Bibliotheca (Photius)

The Bibliotheca or Myriobiblos (Μυριόβιβλος, "Ten Thousand Books") was a ninth-century work of Byzantine Patriarch of Constantinople Photius, dedicated to his brother and composed of 279 reviews of books which he had read. It was not meant to be used as a reference work, but was widely used as such in the 9th century, and is generally seen as the first Byzantine work that could be called an encyclopedia. The works he notes are mainly Christian and pagan authors from the 5th century BC to his own time in the 9th century AD. Almost half the books mentioned no longer survive. Reynolds and Wilson call it "a fascinating production, in which Photius shows himself the inventor of the book-review". and say its "280 sections... vary in length from a single sentence to several pages".