THE SWERVE

The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt is a dual story of a Medieval monk named Poggio Bracciolini and an ancient Roman writer named Lucretius.

Many of the ancient writings had been lost.  One of the most tragic losses occurred when the library in Alexandria, Egypt was destroyed.  Estimates are the library held as many as a half million documents.

Greenblatt talks about how books were copied by the monks of the time.  The monks were really the preservationists of culture.  They laboriously copied books onto vellum, which is made from animal skins.  Bracciolini had beautiful handwriting and there is a photo showing some of his work published in the book.

When Bracciolini discovered the ancient manuscript of On the Nature of Things by Lucretius the poem had largely been forgotten.  The ideas Lucretius wrote about have since had a major impact on thinkers as diverse as Galileo, Freud, Darwin, Einstein, and Thomas Jefferson.

Now thanks to Bracciolini we can read On the Nature of Things.  I even downloaded a copy for my Kindle.