"The twelfth-century epitomist Joannes Zonaras relays an old and possibly accurate estimate that in 475 when the [Imperial] library [of Constantinople] was damaged by fire it contained 120,000 volumes, which suggests that the library grew steadily during the first century after its founding" (Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church. A Study of Early Christian Texts [1995] 169).
Filed under: Destruction / Loss of Information, Libraries
