I've been working on the supposed rivalry between Alexandria and Pergamon, and I very much agree that "such reductive formulations, by implying a symmetrical rivalry between Alexandria and Pergamon, tend to blur the ongoing rivalry of Pergamon with centers of learning other than Alexandria, especially Athens." Well-formulated and I must… Read more
Recent scholarship has studied Hellenistic libraries at a more granular level, by distinguishing the institutional libraries of the 2nd century from the less formally constituted book collections of the 3rd century, and by casting doubt on much of the unreliable, anachronistic late literary evidence that romanticizes the Library of Alexandria… Read more
The full reference is: Tarán, L. 1981. Review of P. Moraux, 1973, Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen von Andronikos bis Alexander von Aphrodisias: Die Renaissance des Aristotelismus im 1.Jh. v. Chr. (Band 1). Gnomon 53: 721–750. Read more
Taran 1981: 727 suggests that both versions of the story could have been invented, a suggestion that I find very compelling and discuss in my fourth chapter. Read more
I very much like your formulation of how this "claim to continuity with the Peripatetics is retrojected ideologically to Aristotle himself"! In case you are curious, my fourth chapter argues that imperial authors significantly rescripted the history of libraries in line with what you are saying here, and I would… Read more
Andrew Erskine has a very good article that supports exactly what you are saying in this section: Erskine, A. 1995. “Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Museum and Library of Alexandria.” Greece and Rome 42: 38–48. Read more
I believe that Massimo Cè writes in his dissertation about additional evidence for Homeric scholarship conducted during the Classical period. His e-mail address is cemassimo (at) gmail (dot) com. Read more
I wonder whether it would be useful to distinguish between the Lyceum as an institutional model for the Lyceum, versus Aristotelian scholarship as a model for Alexandrian scholarship? John Lynch convincingly argues that the Lyceum should not be viewed as the institutional model for the Alexandrian Museum in his 1972… Read more
Holly, the idea of catch-and-kill is really illuminating. While I was listening to you read your paper the other day, an episode from the Hebrew Bible came to mind—that is, an episode from the unhappy life of Jeremiah the prophet, in which the negative message actually succeeds in being read… Read more
Alternative writing materials are also attested among the Hittites: there are various references to scribes writing on wooden boards, rather than on clay. Interesting in regard to the idea that the diphtherāphóros is the ‘bearer of parchment’ on ceremonial occasions (which must be right) is the presence of Hittite… Read more