Copyists of books retained a high place in the order of things literary until the introduction of printing, and without their labours we should know nothing of ancient literature, seeing that no original manuscript of any classical author has survived. And apart from its purely literary value, which is variable, the work of the early mediæval scribes in many instances reaches a high artistic standard, and exhibits marvellous skill in an accomplishment now numbered among the lost arts. On the subject of libraries, as on all literary matters in ancient times, hardly any solid information is available. But we know that Egypt was to the fore in this respect as in so many others. Yet of all the collections of books which, since they are frequently alluded to in the inscriptions, she undoubtedly possessed, stored in her kings' palaces and her temple archives, there is only one which is mentioned in history, and that by a single historian. According to Diodorus Siculus, this library was made by Osymandyas, who was king of Egypt at a date which has not been precisely determined. He tells us that its entrance exhibited the inscription: "Place of Healing for the Soul," or, as it has been variously rendered, "Balsam for the Soul," or, "Dispensary of the Mind." Although doubt has been thrown on the perfect accuracy of the historian in introducing the name of Osymandyas in this connection, modern Egyptologists have identified the plan of the library with a hall of the great "palace temple" of Rameses II., the "Ramesium" or "Memnonium" at Thebes. The door-jambs of this hall utter their own testimony to its ancient use, for they bear the figures of Thoth, the god of writing, and Saf, a goddess who is accompanied by the titles "Lady of Letters" and "Presider over the Hall of Books." Astle, in _The Origin and Progress of Writing_, says that the books and colleges of Egypt were destroyed by the Persians, but Matter, on the other hand, in _L'École d'Alexandrie_, declares that the temple archives were in existence in the Greek and Roman periods. Probably Astle's statement is not intended to be as sweeping as it appears. Babylonia and Assyria also had their libraries. According to Professor Sayce (_The Higher Criticism and the Monuments_) they were "filled with libraries, and the libraries with thousands of books." The royal library already referred to as furnishing so rich a treasure of cuneiform tablets, was begun by Sennacherib, who reigned 705-681 B.C., and completed by Assur-bani-pal, who reigned about 668-626 B.C. There were libraries, too, in Palestine, in early days, but we know nothing of them. They may have been archives or places where records were kept, rather than libraries as we understand the term. The name of Kirjath-sepher, a city near Hebron, means "city of books," and survives from pre-Israelitish times. By the Jews, records and "the book of the law" were preserved in the temple.