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 A library, therefore, to be a library, must be both literary and big, "an extensive literary collection — a real library" — "very extensive literary collection," a "large literary archive." It appears farther that even this is not enough and in order to be a library a collection must not only be large and literary but it must be like that of Ashurbanapal, in being gathered from many centers "since an extensive literary collection — a real library — could only be brought together by gathering" besides local texts "such as were used elsewhere."

"In other words (p. 141) the only library as yet found in the Mesopotamian excavations is the royal collection of Nineveh" (p. 149). This is the "only collection . . . that merits the name of library, in the sense in which that term is ordinarily understood" (p. 70) or "at all events the term having been preempted by the general consensus of Assyriologists