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*None of the bookshelves have any scrolls in them (February 2025)
Preface
This chapter, like “Don’t Play with Fire”, makes an explicit reference to an actual (fire-related) event with debated origins and outcomes. Fire, a symbol of life and destruction, links Val to the voices he previously heard during the Great Fire and will continually act as a gateway of communication between the two parties. Val’s story continues into Saturnalia, a major Roman festival which he previously agrees to host a private house party for. His lack of culinary inspiration sends him on a hunt for written recipes, which he initially has trouble acquiring but eventually finds himself in the Library of Alexandria, the most renowned center of literature and education (part of the Museion) in antiquity.
My interpretation of the Library of Alexandria largely incorporates Greek ornaments and architectural design, with some material elements from Egyptian and Roman culture. In designing the layout and structure, I had to consider the architectural conventions followed by the Greeks, which was difficult particularly for larger spaces such as the main hall where creating the upper stories forced me to take some creative liberties. I also looked towards Assassin’s Creed Origins as inspiration, whose Library adopts elements from the Library of Celsus. I wanted to keep the Library design as Greek as possible whilst keeping in mind aesthetic architectural possibilities. The Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Library incorporates barrel vaults (an arched/semicircular shaped ceiling), typically associated with Roman architecture, though are also found as early as the Egyptian Old Kingdom. Keeping this in mind, it would have been structurally possible to incorporate barrel vaults at the Library’s time of construction despite them not being a typically “Greek” feature.
Library of Alexandria:
The Library of Alexandria was established during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter as part of a larger institution, the Mouseion (museum), around 300 BCE. The Library is largely believed to have been destroyed by Julius Caesar during his civil war with Pompey in 48 BCE after his soldiers set fire to Egyptian ships by the docks of Alexandria while trying to clear the waters for his fleet. The fire spread from the dockyards into parts of the city, eventually reaching the Library– whether the damage was great or minimal, the burning of the Library of Alexandria (and its eventual apparent destruction in the 270s CE) is regarded as a major fall for classical/ancient culture and knowledge. An estimated 40,000 to 400,000 scrolls were destroyed in the fire.
The museum is described to have a garden, a common dining room, a reading room, lecture theatres and meeting rooms, much like a modern-day university campus. The library likely had colonnades lined with rooms and shelves of scrolls (βῐβλῐοθήκη, bibliotheke), (which I tried to recreate on pages 6 and 7).
Quotes about the Museum/library:
“The Museum is a part of the palaces. It has a public walk and a place furnished with seats, and a large hall, in which the men of learning, who belong to the Museum, take their common meal.” (Strabo, Geography, XVII, 1)
Quotes about the fire/burning of books:
“Forty thousand books were burned at Alexandria; let someone else praise this library as the most noble monument to the wealth of kings, as did Titus Livius, who says that it was the most distinguished achievement of the good taste and solicitude of kings. There was no “good taste” or “solicitude” about it, but only learned luxury—nay, not even “learned,” since they had collected the books, not for the sake of learning.” (Seneca the Younger, De Tranquillitate Animi)
“[...] many places were set on fire, with the result that the docks and the storehouses of grain among other buildings were burned, and also the library, whose volumes, it is said, were of the greatest number and excellence.” (Cassius Dio, Roman History, XLII)
“when the enemy tried to cut off his fleet, he was forced to repel the danger by using fire, and this spread from the dockyards and destroyed the great library” (Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 49.6)
A challenge with depicting elements of quotidian lifestyle is the lack of physical descriptors for objects/tools and their use. Bookshelves in particular could have been built and used in various forms. With scrolls being the primary container of writing, the logistics surrounding their storage may have been different from the codex and the modern books. Some visual sources depict scroll-shelves as being diamond or triangular-shaped, while others use the more (modernly) familiar rectangular niches– none of which are explicitly described in text (and only referred to by name). The colonnaded room that Val appears in is lined with triangular-niched bookshelves (devoid of scrolls as of Spring 2025), a purely artistic choice during the early stages of creating the library. Looking at the side/storage room where he finds the serpopard, the shape of the bookshelves are more variable, which combine the forms of standard shelves and the diamond/triangular-shaped niches.
