The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found Hardcover – May 14, 2019

A fascinating account of how knowledge was increased, preserved, and spread starting in the Dark Ages and extending for 1000 years. The struggle to save our knowledge base was made worse because every book had to be re-written by hand and then carried to others around Europe. This book demonstrates how humanity has striven to understand the world in which we live.

While light in tone and intended for non-academics, The Map of Knowledge does carry a message intended to answer some of the more important questions of today.Ostensibly the manuscript history of three works by Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy, Dr. Moller devotes most of the text to invoking the spirit of the cities responsible for handing down and adding to this tradition. These cities include not only the well known ancient Alexandria and Renaissance Venice but also medieval Baghdad and Córdoba. Throughout the text, she finds the same characteristics predominating in regions of intellectual progress: cosmopolitanism, openness to immigration, free exchange of ideas across different religions and cultures...all hallmarks of the modern world.Throughout the narrative a second theme emerges with increasing vigor. The scientific and humanistic revolution which transpired in early modern Europe was partially due to the medieval societies of the Muslim and Hindu worlds. The Renaissance emphasis on a rebirth of culture not only slighted the genuine contributions of medieval Europe but also looked past the cultural importance of non-European peoples.A true history of modernity then would not draw a blank between the fall of Rome and Renaissance Italy but discuss the vibrant societies of Abbasid Mesopotamia and Andalusian Spain. Given that these were emblematic of the multiculturalism so beloved by modernity it seems that the author is suggesting a rewrite of the history of Western civilization that would reach similar conclusions but arrive by a more circuitous route.I’m not a professional historian and cannot vouch for the accuracy of the author’s narrative. It is clearly meant to be not merely an erudite history but also a salvo in the culture wars. But the fact that an academic can translate this material into a popular work makes the book not less but more important. It will be interesting to see if a secondary literature develops around the claims of this book and if it has its desired effect on how the history of Western civilization is taught.

This whirlwind tour of the dissemination and development of scientific ideas in city after city of the near east and Europe astounded md with its mix of great storytelling, focus on interesting and quirky details, and consistent reminders of the large context and meaning of the whole. Charming and acute writing, keeps you looking at all the right things to make sense of the broad analysis and range.

This well written and lively history focuses on the roughly 1000 year period from about 500 to 1500 AD, during which ideas from the classical eras of Greece and Rome were dispersed, found sanctuary and expansion in the glittering Islamic civilizations in the Middle East and Spain, and then eventually returned to their original homes and beyond in Renaissance Europe. This is Violet Moller's first published work, and it promises a career of solid scholarship presented in a clear and approachable style.I found Moller's geographical approach to her subject very appealing. She begins with the classical world, appropriately choosing Alexandria and its library as her cornerstone and then traces classical learning's dispersal in the aftermath of the collapse of Rome. Next she focuses on Muslim preservation and expansion of that classical learning with some beautiful chapters describing Baghdad and Cordoba at their heights. As the Muslim empires declined and Christian Europe began to expand, Moller chooses Toledo, Salerno, Palermo, and Venice as her prime examples, then finishes with a short conclusion focusing on the Renaissance.Moller writes clearly, using historical examples like Galen, Emir Rahman, al-Mansur, Gerard, Petrarch, and many others to make her account lively and approachable. The Map of Knowledge makes a fine introduction for those seeking to learn more about the complex, interwoven, and tolerant world in which Muslims, Jews, and Christians traded and interacted, and in which the learning of the ancient world was preserved and expanded.

The author takes you on a journey through a number of countries mostly in Europe and the Middle East following the trail of the work of 3 ancient Greeks - Euclid, Ptolemy and Galen. You visit a number of cities where scientists and translators copied the ancient texts, made notes in the margins, and translated the works from Greek to Arabic back to Greek, to Latin and then to the vernacular during the 1440s adn1500s primarily in Germany and Italy. You go from museums to monasteries to book sellers to private homes following originals and copies of these ancient texts. You learn a lot along the way. Don't expect an easy read. Take time to pause and think about where these books have traveled and the changes they went through to bring them to use today. Most of us probably got introduced to Euclid in geometry courses in Middle School. But it's fascinating to also follow the works of Ptolemy and Galen and the impact they have had on our understanding of the stars/universe and of the body/flow of blood. What a legacy each of them have provided.

I can’t stop reading this book. Highly recommend

This book expanded my worldview tremendously. I had never thought about how we have come to know what we know. The author follows the works of Ptolemy in astronomy, Euclid in mathematics, and Galen in medicine, showing how their works were studied, expanded upon, copied, and translated by scholars from different cultures. I learned so much especially about the vast contributions made by Arab scholars. The desire for knowledge through the centuries was impressive!

Not quite sure what to make of this book. On the plus side, it is beautifully written, and offers an easy to read survey of the copying, survival and dissemination of classical (especially Greek) texts on medicine, maths and astronomy. I also rather liked the structure: the idea to look at seven cities from across the medieval Mediterranean was a really rather good one. It certainly allows the author to show just how enriching and fruitful cultural contact with the Islamic world was for medieval western Europeans (and just how dependent the latter were on the former).On the downside, the author knows very little about medieval Europe (I'm sure experts on the Islamic world will have their own gripes and misgivings to add). In fact, Moller's background is in English Renaissance history. And that shows. Sometimes, just in little vignettes that reveal a deep lack of familiarity with the period. At other times, it's a set of quite fundamental misconceptions, with a good dose of lazy thinking. It's also quite dated: the state of knowledge c. 1990.So, on balance: do read if you want a quick, easy, accessible and often entertaining overview. But be aware that it is no more than that, and that it gets quite a few very simple things very wrong. Still, until someone who actually knows about the topic writes a better book, and one that is as accessibly written, it will do.

The story of how classical texts on medicine, mathematics and philosophy were translated and thus survived to be rediscovered in the Renaissance, focusing on seven cities of learning, from Alexandria to Baghdad, Cordoba to Toledo, Salerno to Palermo and then Venice over a period of a thousand years. If it sounds dry and academic, it isn't thanks to a fabulously readable commentary by an author clearly, and rightly, in awe of the ancient scribes, translators, scholars and their patrons who kept knowledge alive during 'dark ages' of war and disruption. In particular, the debt owed by the West to the Arabic scholars of old Baghdad is highlighted, which may come as a surprise to the lay reader.

... for anyone interested in the history of ideas, how they originated, were preserved by various civilisations, enhanced and now taken for granted. Had it not been for the Arabs, we would have lost the threads of many of them.

Violet Miller has done an important piece of work. Especially by bringing out the critical role played by Muslim scholars in rescuing ancient knowledge. This book sheds a bright light on the intellectual activities of the so-called dark ages and provides the framework for the detail of the period.

Truly fascinating and interesting. A very easy read for a book written by an academic and brings home how much civilisation owes to the Persians and Moors. It also make one mourn for what has been lost in the great libraries destroyed by war.