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Now imagine, sometime, somewhere, someone got a written manuscript from Plato, or the Buddha, or another figure and just used it to make fire.
by rokhayakebe 11y ago
Now imagine, sometime, somewhere, someone got a written manuscript from Plato, or the Buddha, or another figure and just used it to make fire.
- dogma1138 11y agoThat might be unfortunate, but we've set fire to priceless manuscripts intentionally far more often. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Library_of_Alexandria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Library_of_...
- frandroid 11y agoMore recently, Napoleon's Egyptian Scientific Institute in Cairo: https://www.rt.com/art-and-culture/egypt-library-fire-heritage-destroyed-163/ https://www.rt.com/art-and-culture/egypt-library-fire-herita...
- shas3 11y agoAlso, sacking of Taxila/takshashIla [1] and Nalanda [2] in Indian subcontinent by Huns and Islamic marauders. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda#Decline_and_end https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda#Decline_and_end The other, brighter side of this coin is the many remarkable rediscovery stories, like that of the Archimedes palimpsest [3] in the 1990s and Indian statesman Chanakya's 3rd century BCE manuscript 'Arthashastra' [4] in the 1900s. [3] http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/ http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthashastra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthashastra
- tpeo 11y agoThere's no need to imagine. When Henry VIII ordered the supression of the monasteries, manuscripts from monastic libraries were sold as toilet paper and shining rags. Though this has less to do with unnapraised items being lost due to clulessness than with a monarch being a dick.
- brudgers 11y agoThat general idea is similar to one of the themes running through Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.
- robterrell 11y agoI'm sure it's happened. If you can't read, old documents just look like perfect tinder. Many of the documents found at Nag Hammadi were burned before anyone read them. Among the unburned was a copy of Plato's Republic (not an original, but still). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library Reading these makes me wonder what other interesting written interpretations of various religious figures were burned out of existence.
- peter303 11y agoActually some goat-skin books were recycled for new books. Existing parchment with uninteresting texts was cheaper than acquiring new parchment. Sometimes the scraped old text is faintly or can be seen with hyperspectral imaging. There was some famous Greek author whose work is only know this way. Lots of books are referenced in other books, so ther eis some idea of what is missing.