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A review by edwardhabib
The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found by Violet Moller
4.0
8/10. The Map of Knowledge is a very accessible and enjoyable read that traces the journey of three major bodies of classical knowledge (the works of Euclid, Galen, and Ptolemy) from the fall of Rome through the Italian Renaissance. Across a thousand years, three continents, and seven cities, Violet Moller does a good job taking readers on a journey across the Mediterranean, and helping us understand how the most influential works of pre-modern math, medicine, and astronomy were preserved, annotated, revised, translated, reproduced, and ultimately preserved while civilizations rose and fell around them. While the details of these individual texts' journeys can get a bit bogged down in minutiae and side-tracked by tangents about individual scholars and patrons whose legacies won't have much staying power in the memories of most readers, Moller's choice to tether this journey to these specific ancient works is more-or-less successful.
The real high point of this book, however, is the way in which Moller describes the big picture: the rise and fall of civilizations; changes in religious and political thought; the shifting landscape of trade; and technological innovations. Through this, she gives readers a crash course in the most important developments in the Christian and Islamic worlds between 500 and 1500 AD (an undertaking many other books do not aspire to achieve in fewer than 300 pages). This is a great book if you want to fill in the big gaps in your historical understanding of what went on between antiquity and the renaissance. For me, this book was particularly helpful in adding color to my vague understanding of what the Library of Alexandria was, what the Islamic Golden Age was all about, and when and how did Venice develop into the remarkable lagoon city that stands to this day.
One other appealing element of this book is that each chapter can largely be read as a stand-alone project, making it easy for readers to quickly reference specific time periods and places, and revisit the parts they find most compelling. For me, Alexandria, Baghdad, Cordoba, and Venice were highlights, while the mid-section of the book (Toledo, Salerno, Palermo) felt less focussed and essential to the overall narrative.
The real high point of this book, however, is the way in which Moller describes the big picture: the rise and fall of civilizations; changes in religious and political thought; the shifting landscape of trade; and technological innovations. Through this, she gives readers a crash course in the most important developments in the Christian and Islamic worlds between 500 and 1500 AD (an undertaking many other books do not aspire to achieve in fewer than 300 pages). This is a great book if you want to fill in the big gaps in your historical understanding of what went on between antiquity and the renaissance. For me, this book was particularly helpful in adding color to my vague understanding of what the Library of Alexandria was, what the Islamic Golden Age was all about, and when and how did Venice develop into the remarkable lagoon city that stands to this day.
One other appealing element of this book is that each chapter can largely be read as a stand-alone project, making it easy for readers to quickly reference specific time periods and places, and revisit the parts they find most compelling. For me, Alexandria, Baghdad, Cordoba, and Venice were highlights, while the mid-section of the book (Toledo, Salerno, Palermo) felt less focussed and essential to the overall narrative.