Page 20 - Boca Club News - December '20

Page 20, Boca Club News
The Arts

Book Review:

“The Swerve: How the World Became Modern”

By Nils A. Shapiro recognized it instantly ‘leap day’ every fourth year; geographers speculated that it
I was already halfway through the as a work that he had would be possible to reach India by sailing west from Spain;
book I had planned to review for this seen referred to in engineers developed hydraulics and pneumatics; anatomists
month’s column when, while looking writings going back first understood clearly that the brain and the nervous
for a reference volume among the centuries, but which system were a unit, studied the function of the heart and the
hundreds of books in my home office had itself not been digestive system, and conducted experiments in nutrition.
library, I just happened to notice a seen for a thousand The level of achievement was staggering.” Alexandria’s
title that I had not even thought about years. It was a poem Museum and its Library housed “most of the intellectual
since I reviewed it in this column --- 7,400 lines long, in inheritance of Greek, Latin, Babylonian, Egyptian, and
exactly eight years ago. Something about that title stirred an six “books” --- written Jewish cultures ever assembled; at least a half-million
alarm in my memory. I took the book from its shelf, glanced in Latin by the Roman papyrus rolls were carefully and systematically organized,
at the text on the flyleaf and cover, and realized that the main poet-philosopher labeled and shelved according to a clever new system that
theme of this award-winning work of non-fiction---a history Titus Lucretius Carus its first director, a Homer scholar named Zenodotus. seems
of events that took place from 2,000 years ago to 600 years (“Lucretius”) in the to have invented: the system was alphabetical order.” It is
ago---has timely relevance to the decisions that will be made 1st century B.C. Its considered even today to have been perhaps the greatest
in our nation’s highest court over the next several months. It title in Latin, “De storehouse of knowledge ever assembled in one place.
is for that reason I decided to bring to your attention once rerum natura” is And in the city itself, pagans, Jews and Christians lived
again the following review that I wrote for the December translated as “On the harmoniously for more than six centuries, just as their
2012 issue of Boca Club News. Nature of Things,” or, “On the Nature of the Universe.” cultures lived in their documents side by side on the library
Poggio did not dare tell the monks at the monastery shelves.
***** the significance of what he had found, for if they were to Then, in 300 A.D., Emperor Constantine decided to
pay proper attention to its contents they would likely have adopt the fast-growing Christianity as the official religion
In the year 1417, an Italian man wandered through Europe refused to copy it for him, and might even have destroyed of Rome. Almost a century later, in 391 A.D., his successor
in search of old manuscripts and discovered in a remote it. Instead, he requested permission for a copy to be made began to take a harder line approach to religious affairs, an
monastery a copy of a written work that was known only along with several other documents, then stayed for the attitude which inspired others to do the same.
by references in ancient texts, but had been thought lost many weeks it must have taken for the work to be completed. His spiritual representative in Alexandria decided to turn
for a thousand years. “The Swerve,” a brilliant, bestselling Lucretius’s poem would be considered a masterpiece against those in the city’s population who worshipped their
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning history, for its artistic merit alone, but it is the subject matter and pagan gods. When the pagans objected, the Christians took
tells of his discovery of that work, how it changed the world, content that, once re-introduced, changed the world forever. violent action, turning to slaughter and then destroying the
and even influenced our Declaration of Independence. Lucretius, who lived from 99 B.C. to 55 B.C., wrote it to magnificent Museum and Library that was the very pride
Mention the name Poggio Bracciolini and it is doubtful honor the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who, in his time 200 of the city, their purpose being to eradicate books --- and
that anyone, other than those who have read this book, will years earlier --- 341 B.C. to 270 B.C. --- had preached the education itself --- and to demand instead blind devotion
have ever before heard the name. Yet that man has had a concept known since then as Epicureanism. to the church’s sacred dogma.
greater influence over each of our lives than such better To state it simply and briefly, for purposes of this review, When they had succeeded in ridding the city of pagans,
known names as Columbus, Lincoln, Edison—indeed, Epicureanism promotes the principle that the purpose of this they next turned against the Jews, to expel them from the
almost any celebrated individual one can think of. life here on earth is to pursue pleasure, peace and happiness; city. At this, one of Alexandria’s most highly respected and
Born in 1380 in a small Italian town, of a family so that there is no afterlife, no gods who reward or punish admired citizens, a legendarily beautiful woman named
poor his father was forced to flee because he could not you, and therefore no reason to fear. He believed that the Hypatia --- world-renowned at the time for her attainments
pay his debts, Poggio possessed a keen intelligence that universe is infinite and eternal, and that everything --- the in astronomy, music, mathematics and philosophy ---
enabled him to master Latin, and a beautiful handwriting sun, the planets, the stars, humans, all creatures, all there is stepped forward and objected to this unwarranted attack
that was so exceptional (at a time long before the invention --- is made up of the smallest possible matter, that which is on the Jews. The Christians dragged her from her chariot,
of the printing press, when books were copied by hand on so small it cannot be divided any smaller: the Greek word stripped off her clothing, her skin was flayed off with broken
parchment or papyrus rolls) that Poggio was able to rise for such matter is atom. An infinite number of atoms are in bits of pottery, and her corpse was burned.
