After my last message on vocabulary, I decided to look up some works in the American Heritage Dictionary, third edition.
It turns out that the "arch" in archive is derived from the same Greek word meaning "to rule" as "archon": it comes by way of a word meaning "town hall".
So it is entirely appropriate that the library/archive of the Citadel should also be that of the House Absolute--it's the set of records kept in the seat of government. And this particular archive is also the repository containing The Book of the New Sun, both Canog's and Severian's.
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Thinking of the Greek words in TBotNS got me thinking about "Hypogeum Apotropaic". Has anyone figured out why the Underground Hall of Protection from Evil should be associated with Father Inire? There's also a "Hypogeum Amaranthine", (unfading, never withering). Severian's memory? The transmitted memories of the Autarchs?
-- Dan Rabin