THE GREEK PERIOD
sary for that purpose, we may have their books also in this library. So the king thought that Demetrius was very zealous to procure him abundance of books, and that he suggested what was exceeding proper for him to do; and therefore he wrote to the Jewish high-priest, that he should act accordingly."
This was the alleged origin of the famous LXX and it is obvious that it implies well organized ecclesiastical collections of books in Jerusalem at this time, and that not of canonical books only.
This first library of Alexandria in the Museum was in the royal Palace (Bruchium) and Strabo describes it thus: "It has a colonnade (peripaton), a lecture room (exedrā) and a vast establishment where the men of letters who share the use of the Museum take their meals together. This college has a common revenue and is managed by a priest who is over the Mu-
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