فانی

EPHEMERA

Text of a historical letter, the original of which is kept under glass in the Great Library of Alexandria, and Codexed under the Core Collection.From the scribe of Pharaoh Ptolemy II, to his most excellent servant Callimachus, Archivist of the Great Library, in the third year of his glorious reign: Great King Ptolemy, Light of Egypt, has considered your counsel to make copies of the most important works of the Library to be housed in daughter libraries, hereinafter to be called Serapeum, for the access and enrichment of all men. Pharaoh, who is as wide as the Nile in his divine wisdom, agrees to this proposal.

You shall therefore survey the contents of the Great Library and create for him a listing of all works housed therein, which shall serve ever after as the accounting of this great storehouse of the knowledge of the world.

You shall then consult with the Library’s Editor to make exact copies of items suitable for the use of the Serapeum, being mindful of the need to provide works that elevate and educate.

By these means shall we further preserve the knowledge we have gathered and hold in trust from ancient times, to be preserved for the future of all who come after.

Pharaoh has also heard your words regarding the unaccompanied admission of females to this sacred space of the Serapeum, and in his divine wisdom refuses this argument, for women must be instructed by the more developed minds of men to ensure they do not wrongly interpret the riches that the Library offers. For a perversion of knowledge is surely worse than a lack of it.

Pharaoh and the gods will grant eternal favour and protection to this great work.

A handwritten annotation to the letter, in the hand of Callimachus:

His divine wisdom can kiss my common arse.

We blind and hobble half of the world through such ignorance, and I will not have it. Women shall study at the

Serapeum as they might be inclined. Let him execute me if he wishes, but I have seen enough of minds wasted in this world.

I have a daughter.

My daughter will learn.