The destruction of the Alexandrian library is one of the great tragedies of human history, and the suggested assailants have included Marc Antony, the early Christians, and the early Muslims. It is likely that what precisely happened to that library will never be known because there is no existing evidence. This is ironic considering that evidence is exactly what libraries seek to preserve.
Libraries were sustained through the Middle Ages as writings were preserved by monastic copyists. The original Benedictine scriptorum at Monte Cassino in southern Italy was recreated in Ireland, and eventually throughout much of Europe. A heritage of antiquity thus survived alongside biblical and early Christian writings, as humanist poets and scholars sought out the evidence of a lost antiquity preserved in surviving manuscripts. If the loss of the Alexandrian library symbolically represents the decline of classical civilization, Boccaccio's visit to Monte Cassino symbolically represents the Renaissance of modern Western history.
Rediscovery of the past inspired the passions of many book collectors, including the Medicis, many the Popes, the Duke of Urbino, King Mathias Corvinus of Hungary, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Prominent book collectors of more recent times include John Rylands in England and J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry Clay Folger, and Henry L.
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