Ancient Libraries

It was in our small group discussion that somebody brought up the idea that knowledge is power and those who control books control knowledge. This sort of direct relationship between book and power came up while we were going over our Harry Potter excerpt we had read for class that day. Though in this case Harry, Hermione and Ron were denied just by a single Librarian( perhaps a little more) our group decided to try finding real life examples of this lack of access to information perpetuated by someone powerful.

We talked about the classification of files regarding JFK’s assassination and our real life example seemed to be mostly related to government secrecy, something we always have suspected. It was mentioned in the bigger group discussion that Area 51 is also another example of this. Though Area 51 is not exactly a library, to say that it may hold information(just like a library) which may prove to be of “power” is not wrong.

This train of thought struck me again when I was reading about ancient libraries, including the great library of Alexandria. Casson, though isn’t as direct in his wording as Battles(regarding the relationship between book/power and government/some agent), gives us a narrative of early days of the great library of Alexandria that gives me the impression that these rulers and authorities had a pretty direct influence on the maintaining of the library and the books/scrolls they stored. It seemed as though it represented something more than just “knowledge”, as Casson describes how Ptolemy I and his son and his grandson all with help of others, guided the library to their likings. Battles does not see other authorities, specifically Ptolemy, to be so innocent in their admiration of knowledge. He notes ” Ptolemies made the library in to a think tank under the control of the royal house. The strategic implications of monopoly on knowledge- especially on medicine, engineering, and theology…”. In all, it seems as though this tension between the authorities in charge of managing and preserving knowledge/book and the masses were always present throughout history, and it will always haunt us.