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After the memorable historical meeting in
Aswan, on February 12,1990, members of the International
Honorary Commission including Heads of State and world
dignitaries signed the Aswan Declaration for the Revival of the
Ancient Library of Alexandria.
They declared in their statement that the Library would be a
witness to a decisive moment in the history of the human spirit,
and should provide a base for acquiring information for
researchers all over the world.
"The Bibliotheca Alexandria - a link with the past and
opening on to the future will be unique in being the first
library on such a scale to be designed and constructed with the
assistance of the international community".
Grateful recognition is due to Kings and Presidents who
generously gave in response to this historic Declaration about
US $65,000,000.
Text of the Declaration
At the beginning of the third century before our era, a great
enterprise was conceived in ancient Alexandria, meeting-place of
peoples and cultures: the edification of a Library in the
lineage of Aristotle’s Lyceum, transposing Alexander’s
dreams of empire into a quest for universal knowledge.
On the eve of the third millennium and under the patronage of
President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, the Government of the Arab
Republic of Egypt is seeking, in co-operation with UNESCO and
with the financial support of UNDP and other public and private
sources, to revive the Ancient Library of Alexandria by
restating its universal legacy in modern terms.
The Bibliotheca Alexandria will stand as a testimony to a
decisive moment in the history of human thought - the attempt to
constitute a summum of knowledge, to assemble the writings of
all the peoples. It will bear witness to an original undertaking
that, in embracing the totality and diversity of human
experience, became the matrix for a new spirit of critical
inquiry, for a heightened perception of knowledge as a
collaborative process.
The Ancient Library of Alexandria and its associated Museum gave
birth to a new intellectual dynamic.
By gathering together all the known sources of knowledge and
organizing them for the purposes of scholarly study and
investigation, they marked the foundation of the modern notion
of the research institute and, therefore, of the university.
Within this haven of learning, the arts and sciences flourished
for some six centuries alongside scholarship. The classification
and exegesis of the classical literary canon nourished the
poetic wit of Callimachus and the pastoral muse of Theocritus.
Study of the theories of the masters of Greek thought, informed
by the new Alexandrian spirit of critical and empirical inquiry,
yielded major insights and advances in those branches of science
associated with the names of Euclid, Herophilus, Erastosthenes,
Aristarchus, Ptolemy, Strabo, Archimedes and Heron.
The achievements of Alexandrian science, lost to the West for
over a millennium before their partial recovery via
Constantinople and classical Arabic and Islamic cultures, were
to be instrumental in launching the European Renaissance on its
quest for new worlds. In this and as the transmitter of Greek
civilization in general, the Ancient Library of Alexandria
survives as a vital link in a living tradition. On the site of
the palace of the Ptolemies, the new Alexandria will give modern
expression to an ancient endeavor.
A splendid contemporary design for the Library has already been
adopted through an international architectural competition.
Detailed plans exist for a facility embodying the latest
computer technology and serving as a public research library.
Conceived in the framework of the World Decade for Cultural
Development, this institution will be open to researchers not
only from the Mediterranean countries but from all over the
world. The Bibliotheca Alexandria - a link with the past and an
opening onto the future - will be a unique in being the first
library on such a scale to designed and constructed with the
assistance of the international community acting through the
United Nations system. We, the members of the International
Commission for the revival of the Ancient Library of Alexandria,
meeting at its inaugural session in Aswan in February 1990 under
the chairmanship of Mrs. Susan Mubarak, pledge our wholehearted
support and commitment to this end the appeal made by the
Director-General of Unesco in 1987. We call upon all
governments, international governmental and non-governmental
organizations, public and private institutions, funding
agencies, librarians and archivists, and the peoples of all
countries to participate, by means of voluntary contributions of
all kinds, in the efforts initiated by the Egyptian Government
to revive the Library of Alexandria, to assemble and preserve
its collections, to train the necessary staff and to ensure the
Library’s functioning.
We call on scholars, writers and artists and all those whose
tasks is to inform through the written and spoken word to help
generate awareness of the international project for the revival
of the Library of Alexandria and support for this historic
venture. Finally, we urge all governments to donate to the
Bibliotheca Alexandria such works in their possession as will
help to constitute and enhance the Library’s collection, in
recognition of the unique gift made by the Ancient Library of
Alexandria to our common heritage.
Signatories
Madame Susanne AGNELLI,
Sénateur
Sous-Secrétaire aux affaires étrangères
(Italie)
Her Majesty Queen Noor AL-HUSSEIN of Jordan
Mr Yahya Bin Mahfoudh AL-MANTHERI,
Minister of Education and Youth
(Sultanate of Oman)
His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan AL-NAHYAN,
President of the United Arab Emirates
His Royal Highness Prince Turki Ibn Abdal-Aziz AL-SAUD,
Founder and President of the arab Student Aid International (ASAI)
(Saudi Arabia)
Dr Daniel BOORSTIN,
Historian, Librarian of Congress Emeritus
(United States)
Lord BRIGGS,
Provost, Worcester College, Oxford
(United Kingdom)
Mrs Gro Harlem BRUNDTLAND,
Member of Parliament
(Norway)
Son Altesse Sérénissime la Princesse CAROLINE de Monaco
Mr Hans-Peter GEH,
President of the International Federation of Libray Associations
and Institutions (IFLA)
(Federal Republic of Germany
Mr Abdul-Aziz HUSSAIN,
Adviser to His Highness the Amir of Kuweit
Professor Dmitri Sergeevich LIKHACHEV,
Academician
(USSR)
The late Madame Melina MERCOURI,
Membre du Parlement
(Grèce)
The lateMonsieur François MITTERAND,
Président de la République française
Mrs Susan MUBARAK,
(Egypt)
Sa Majesté la Reine SOFIA d' Espagne
Mr Ahmed Fathi SOROUR,
Minister of Education, Chairman of the General Organization of
the Alexandria Library (GOAL)
(Egypt)
Mr José Israel VARGAS,
Former Chair of the Executive Board of Unesco
(Brazil)
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