Abstract
This paper explains that Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who had an insatiable desire for the luxury of books, transformed the Library of Alexandria, which was started by his father Ptolemy I Soter, into the world's biggest and best organized collection of knowledge. The author points out that Zenodotus, who he appointed as "bibliophylax" ("custodian of the books)", instituted a modern shelving system, invented alphabetization and sorted the rolls according to the nature of their contents. The paper concludes that, while the Library ushered in an era of intellectualism and produced and preserved texts, which laid the groundwork for more than two millennia of scholarship, the Library was not regarded as a public institution of education but rather as a way to please the king's intellectual inclinations and to act as a monument to the greatness of Egypt.

From the Paper
"Philadelphus was "fair-haired and delicate in health" with a "peculiar thick neck." Besides books, his other great indulgence was women and his lust for both can be expressed in similar terms. He was "a noble patron of science, literature, and art, as well as a man of pleasure" and he "alternated the company of his mistress with that of his philosophers, poets, and men of science." He was a "lover of all that is beautiful and of literature." While subsequent kings of Egypt would broaden the Library's mission to include the sciences, Philadelphus kept his collection inline with his passion and ..."

Tags:cross-referencing, zenodotus, callimachus, aristeas, soter