JOIN USBliss for bibliophiles
Spaceship to the Universe: The Story of Libraries, written by Shruthi Rao and Anuradha Jagalur, opens a treasure chest of knowledge about libraries. The non-fiction book chronicles the history of libraries, from the ancient ones, where the books were clay tablets and scrolls to the libraries on camels and donkeys that transported books from one village to another, to prison libraries and even libraries during Covid.
One of the oldest known libraries in the world is King Ashurbanipal’s (the last great ruler of the Assyrian empire) Royal Library in Mosul, Iraq, consisting of terracotta tablets. Recently, this distinction was snatched by the library found in Ebla, near present-day Aleppo in northern Syria, where archaeologists found clay tablets with cuneiform writing, containing military, legal and administrative texts, letters and many records, as well as encyclopaedias of birds, animals, woods and metals.
When one thinks of ancient libraries, how can anyone overlook the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt. The city of Alexandria was established by Alexander the Great. Post his death, Ptolemy I Soter, who took over as the king of Egypt, established the library in the third century BCE. Ptolemy wrote to all kings and governors asking them to send him all kinds of books, books written by doctors, poets, scholars and historians. Not content with asking for book/scroll contribution from other sovereigns, Ptolemy’s scholars borrowed scrolls from other kingdoms, which they copied. Sometimes, they failed to return these scrolls like many book borrowers do. It’s said that there were nearly 400,000 scrolls in the Great Library of Alexandria. This library was like a present-day university and saw many a congregation of scholars, Euclid, the father of geometry, studied there, as did the Mathematician Archimedes, and also the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum.
As you turn the pages of this book, you will read about a volcano (Mount Vesuvius) erupting in Italy in 79 CE, which buried Herculaneum and Pompeii in layers of ash and dust. It also ended up carbonising the scrolls, thereby preserving them where they were kept — in the sea-side villa of Lucius Calpurnia Piso Caesoninus, politician and the father of Calpurnia, Julius Caesar’s wife. Piso was an avid book collector (scroll collector) and texts written by the prominent thinkers of his time found their way inside his well-stocked library.
Due credit
One of the best things about this book is the due credit given to the librarians — the guardians of these treasures of knowledge and wisdom. In some places that were strife-ridden or war-torn, the librarians braved attacks to save their treasures from fire and bombings, to pass on this legacy of books to the next generation.
Another set of librarians ensured that books reached soldiers during war time, giving them solace, strength and inspiration at a time when they needed it the most. Libraries in refugee camps, like the Education Community Hope and Opportunity (ECHO) started in 2016, came as a respite to refugees in northern Greece.
All sorts of libraries get a mention in this book. Libraries on water aka the library boats, equipped with books, laptops and printers; some with even slides and swings on the deck for children. These were a common sight in Bangladesh during the monsoons when the roads were flooded, rendering the students immobile and making them miss schools for months. Likewise in Laos, where library boats would travel to the children in distant villages.
In this book you will meet Abdul Kassem Ismael, the grand Vizier of Persia whose love for reading saw him travelling with his entire library of 1,17,000 volumes carried on the backs of 400 camels, walking in alphabetical order.
When one reads about people craving and struggling for books, one can’t help but feel grateful for the presence of libraries that we city-breds take for granted. The book is very well-researched, peppered with anecdotes of how books transformed people. The writing style, despite being weighed down by facts and details, is breezy. A must-read for all book lovers and a must-buy for all libraries.