to the position of private secretary to the Pope himself in constant motion throughout the universe of space; when they The destruction of the great library and museum of
Rome’s Vatican. collide, whatever they form (stars, humans, animals, etc.) Alexandria was the beginning of the end of the education
The church was so corrupt, a fact even then known far exists for a time, then dies and the atoms move on again to of the masses throughout Christendom. Libraries were shut
and wide, that Poggio himself wrote a joke book, distributed another collision. Therefore, death is final. The soul dies down, and books became less popular or ignored—until “the
within the Vatican, that included humor describing sexual with the body. Since there is only this life, the purpose of world changed,” sparked by the discovery of Lucretius’s
escapades between the professed abstinent clergy and their this life should be to enjoy as much pleasure as possible. homage to Epicureanism.
faithful congregations. (Several of these jokes reproduced In an age when Christianity, most particularly the Poggio was one of that philosophy’s strongest advocates.
in this book are too bawdy even for me to include here in Catholic church, used fear, torture and threat of death to In the decades and centuries to come, its followers included
Boca Club News!) Unfortunately for Poggio, his Pope was maintain the faithful’s commitment to sacred dogma, the many of history’s most noted achievers. In the works of
only one of three claimants to the title of Holy Father --- philosophy embodied by Epicureanism and described Shakespeare, Montaigne, Galileo and others can be seen
three Popes, each ruling over a territory and enriching his so beautifully in Lucretius’s elegant poem was the most their interest in its principles, but the stories of others who
vast treasury --- and, during an international conference that dangerous possible enemy. But for those, known as gave their lives --- often in terribly cruel ways at the hands
was finally called to settle the dispute, Poggio’s Pope lost “humanists,” who had come to doubt what they perceived of the church --- are touched upon here in several examples
out and narrowly escaped with his life. as the hypocrisy of a corrupt church, Epicureanism had a that attest to the impressive research invested in this book by
So it was that in 1417, unemployed and with a highly strong attraction. author Stephen Greenblatt. Although scholarly in scope, it is
developed interest in the great writings of antiquity, Poggio Many a determined humanist was to die a terrible death thoroughly fascinating and richly rewarding. Mr. Greenblatt
journeyed throughout Europe to remote monasteries, where at the hands of the church, and the ongoing efforts by the is also the author of “Will in the World: How Shakespeare
most of the copying of manuscripts took place at that time. Catholic church to protect its position described by author Became Shakespeare,” another book I very much enjoyed
Monks sitting in large open rooms would work laboriously, Stephen Greenblatt in “The Swerve,” are engrossing and and have reviewed in these pages.
for long hours, copying by hand the written works from their impressive in their historical detail, clearly the result of There is another great man who, when asked his
originals, mostly papyrus scrolls. These were the “books” enormous research. But once the movement had begun it was philosophy of life, replied, “I am an Epicurean.” Evidence of
of their day. Thousands were produced, and remain to this not to be stopped. The Renaissance, and the Reformation, that is reflected in a passage in one of his many writings: “…
day our sole record of such documents—those which were was born, and the world would never again be the same. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We remember
not destroyed by fire, flood, insects, or from their texts being To be sure, the church’s battle to control the minds of it from our Declaration of Independence. The man was
washed away so that the cleaned papyrus could be written its “faithful” had started long before Poggio’s discovery in Thomas Jefferson, who owned five copies of Lucretius’s
over with new words. 1417. For me, one of the most powerful sections in the book “On the Nature of Things.”
It was in a small monastery in southern Germany that covers an event about which I had learned nothing in all Another of our nation’s documents, the Constitution,
Poggio discovered on a dusty, long-ignored shelf the my years of schooling, including college. It occurred at the reflects the Founding Fathers’ understanding of at least
document that was to change, not only his life, but the future close of the Fourth Century A.D. But first, the background: one aspect of Epicureanism in its commitment to the
history of the entire world. With his mastery of Latin, he “Starting as early as 300 B.C., the Ptolemaic Kings who clear separation of Church and State…a lesson that some,
ruled Alexandria (the capital of Egypt) had the inspired even in today’s American society---and in our highest
idea of luring leading scholars, scientists, and poets to their court---seem not to have learned in the considering of
city by offering them life appointments at the Museum with forcing one group’s beliefs on others’.
handsome salaries, tax exemptions, fine food and lodging, Finally, it is ironic that perhaps the institution that
and the almost limitless resources of the library. benefitted most from the re-introduction by Lucretius’s
“The recipients of this largesse established remarkable grand poem of the Epicurean philosophy was the Catholic
high standards. Euclid developed his geometry in Alexandria. church itself, which, after more than sixteen centuries of
Archimedes discovered pi and laid the foundation for dominance through fear, has grown to serve a laity more
calculus. Eratosthenes posited that the earth was round vast than it could ever have dreamed—not by embracing by
561/397-2902 and calculated its circumference to within one percent; any means the full Epicurean principles (most especially its
rejection of an afterlife), but by turning instead to a focus
Galen revolutionized medicine. Alexandrian astronomers
postulated a heliocentric universe; geometers deduced that on love...and, in the case of the current Pope, an apparent
the length of a year was 365-1/4 days and proposed adding a acceptance of love’s wider manifestations.