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The Mouseion of Alexandria (; ), which arguably included the Library of Alexandria,The relation of the institutions is still a matter of debate. The Mouseion is discussed by P.M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria (1972: vol. I: 213–219 etc), and Mostafa el-Addabi, The Life and Fate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria (Paris 1990: 84–90). was an institution said to have been founded by Ptolemy I Soter and his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Originally, the word mouseion meant any place that was dedicated to the Muses, often related to the study of music or poetry, but later associated with sites of learning such as Plato's Platonic Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum.
The Ptolemies reputedly established their Mouseion and Library with the intention of bringing together some of the best scholars of the Hellenistic world and collect all the books known at the time. Although it did not imply a collection of works of art, the word mouseion is the root for the modern usage of the word museum.
Unlike the modern museum in the sense that has developed since the Renaissance, the Mouseion of Alexandria did not have a collection of sculpture and painting presented as works of art, as was assembled by the Ptolemies' rival Attalid dynasty at the Library of Pergamum.The Ptolemaic dynasty displayed these in their palace nearby. Instead, it was an institution of learning that attracted some of the best scholars of the Hellenistic world, as Germain Bazin puts it, "analogous to the modern Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton or to the Collège de France in Paris."Bazin, The Museum Age 1967: 16.
It is uncertain how many scholars lived in the Mouseion at any given time, as surviving reports are few and rather brief. Nonetheless, it appears that scholars and staff members were salaried by the State and paid no taxes. According to Strabo, they also received free room and board, and free servants.
Based on extant works of scholars associated with the Mouseion, it seems likely that literary criticism and other similar activities took place there. In addition to Greek works, some foreign texts were translated from Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Jewish languages, and other languages. Many of the edited versions of the Greek canon that we know today, from Homer and Hesiod forward, exist in editions that were collated and corrected by scholars presumably affiliated with the Mouseion and the Library of Alexandria.
The Mouseion is also part of the Brucheion (palace complex), possessing a peripatos (lobby), an exedra (columned hall), and large oikos (dining hall), in which the common table of the philologoi, men who are members of the Mouseion, is located. This synodos (assembly) has property in common and a priest in charge of the Mouseion, formerly appointed by the kings, but now by Caesar.Strabo, Geography 17.1.8, noted by Bagnall 2002: 57 note 39.
According to this description, the Mouseion featured a roofed walkway, an arcade of seats, and a communal dining room where scholars routinely ate and shared ideas. The building may have also hosted private study rooms, residential quarters, and lecture halls, based on similar structures that were built much later in Alexandria.Majcherek, G. (2018). 'Crumbs from the table'-archeological remains of Hellenistic Alexandria. In C. S. Zerefos & M. V. Vardinoyannis (Eds.), Hellenistic Alexandria (pp. 71–85). Archaeopress. However, it is unclear if the premises provided accommodations for anatomical research or astronomical observations. At a later date another smaller library was housed in the nearby Serapeum (Temple of Serapis), which may have been open to people other than Mouseion scholars.
Despite the fact that the Mouseion continued as an institution under Roman rule, it never regained its former glory. Membership of the Mouseion was not limited to prominent scholars under the Roman emperors but included politicians, athletes, and other people rewarded for their support to the state.Edward Jay Watts, (2008), City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, page 148. University of California Press Emperor Claudius added an additional building in the first century AD,Suetonius, Claudius, 42Edward Jay Watts, (2008), City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, p. 147. University of California Press and much later the emperor Caracalla temporarily suspended Mouseion membership in 216 AD.
The members of the Mouseion ensured the preservation and production of historical, literary, and scientific works, which would remain part of the Western heritage for centuries, and thanks to their efforts today one can still read Homer and the tragedians.
As an institution dedicated to the Muses, the word mouseion became the source for the modern word museum. In early modern France, it denoted as much a community of scholars brought together under one roof as it did the collections themselves. French and English writers often referred to these collections originally as a "cabinet of curiosities." A catalogue of the 17th century collection of John Tradescant the Elder and his son John Tradescant the Younger was the founding core of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It was published as Musaeum Tradescantianum: or, a Collection of Rarities. Preserved at South-Lambeth near London by John Tradescant (1656).
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