The library of Alexandria.

Melvyn Bragg discusses the Library of Alexandria with studio guests Serafina Kwomo, Reader in Roman History at Birkbeck College London, Matthew Nicholls, Lecturer in Classics at the University of Reading and Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek at Cambridge University. The history of the library is covered - how and why it was founded and how it differed from other ancient libraries in scale, scope and ambition as well as the classification system they adopted. We hear about the content of the library which aimed to hold and organise the knowledge of the whole intellectual world of the time, this organisation of texts led to the first literary categories, genres and literary scholarship. The eventual downfall of the library is speculated upon and its legacy assessed.