Famous Book Burnings In History?

Question

I believe that I read somewhere that the library at Alexandria was burned by the Romans, thus permanently denying civilization some of the greatest works of antiquity.

What can you tell me about the burning of the library at Alexandria?

Also, what was their motivation for doing this?

Lastly,can you name some other famous book burnings in history?

Answer 1

when the muslims were defeated in Spain by Christians (Fernando or something), all their libraries were burnt and muslims were forced to convert to christians.

Answer 2

Hitler did the same ....

Answer 3

i can answer the third part , the Mongols destroyed the libraries in Baghdad in the tenth or eleventh centuries

Answer 4

Not so famous burnings.

There is no correlations between burning libraries and destroying Beatles

records, books, and t-shirts, etc.  However, 1966, John Lennon made a remark about The Beatles being "more popular than Jesus Christ."  The result was a bonfire in Birmingham, Alabama in which kids were invited to bring Beatles records and throw them on the fire.

It was spearheaded by disc jockey Tommy Charles of WAQY in Birmingham. A "Ban the Beatles" crusade got underway, mostly in the American South. A group of radio stations refused to play The Beatles, and albums and other Beatles merchandise were destroyed in public displays of what some might describe as religious zealotry.

Answer 5

The library at Alexandria was burned at least four times.  The final one was in 415 AD by the Christians.  Most of the scholars were killed, too, including the beautiful mathematician Hypatia.  Her crime was not being a Christian.  

"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all."  --Hypatia, c. 415 AD

The library at Cordova, Spain held over a million books in six languages.  That was burned by the Christians when they retook the city from the Moors.  

Answer 6

This will tell you about the burning of the library:

http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_...

Other book burnings (there are lots)--

--Following the advice of minister Li Si, Emperor Qin s**+ Huang ordered the burning of all philosophy books and history books from states other than Qin — beginning in 213 BC

--The Egyptian alchemical books of Alexandria were burnt by the emperor Diocletian in 292.

--The books of Arius and his followers, after the first Council of Nicaea (325), for heresy.

--The Sibylline Books were burnt by Flavius Stilicho (died 408).

--The Royal Library of the Samanid Dynasty was burned at the turn of the 11th century during the Turkic invasion from the east. Avicenna was said to have tried to save the precious manuscripts from the fire as the flames engulfed the collection.

--During the 13th century, the Catholic Church waged a brutal campaign against the Cathars of Languedoc (smaller numbers also lived elsewhere in Europe), culminating in the Albigensian Crusade. Nearly every Cathar text that could be found was destroyed, in an effort to completely extirpate their heretical beliefs; only a few are known to have survived.

--The House of Wisdom was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, along with all other libraries in Baghdad. It was said that the waters of the Tigris ran black for six months with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river.

--In the 1480s Tomas Torquemada promoted the burning of non-Catholic literature, especially Jewish Talmuds and, after the final defeat of the Moors at Granada in 1492, Arabic books also

--In 1490 a number of Hebrew Bibles and other Jewish books were burned at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition. In 1499 about 5000 Arabic manuscripts were consumed by flames in the public square at Granada on the orders of Ximénez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo

--In 1497, followers of the Italian priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned pornography, lewd pictures, pagan books, gaming tables, cosmetics, copies of Boccaccio's Decameron, and all the works of Ovid which could be found in Florence.

--1562 Fray Diego de Landa, acting bishop of the Yucatan, threw into the fires the sacred books of the Maya

--In 1793 Robespierre ordered the destruction by fire of religious libraries, as well as the burning of those books defending or glorifying royalism or the French Kings. The books were considered "inimical towards reformed France".

etc. etc.--way more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burnin...