On Greek/Roman libraries: “Greek libraries stored their book rolls on narrow wooden shelves in inconspicuous rooms by a peristyle with exedrae and a great banquet hall (oikos) where scholars read, taught and celebrated. In Rome a representative library type developed probably from the late republic on (first century BC), in which the walls of the hall were decorated with magnificent cabinets let into the walls, which could only be reached with steps or by a podium. The cabinets could be arranged on one, two or three floors that were reached by staircases, ladders or continuous galleries.” (Strocka, 2003)
On Roman libraries: “The niches [in the walls] were for the books: fitted into them, as we know from illustrations and remarks in ancient writings, would have been wooden bookcases—armaria, as the Romans called them— lined with shelves and closed by doors. The bookcases would have been numbered and the appropriate number entered in the catalogue alongside each title to indicate the location.” (Casson, 2001)
(left) Reconstruction of a Roman book/scroll storage room from Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” (1980-81). (Screenshot (right) @ 12:03)
“ἔχον τρίγωνον θήκην (ἔχουσαν βυβλία Ἀλκαίου)” (ekhon trigonon theken ekhousan biblia Alkaiou) – a triangular case (containing the books of Alkaios)
“For example, wooden bookcases in the form of scaffolding could stand on the floor or, to avoid humidity, rest on a built bench” (Andrianou, 2022)
Sarcophagus with a Greek Physician, early 300s CE, marble, Ostia (Roman Empire), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/468268.
Fig. 10. Book-box or capsa, 1909, ink illustration in the Care of Books by John Willis Clark. https://archive.org/details/careofbooks00claruoft/page/n51/mode/1up.
Illustration of papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum (in a cabinet, in various states, being unraveled), 1825, in Real Museo Borbonico, Officina de' Papiri by Andrea de Jorio. https://archive.org/details/realmuseoborboni00jori/page/n120/mode/1up.
Reconstruction of bookshelves from the library in the Villa of the Papyri, Virtual Archaeological Museum in Ercolano, Italy. https://flic.kr/p/5x7hQ2.
Other decor:
Foculus (Brazier)
(Left) Bronze Replica of a Roman Brazier. https://www.vroma.org/vromans/araia/foculus.html
(Right) Bronze candelabrum and bronze lebes (deep bowl) on an iron tripod, c. 550 BCE and c. 575–550 BCE (respectively), Etruscan, Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/247039. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/247067.
Candelabra:
(Left) Candelabrum, 1-79 CE, Roman, the Getty. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103SWS.
(Right) Candelabrum, late 6th century BCE, Greek, the Getty. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103VDB.
Lighting
Braziers (foculus; ἐσχάρα, ἐσχαρίς, ἐσχάριον), lampstands (candelabrum; λυχνία, λυχνοῦχος), and oil lamps (lucerna; λύχνος) are depicted as light sources in the Library. The braziers I created take on a tripod structure with a lebes (a deep rounded bowl, often made of bronze; λέβης) and more closely resemble their Roman counterparts– Greek tripods were often used in religious settings, for cooking, or just as a lamp stand. Greek braziers could also be made of clay which took on a cylindrical shape with fittings for a pot on top– these could be fixed or portable and were used as both heat and light sources. I chose the bronze tripod structure over the clay as I felt that it aesthetically suited the environment better.
The multi-nozzle oil lamps (first appearing page 7) are shown hanging from the ceiling. Hanging oil lamps were used in Greco-Roman spaces, often suspended by chains connected around the rim/near the nozzle(s). Multi-nozzled lamps burned more fuel and were thus more costly– the hanging lamps I created for the Library have six nozzles(!).
Examples of multi-nozzle oil lamps: (1) (2) (3) (4)
Seth animal:
(Left) Hieroglyphics on the Place de la Concorde Luxor Obelisk (Set animal on right column, 1/4 way down). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_Concorde_ob%C3%A9lisque_2.jpg.
(Right) Limestone architectural fragment (part of a doorway) from the temple of Set at Naqada (Ombos), 18th Dynasty during Thutmose III’s reign (c. 1479-1425 BCE), Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Limestone_architectural_fragment._A_door_jamb,_part_of_a_doorway._From_the_temple_of_Seth_(which_was_built_by_Thutmosis_III)_at_Naqada,_Egypt._18th_Dynasty._The_Petrie_Museum.jpg
(Left) Set animal, (Right) the god Set
Serpopard:
(Left) Two Dog Palette, c. 3300–3100 BC, siltstone, Hierakonpolis, Egypt, now in the Ashmolean Museum. https://www.ashmolean.org/two-dog-palette.
(Right) Narmer Palette, c. 3200–3000 BC, siltstone, Hierakonpolis, Egypt, now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Narmer_Palette.jpg.
