The Alexandrian library: Crucible of a renaissance

AT THE END of the 4th century BC, the Macedonian-Greek armies of Alexander the Great swept across Asia from Egypt to the Indus River, redefining polit ical boundaries within that vast territory at a time when important cultura l changes were also taking place in the Creek world. New literary forms wer e beginning to emerge from the classical literature, which was then the sub ject of scholarly investigation. There was growing curiosity about the phys ical world and mathematics. Aristotle and his contemporaries were redefinin g scholarship at a time when Alexander was redefining the political sphere. These remarkable transformations converged in Alexandria, which became the center of a new intellectual universe. The first Ptolemaic rulers founded two unique institutions-the Alexandrian Library and the Mouseion-and the Li brary became the crucible within which the Hellenistic renaissance was forg ed.