History of Libraries: Late Antiquity
By Alireza.heydear - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73379741
As the Sassanid Empire rose, the rulers and Zoroastrian priests began to collect books into library as the empire gained stability politically and economically. Rulers were 'keen on the consolidation and promotion of science' while the priests wanted to collect religious texts. Shapur I built the Academy of Gundeshapur to serve as the intellectual center of the empire, including a teaching hospital and other higher learning institutions. The academy also sent ambassadors as far as China and Rome to gain resources, translating the various languages into the Pahlavi script, which was used for Middle Persian or as Pārsīk or Pārsīg to the speakers. This academy and its library survived through the Arab rule, presaging the preservation of the Arab-Islamic House of Wisdom.
The libraries of Rome underwent a transformation as the state shifted from pagan to Christian, with academics becoming the bailiwick of the clergy rather than the layperson. As the Western Empire crumbled, the libraries and centers of information flowed to the Eastern Roman Empire, where there were four types of libraries: imperial, patriarchal, monastic, and private. During this time, the scrolls that had dominated the Classical period began to be preserved into codices, the progenitor of our books. In the Western Empire, those that became codices, they focused on Latin texts as they were loosing the ability to understand Greek, but the Eastern Roman Empire preserved both Greek and Roman. The paper and parchment used in a codex were exceedingly valuable, so every scrap was used and often reused. Monastic libraries became a center of text preservation as monks were often employed in copying texts in both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, which also made them a center for larger libraries, though the texts were typically focused on Christian texts and Greek classics as 'many monastic leaders saw common virtues' in them. The Imperial Library of Constantinople became a 'depository of ancient knowledge' and a 'centerpiece of the new intellectual capital of Constantinople', founded by Constantine I's son Constantius II to fulfill Constantine's wish. Subsequent emperors ensured that the imperial library would have both pagan and Christian texts as well as scribes that were competent in Greek and Latin to copy and repair the manuscripts held in the library. Patriarchal libraries were theological libraries that had specific classification systems. They held the records of the various ecumenical councils and may have begun as the Christian Patriarch's personal library that expanded, though 'many of its contents were subject to destruction as religious in-fighting ultimately resulted in book burnings'. Private libraries were often held by the aristocracy, church members, and teachers as well as 'wealthy bibliophiles who could afford the highly ornate books of the period'.
