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Well… That's true of any strong and long lasting institutions. Incidentally, many of the ancient documents in those archives were copied into it during the ren
by netcan 12y ago
Well… That's true of any strong and long lasting institutions.
Incidentally, many of the ancient documents in those archives were copied into it during the renaissance after surviving for hundreds of years in the Muslim-Arab world. The Hebrew document in that article (I think 'Supplement to The Torah' is a decent translation) by Maimonides is a great example.
Maimonades was a Jewish Scholar who lived in Spain (during the Muslim period), Morocco & Egypt. He can (and is) claimed by Arabs, Jews & the Helenic culture of the middle ages. If you think in terms of 'The Flame of Western Civilization' he was part of the movement that carried that flame for a few hundred years before it was carried back to Christendom during the Renaissance. You could also make the argument that European Christianity joins Western culture during the Renaissance.
But certainly, the Vatican is an incredible influence on Western culture, good, bad or odd.
- huxley 12y agoThough forgotten by pretty everyone who doesn't study Medieval history, the Muslim scholar Averroës (Abū l-Walīd Muḥammad Ibn ʾAḥmad Ibn Rušd) was perhaps the single most significant figure, influencing all medieval scholars including Maimonides. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes "Famous scholastics such as Aquinas believed [Averroës] to be so important they did not refer to him by name, simply calling him 'The Commentator' and calling Aristotle 'The Philosopher.'"
- dbdr 12y agohttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119629/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119629/ I saw this film a long time ago, and as I remember it was enjoyable and inspiring, so I recommend it as an easy to watch introduction on this topic and era.
- 23david 12y agoFound some references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishneh_Torah http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/682956/jewish/Mishneh-Torah.htm Although it's great fodder for movies and ppl into conspiracy theories, getting an audited list of all the Vatican books/artifacts tucked away (and then digitizing everything) would be amazing to see in our lifetime. The really really old stuff inherited from the Roman Empire days would be of particular interest. Not too many secret ancient libraries left these days...