This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ... I SOME OLD EGYPTIAN LIBRARIANS There are two apologies for introducing this topic at a session set apart for college librarians: first because the moral of the paper is pointed at the University and second because there is some reason to suppose that the Old Egyptian colleges were conducted in libraries and ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ... I SOME OLD EGYPTIAN LIBRARIANS There are two apologies for introducing this topic at a session set apart for college librarians: first because the moral of the paper is pointed at the University and second because there is some reason to suppose that the Old Egyptian colleges were conducted in libraries and by librarians--were in short library-universities if not university libraries. That the schools of ancient Egypt were library-universities in the sense that they were held in libraries by librarians, two examples will suggest. In the famous first Anastasi Papyrus (as quoted in Erman, p. 380), the eloquent son of Nennofre describes himself as "proficient in the sacred writings... powerful in the work of Seshait; a servant of the God Thoth in the House of Books... teacher in the Hall of Books." It is probably not necessary to explain that the House of Books and Hall of Books and Case of Books were common technical terms for the library according as a chest or room or whole building was applied to the purpose. It may be necessary however, to explain that any priest of the book-gods Seshait or Thoth was by that very token likely to be a library employee of some sort even when it is not, as in this case, more explicitly described. The servant of Thoth might, of course, be a writer rather than a keeper of books, but, in the earliest dates, the servant of Thoth or Seshait, whether found acting as author, copyist, or architect, was also a keeper of books. We have, at any event, in this case, clearly a teacher in the Hall of Books and this Hall, with equal clearness, was not a scriptorium but the place of books for use. It is worth noting incidentally, as a side light on the librarians of the time, that this librarian-professor says "I had mounted the...
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