Callimachus in Context

He had the huge job, which he carried out in exemplary fashion, of creating, virtually ex nihilo, a catalogue raisonné, known as the Pinakes (‘registers’), of the [Alexandria] library’s already extensive literary holdings. As a writer, he experimented with various poetic metres, and also wrote a great deal in prose, on such varied topics as ‘winds, barbarian customs, birds, nymphs, islands and rivers’, his total output allegedly reaching eight hundred ‘books’ (i.e. papyrus rolls). This contrasts nicely with his best-known aphorism, ‘big book, big mistake’ …