens prospered greatly. However, not every ruler who followed this philosophy employed it for improvement.
Qin emperor Shi Huangdi also came to discover that “a monopoly on intellectual resources was as important to rule as imperial control over the production of rice and silk” (Battles 37). As the self-proclaimed title of First August Emperor, Shi Huangdi sought to destroy any Chinese literature produced before his dynasty came to power, essentially marking himself as the beginning of history and subduing anyone who claimed otherwise.
Similarly, Spanish conquerors “tracked down and burned all the Aztec painted book they could find” (Battles 43). The conquerors committed to burning Aztec books, because they were not only valuable to Mexican priests and nobility, but they also posed a religious threat (Battles 43). However, what the Spanish rulers failed to realize was that the books they destroyed also contained much of Mexico’s culture, making it harder for them to Christianize the lands they seized. Thus, it makes sense that in the drawing entitled Priests burning Aztec books, we do not see actual books or scrolls going up in flames. Instead, we see key symbols of Aztec culture being torched, thus equating books to the art, music, and literature they contain.
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