Cylinder seal and impression, 3500–3100 BCE (Uruk period), Jasper, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cylinder_seal_lions_Louvre_MNB1167.jpg.
Page-by-Page Notes
Page 1:
Val sits in the tablinum (a room typically located on one side of the atrium, opposite of the entrance, that acted as an office or study room)
Val is wearing socci (sing: soccus), loose-fitting slipper-like shoes unfastened by any ties.
Roman Shoes — Soccus (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)
“Socci [...] appellati inde quod saccum habeant, in quo pars plantae inicitur.” (Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum, XIX.34)
Page 3:
(Panel 3)
Foods (right to left, top to bottom): Libum, placenta, globi, encytum
Some non-Roman cups (Sogdian (an ancient Iranian civilization that existed from the 6th century BCE to 11th century CE) fluted cup, chalice, Chinese wine cup)
Dice
(Panel 4)
Panis quadratus (a loaf of bread with wedge marks), cups of wine, bowl of garum, lekythos (ancient Greek vessel used for storing olive oil), olives, apples, grapes, a slice of pear.
Roman dice from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Page 8:
Staircase is inspired by the Library in Assassin’s Creed Origins
Serpopards originated in Mesopotamia; in Egyptian culture it represented a chaotic element to be tamed by humanity.
Page 16:
Caesar’s troops by the docks
Page 18:
Seth animal
Set (or Seth, Σήθ in Greek) is the Egyptian god of disorder, violence, and foreigners and ruler of the Red Land (desert). He is represented in his animal head and human body form and as the Set animal, a canine-like creature with long, squared-off ears, a downward curving snout, and a forked tail. In this story, I use the Set animal to represent the deity’s being and consciousness.
Page 19:
Artistic reference to Egyptian wall reliefs
Page 23:
The back upper wall doesn’t have doors, bookshelves, or other furniture at the moment (as of March 2025)– I plan on adding them with the colored background
Page 27:
Artistic reference to Egyptian wall reliefs/frescoes
Illustration of a court bakery relief from the tomb of Ramesses III in the Valley of the Kings, 20th dynasty (late 12th century BCE). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ramses_III_bakery.jpg
Page 28:
Reference to the verso of Narmer Palette of two men restraining a pair of entwined serpopards with ropes.
Bibliography
Andrianou, Dimitra. A Cultural History of Furniture in Antiquity. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.
Bowe, Patrick. Gardens of the Roman World. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004.
Brazier. 150-86 BCE (Hellenistic Period). Clay, Height: 0.62 m, Rim diameter: 0.27 m. Acropolis Museum, Athens. https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/brazier-0.
Casson, Lionel. Libraries in the Ancient World. Yale University Press, 2001. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1njk54.
Cova, Elisabetta. “Cupboards, Closets, and Shelves: Storage in the Pompeian House.” Phoenix 67, no. 3/4 (2013): 373–91. https://doi.org/10.7834/phoenix.67.3-4.0373.
Dix, T. Keith. “‘Public Libraries’ in Ancient Rome: Ideology and Reality.” Libraries & Culture 29, no. 3 (1994): 282–96. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542662.
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Grout, James. “Bibliotheca Ulpia.” Encyclopaedia Romana. Last updated June 28, 2024. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/encyclopaedia_romana/imperialfora/trajan/Bibliotheca.html.
MacLeod, Roy. The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World. London: I.B. Tauris, 2002. https://archive.org/details/libraryofalexand0000unse_p7c1.
Mihaloew, Andreya L. "An Exploration of the Function of Lamps in Archaic and Classical Greek Culture: Use, Concepts, and Symbolism." Order No. 3514396, Harvard University, 2012. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1027936026?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses.
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Parisinou, Eva. “Lighting Dark Rooms: Some Thoughts about the Use of Space in Early Greek Domestic Architecture.” British School at Athens Studies 15 (2007): 213–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40960590.
Parker, Robert. Greek Gods Abroad: Names, Natures, and Transformations. 1st ed. University of California Press, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pb6299.
Pizzato, Giulia. "The fantastic creatures in Predynastic Egypt: an essay about Near-Eastern influences." Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology 03 (2019): 29-38.
Price, Jonathan J., Margalit Finkelberg, and Yuval Shahar, eds. “Culture and Identity in the Roman Empire.” Part II. In Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 85–166. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.Tsakirgis, Barbara. “Fire and Smoke: Hearths, Braziers and Chimneys in the Greek House.” British School at Athens Studies 15 (2007): 225–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40960591.
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