12 Mr. B. S. Poole [Jan. 27, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, January 27, 1882. 



William Bowman, Esq. LL.D. F.R.S. Honorary Secretary and Vice- 

 President, in the Cbair. 



Reginald Stuart Poole, Esq. of the British Museum, 



Cor. Inst. France. 



The Museum and Libraries of Alexandria. 



The speaker stated that his object was to show the connection between 

 the ancient Egyptian and Alexandrian educational institutions, and 

 expressed his gratitude for the invaluable aid of the eminent French 

 Egyptologist, M. Eevillont. 



The sources of information are chiefly old hieratic papyri, some of 

 which are actually exercise-books of students, and they tell us of 

 colleges attached to temples in various towns. When Plato and others 

 visited Egypt, Heliopolis was most famous. The subjects taught 

 were religion, law, mathematics, especially geometry and astronomy, 

 medicine and language. There were also primary schools for all 

 classes. Libraries were attached to the temples, and there was a 

 royal library existing at least as early as B.C. 2500. 



The Alexandrian foundations were due to the wisdom with which 

 the first three Ptolemies carried out the large-minded policy of Alex- 

 ander the Great. They were meant to benefit the mixed population 

 of Alexandria — Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew. 



The Museum was a sacred building in the palace, where learned 

 men were maintained by the State to prosecute research. Law and 

 religion were excluded in order to avoid controversy. A botanical 

 garden and a menagerie were added. 



Besides the similarity of scheme, and the evident succession of 

 Alexandria to Heliopolis, a strong point of contact was the old method, 

 as seen in the mathematical processes of the second Pleron. 



To the first library, originally Greek only, translations were added, 

 and the temple of Sarapis received surplus books. The first library 

 was burnt when Julius Caesar captured Alexandria. The second, 

 enriched by Antony with the Pergamus collection, is said to have 

 been burnt at the Arab conquest, when it disappeared. 



The efiect of the Alexandrian foundations was very great. The 

 intelligence of the East and West here met, and it is due to this that 

 the Old Testament was translated into Greek. 



The Alexandrian University was restored by an Arab Prince, the 

 caliph El-Mutawekkil, two centuries after the conquest; and the 



