Though the Library of Alexandria was repeatedly burned and destroyed, not all was lost. Centuries of efforts to save its imaginative legacy weren't in vain. Many books that survive to this day still beat the textual hallmarks and symbols used by the Alexandrian philologists in their editions. And this meant that to each out hands, copied have travelled along a treacherous route, from copy to copy to copy, whose first link int he chain of transmission dates to the lost library.
- Papyrus, Irene Vallejo
The love of learning will never leave me. The more I learn, the most I see how much there is still to learn. There is an endless amount of fascinating history, people, thought, and stories that we can never say we are bored. The amount of books available to us is astounding. The love of words goes way back for us as humans. A good lecture has its foundation in ancient Greece, for example, who came up with the idea of a lecture, as they were in love with words.
The quest for knowledge and information has always been pursued by the kings and emperors of ancient civilizations. Books took many forms before they were as we know them today (a codex). They were tablets, scrolls, parchment. The ideas in books have been the focus of attacks, libraries have been destroyed to try to erase ideas or a culture. The acts of trying to eliminate free speech have been witnessed in history starting with the ancient Library of Alexandria and the countless times it was burned and destroyed, going through wars (surely you already know about the Nazi book burnings). Places of learning can be dangerous to those who seek ultimate power and control.
The history of books is filled with intrigue, danger, wars, and change. Along with everything in between, books have been a resource for civilizations - for knowledge, teaching, encouragement, religious meditation, radical ideas, and stories.
Few physical artefacts of regular use will ever be replaced (glass, wheels, hammers, chairs), and books are one of those things that no matter how advanced technology pushes forward can never replace the real, physical book. Computers and tablets can become outdated in a few years. Discs and flash drives can become obsolete - who can even use a floppy disc anymore? Where is that information now? But books don't have that loss of use. They don't ever run out of battery or need to be upgraded. The topics written about thousands of years ago relate to us today. We can read text that was printed or handwritten more than 1,500 years ago today in the same way people read it then. For 20 centuries the book remained largely unchanged, nothing needed to be upgraded with books. What other object has that same kind of staying power?
Greek and Roman history has been hovering around me for awhile now, dancing around in my head, in so many of the books I've read in recent months and I am utterly taken in. It's fascinating, intriguing, horrifying all in one, which is great fodder for learning. And there is so much more to explore, and that is a great joy of reading, as it leads you to the next read and the next. I am happily winding down these labyrinth paths.
