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The survival rate of ancient literature
#16
Quote: Although conquest always incidentally destroys some books. Things get accidentally burned, or soldiers steal them and they get ruined in their packs, or they get casually destroyed. Sultan Mehmet may have wanted to preserve the books and buildings of Constantinople in 1453, and he did a fairly good job of it, but some of his auxilliaries seem to have disagreed. Ditto for the Crusaders in 1204.

Some books will always get destroyed. You don't even need real wars for that, though they help (soldiers frequently need kindling, bedding or, erm, items of personal hygiene more than they need reading matter). But for a loss of the proportions we saw in Late Antiquity to occur, people have to basically stop caring about books for centuries on end.
Der Kessel ist voll Bärks!

Volker Bach
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Re: The survival rate of ancient literature - by Carlton Bach - 01-09-2008, 07:10 PM

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