<P> Libraries were filled with parchment scrolls as at Library of Pergamum and on papyrus scrolls as at Alexandria: the export of prepared writing materials was a staple of commerce . There were a few institutional or royal libraries which were open to an educated public (such as the Serapeum collection of the Library of Alexandria, once the largest library in the ancient world), but on the whole collections were private . In those rare cases where it was possible for a scholar to consult library books, there seems to have been no direct access to the stacks . In all recorded cases, the books were kept in a relatively small room where the staff went to get them for the readers, who had to consult them in an adjoining hall or covered walkway . Most of the works in catalogs were of a religious nature, such as volumes of the Bible or religious service books . "In a number of cases the library was entirely theological and liturgical, and in the greater part of the libraries the non-ecclesiastical content did not reach one third of the total" In addition to these types of works, in some libraries during that time Plato was especially popular . In the early Middle Ages, Aristotle was more popular . Additionally, there was quite a bit of censoring within libraries of the time; many works that were "scientific and metaphysical" were not included in the majority of libraries during that time period . Latin authors were better represented within library holdings and Roman works were less represented . Cicero was also an especially popular author along with the histories of Sallust . Additionally, Virgil was universally represented at most of the medieval libraries of the time . One of the most popular was Ovid, mentioned by approximately twenty French catalogues and nearly thirty German ones . Surprisingly, old Roman textbooks on grammar were still being used at that time . </P> <P> Han Chinese scholar Liu Xiang established the first library classification system during the Han dynasty, and the first book notation system . At this time, the library catalogue was written on scrolls of fine silk and stored in silk bags . </P> <P> During the Late Antiquity and Middle Ages periods, there was no Rome of the kind that ruled the Mediterranean for centuries and spawned the culture that produced twenty - eight public libraries in the urbs Roma . The empire had been divided then later re-united again under Constantine the Great who moved the capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD to the city of Byzantium which was renamed Constantinople . The Roman intellectual culture that flourished in ancient times was undergoing a transformation as the academic world moved from laymen to Christian clergy . As the West crumbled, books and libraries flourished and flowed east toward the Byzantine Empire . There, four different types of libraries were established: imperial, patriarchal, monastic, and private . Each had its own purpose and, as a result, their survival varied . </P> <P> Christianity was a new force in Europe and many of the faithful saw Hellenistic culture as pagan . As such, many classical Greek works, written on scrolls, were left to decay as only Christian texts were thought fit for preservation in a codex, the progenitor of the modern book . In the East, however, this was not the case as many of these classical Greek and Roman texts were copied . "(F) ormerly paper was rare and expensive, so every spare page of available books was pressed into use . Thus a seventeenth - century edition of the Ignatian epistles, in Mar Saba, had copied onto its last pages, probably in the early eighteenth century, a passage allegedly from the letters of Clement of Alexandria". Old manuscripts were also used to bind new books because of the costs associated with paper and also because of the scarcity of new paper . </P>

10 books of every section in the library