Private libraries are libraries that are privately owned and are usually intended for the use of a small number of people, or even a single person. As with public libraries, some people use bookplates – stamps, stickers or embossing – to show ownership of the items. Some people sell their private libraries to established institutions such as the Library of Congress, or, as is often the case, bequeath them after death. Much less often, a private library is maintained intact long after the death of the owner.
History
The earliest libraries belonged to temples or administration bodies, resembled modern archives, and were usually restricted to nobility, aristocracy, scholars, or theologians. Examples of the earliest known private libraries include one found in Ugarit (dated to around 1200 BC) and the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (near modern Mosul, Iraq), dating back to the 7th century BC.
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia was home to a great number of private libraries, many with extensive collections of over 400 tablets. The nucleus of these private libraries were primarily texts which had been transcribed by the proprietors themselves from the time they acquired their education in the art of the scribe. As insignificant as these libraries may seem, they established the basis for the Library of Ashurbanipal collection.
Egypt
While private libraries in ancient Egypt were not common, they did exist to some extent. One of the problems in identifying potential individual libraries is that it is often difficult to distinguish between a personal library and one associated with a temple. However, many personal libraries survived over time, and are perhaps more numerous than traditionally assumed. Several private tombs have exposed copious texts whose content is scholarly in nature. In addition, extensive clusters of papyrus scrolls have been unearthed in association with domiciliary arrangements, confirming that some type of library endured there. The Middle Kingdom Period (2055–1650 BC) offers the best clues to the presence of private libraries in ancient Egypt.
For example, one sepulcher contained a chest with books on bureaucratic relations, hymns, and incantations. In total, the cache revealed a 20-volume library. A rather large collection from the Thirteenth Dynasty suggests a library belonging to a doctor or necromancer. In addition to general texts on assorted literature, there is a profusion of discourses on medicine and magic. A private library of considerable quantity is attributed to Kenherkhepshef, a scribe. This library embodies nearly 50 manuscripts, accommodating a collection of disparate subjects from correspondence missives to astrological recipes such as incantations and dream interpretations. This particular library spanned many generations, being passed to one family member to the next, which gives the impression of the significance the library had.
A manuscript known as the Westcar Papyrus from this same period alludes to an individual whose residence occupies spaces for a private library. The text of the manuscript is a fanciful narrative; however, it proves that ordinary citizens were literate and accumulated books for their own use. One Middle Kingdom tomb, associated with a healer and lector priest, contained over 20 books, one of which was the now-famous Tale of the Eloquent Peasant. Finally, a private library in a New Kingdom tomb at the site of Deir el Medina housed books on medicine as well as on love poetry and wisdom literature.