Iipotesi di ragionamento sulla localizzazione del Mouseion di Alessandria

The dificulties involved in the topography of Alexandria entail that localization of the Mouseion must be approached with the greatest caution and in a spirit prepared only to formulate hypotheses. The attempt is to reopen the debate from a perspective departing from that of the previous scholars. The literary sources attest to the presence of the Mouseion in the city centre, close to many other buildings. A series of pieces of archaeological evidence (architectural remains, sculptures, inscriptions), not yet examined in a combined perspective, make data converging in the area of Kom el-Dikka and the sector just to the west, between the streets R5 and R6. In the same central area there should also be the Sema, according to a topographic logic common to many dynastic cities such as Halicarnassus or Aï Khanoum. The Alexandrian Mouseion represents a topographic model for the subsequent Mouseia of Hellenism (like that of Antioch), no longer conined in the peripheral areas of the city and linked to the gymnasia facilities (as was still the case in classical Athens), but standing now as autonomous institutes in the city centre, addressing a speciic class of scholars.