Ancient Libraries (1940)

Ancient Libraries by J. W. Thompson was published in 1940. It was reprinted in 1962 and in the beginning of the 21st century. This old book is still interesting.

James Westfall Thompson (1869-1941) was an American historian who specialised in the history of medieval and modern Europe. He also wrote about libraries and literacy. The Medieval Library appeared in 1939, and Ancient Libraries was published in the following year. On the title page of the latter book he is identified as Professor Emeritus of European History in the University of California.

Here is the table of contents:

# 1 – Libraries of the Ancient East

# 2 – Libraries of Ancient Greece
# 3 – Libraries of Ancient Rome
# 4 – Various Technical Matters

** Glossary of Latin words

** Notes

There is no bibliography and no index.

Chapter four is illustrated by two drawings. A note on page 98 informs us that they are borrowed from John Willis Clark The Care of Books (1901) where you can find “many other valuable illustrations relating to books, writing materials, and ancient and medieval libraries.”

Thompson’s account is interesting and seems to be reliable, but there is one astonishing blunder: the Latin quotation, which appears on the title page (and again on page 98), is from Pliny the Elder (23-79) and not from his nephew, Pliny the Younger (61-112), as Thompson claims. Here is the Latin quotation:

Qui primus bibliothecam dicando ingenia hominum rem publicam fecit.

Since the Latin words are not translated in the book, I will provide an English version: Pliny mentions Lucius Asinius Pollio and says that he “was the first to establish a public library [in Rome] and so to make the works of genius the property of the public.”

[Pliny, Natural History, XXXV.2.10.]

Compared with H. L. Pinner, The World of Books in Classical Antiquity (1948, 1958) Thompson’s book is more comprehensive.

His text, which is almost twice as long, includes a chapter about the libraries of the ancient East, which is not covered by Pinner; and his notes refer to ancient (primary) sources as well as modern (secondary) works, while Pinner only refers to ancient sources.

Among the many modern works cited in the notes I want to mention three:

** Frederic George Kenyon, Books and Readers in Ancient Greece and Rome (1932)
** Clarence Eugene Boyd, Public Libraries and Literary Culture in Ancient Rome (1915)
** Edward Edwards, Memoirs of Libraries (1859).

I think Thompson’s and Pinner’s books were a source of inspiration for Lionel Casson when he wrote his book Libraries in the Ancient World some fifty years later. Many anecdotes, events, and ideas found in his book are also found in Thompson’s and Pinner’s books, but he never mentions them. Here are some examples:

* “Book rolls stacked on a shelf” = this illustration is found in Casson 39 // Pinner 17 // Thompson 75

* “Linus (or Linos) invites Hercules (or Heracles) to pick a book for himself in the library” = this anecdote is found in Casson 28 // Pinner 23-24 // Thompson 20

* “Asinius Pollio established the first public library in Rome” = this event is mentioned in Casson 80 // Pinner 54-55 // Thompson 30

* “Pliny the Younger founded a library in his native town Como and invested capital for its maintenance” = this event is mentioned in Casson 110-111 // Pinner 56 // Thompson 35

* “Hermodorus, one of Plato’s pupils, is said to have made a profit by transporting copies of the master’s lectures to distant Greek places” = this anecdote is found in Casson 27-28 // Thompson 19

* “The Athenian leader Lycurgus promulgated a law stating that official versions of the famous tragedies must be preserved in the office of records” = this law is mentioned in Casson 29-30 // Thompson 21

* “Sulla captured the library of Aristotle in Athens and hired Tyrannio as his librarian” = this event is mentioned in Casson 68 // Thompson 28-30

* “Tyrannio (who later served as a librarian for Atticus) helped organise the library in one of Cicero’s villas = this anecdote is found in Casson 71 // Thompson 34

* “Aulus Gellius mentions a library at Patras, where he found ‘a really ancient manuscript’ of Livius Andronicus” = this anecdote is found in Casson 122 // Thompson 36

* “An inscription from Cos documents a library on this island” = this inscription is mentioned in Casson 57-58 // Thompson 24

* “An inscription from Rhodes documents a library on this island” = this inscription is mentioned in Casson 58-59 // Thompson 24-25

Thompson’s book The Medieval Library from 1939 is listed by Casson. But his book from 1940 and Pinner’s book from 1948 are never mentioned. Why not? A likely explanation can be found in his preface which begins with these words:

“This book is the first full-scale study of libraries in the ancient world.”

If Pinner’s and Thompson’s books had been cited, their titles would have revealed the truth and refuted the false statement in the preface.

Ancient Libraries is not a perfect book: there is no bibliography and no index; the number of illustrations is too low; and the Latin quotation about Asinius Pollio is attributed to the wrong Pliny. But it does not deserve to be ignored. If you use this book and borrow some ideas from it, I think you should be honest and say so.

Thompson deserves to be remembered and so does Pinner: they were among the first modern scholars to cover the world of books in classical antiquity.

PS. In April 2013 Cambridge University Press published a book with the same title as James Westfall Thompson's book: Ancient Libraries.  With more than 450 pages this book must be the most comprehensive modern account ever published on this topic.

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James Westfall Thompson,

Ancient Libraries,

University of California Press, 1940, reprinted 1962,
Read Books, 2007, 120 pages

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