3 ms·

>The copies happened because since the 4th century or so the Church decided to dedicate quite a few people to copying all knowledge (all knowledge, not just Chr

>The copies happened because since the 4th century or so the Church decided to dedicate quite a few people to copying all knowledge (all knowledge, not just Christian). This is just not true. The most of the ancient philosophers' works were completely lost in the West after the fall of Western Roman Empire, and were saved only by the somewhat longer lasting Byzantine Empire and then later taken over by Arabs. Of course, some fragments were saved or copied all the time, through the contacts with the eastern lands, but the first really significant knowledge transfer to the West was after the re-capture of Toledo from Arabs in 1085, because Toledo's library at that moment had more books then all catholic libraries of the time together. Catholic church (or more likely scholars inside the church) then started copying these and spreading them all over Europe which in a way kick-started the Western Civilization as we know it today.

tome 9y ago
> Catholic church (or more likely scholars inside the church) ... What's the difference?
- blkhawk 9y ago
  Its useful to make the distinction because in western culture at the time there were functionally very few scholars outside the church. At the time there weren't even any Universities at all.
candiodari 9y ago
Euhm, which religion was dominant in the Byzantine Empire ? This illustrates what happened though: large (and I do mean LARGE) parts of the West had seriously damaged and/or eradicated science. But ... that wasn't the last part. And the remaining part did believe in science. That wouldn't have mattered at all if the knowledge was in only one location ... but because of the copying, it did matter. Only small parts of the knowledge were totally lost, even if they did disappear almost from all of western europe for quite a while. Oh, and to make matters even worse ... what was the dominant religion in Toledo in 1085 ? Not the rulers' religion ... the religion of the population ... (despite the constant muslim massacres I might add)

tome 9y ago

> Catholic church (or more likely scholars inside the church) ... What's the difference?

blkhawk 9y ago
Its useful to make the distinction because in western culture at the time there were functionally very few scholars outside the church. At the time there weren't even any Universities at all.

candiodari 9y ago

Euhm, which religion was dominant in the Byzantine Empire ? This illustrates what happened though: large (and I do mean LARGE) parts of the West had seriously damaged and/or eradicated science. But ... that wasn't the last part. And the remaining part did believe in science. That wouldn't have mattered at all if the knowledge was in only one location ... but because of the copying, it did matter. Only small parts of the knowledge were totally lost, even if they did disappear almost from all of western europe for quite a while. Oh, and to make matters even worse ... what was the dominant religion in Toledo in 1085 ? Not the rulers' religion ... the religion of the population ... (despite the constant muslim massacres I might add)