Category
Vanished Texts & Libraries
Lost plays, lost catalogues and vanished libraries: what the surviving records say about each one, from royal payment accounts to later writers' citations.
3 entries
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Library of Alexandria: No Source on File Names Its Last Day
Who burned the Library of Alexandria? Caesar's own account names ships, not books. The main ancient sources, dated and compared, with a free CSV and timeline.
Published
Picture credit
"The Burning of the Library at Alexandria in 391 AD" by Ambrose Dudley — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Burning_of_the_Library_at_Alexandria_in_391_AD.jpg — Public domain (author died 1951, so life plus 70 years ended in 2021 in the UK and EU; published in London about 1915, before 1931, for the US; faithful reproduction of a flat artwork)
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Love's Labour's Won: A Shakespeare Title Listed in 1598
Love's Labour's Won is a comedy Francis Meres credited to Shakespeare in 1598. No play survives under that title. The list and the matches proposed, with CSV.
Published
Picture credit
"The Princess, Rosaline, etc. (Shakespeare, Love's Labour Lost, Act 4, Scene 1)" by Thomas Ryder, after William Hamilton — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Princess,_Rosaline,_etc._(Shakespeare,_Love%27s_Labour_Lost,_Act_4,_Scene_1)_MET_DP859573.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/); modified: cropped to the picture area, removing the engraved lettering below it (title, quotation, painter, engraver and publication lines), the plate number and the paper margin with a stain at lower right; the picture itself is not cut
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Cardenio: A Lost Play Known From Two 1613 Court Payments
Cardenio is a lost play paid for at court in 1613 under the spellings Cardenno and Cardenna. A 1653 entry credited it to Fletcher and Shakespeare. Records, CSV.
Published
Picture credit
"Don Quixote Disputing with the Mad Cardenio" by Francis Hayman — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Don_Quixote_Disputing_with_the_Mad_Cardenio_-_Francis_Hayman_-_5_1963_4.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)