Page 8 - Martin Downs Bulletin - December '20

Page 8, Martin Downs

Book Review

The Swerve: How The World In the year 1417, or from their texts being washed away so that the cleaned
papyrus could be written over with new words.
an Italian man
Became Modern wandered through It was in a small monastery in southern Germany that
Europe in search of Poggio discovered on a dusty, long-ignored shelf the
By Nils A. Shapiro old manuscripts and document that was to change, not only his life, but the
I was already halfway discovered in a remote future history of the entire world. With his mastery of
through the book I had monastery a copy of Latin, he recognized it instantly as a work that he had
planned to review for a written work that seen referred to in writings going back centuries, but
this month’s column was known only by which had itself not been seen for a thousand years. It
when, while looking for a references in ancient was a poem – 7,400 lines long, in six “books” – written
reference volume among texts, but had been in Latin by the Roman poet-philosopher Titus Lucretius
the hundreds of books in my thought lost for a Carus (“Lucretius”) in the first century B.C. Its title in
home office library, I just thousand years. The Latin, De rerum natura is translated as On the Nature of
happened to notice a title Swerve, a brilliant, Things, or, On the Nature of the Universe.
that I had not even thought bestselling Pulitzer Poggio did not dare tell the monks at the monastery
about since I reviewed it in Prize and National the significance of what he had found, for if they were
this column exactly eight years ago. Something about that Book Award-winning to pay proper attention to its contents they would likely
title stirred an alarm in my memory. I took the book from history, tells of his discovery of that work, how it have refused to copy it for him, and might even have
its shelf, glanced at the text on the flyleaf and cover, and changed the world, and even influenced our Declaration destroyed it. Instead, he requested permission for a copy
realized that the main theme of this award-winning work of Independence. to be made along with several other documents, then
of nonfiction – a history of events that took place from Mention the name Poggio Bracciolini and it is doubtful stayed for the many weeks it must have taken for the
2,000 years ago to 600 years ago – has timely relevance that anyone, other than those who have read this book, work to be completed.
to the decisions that will be made in our nation’s highest will have ever before heard the name. Yet that man has had Lucretius’s poem would be considered a masterpiece
court over the next several months. It is for that reason I a greater influence over each of our lives than such better for its artistic merit alone, but it is the subject matter
decided to bring to your attention once again the following known names as Columbus, Lincoln, Edison – indeed, and content that, once reintroduced, changed the world
review that I wrote in December 2012. almost any celebrated individual one can think of. forever. Lucretius, who lived from 99 B.C. to 55 B.C.,
***** Born in 1380 in a small Italian town, of a family so wrote it to honor the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who,
poor his father was forced to flee because he could not in his time 200 years earlier – 341 B.C. to 270 B.C. – had
pay his debts, Poggio possessed a keen intelligence that preached the concept known since then as Epicureanism.
enabled him to master Latin, and a beautiful handwriting To state it simply and briefly, for purposes of this
that was so exceptional (at a time long before the review, Epicureanism promotes the principle that the
invention of the printing press, when books were copied purpose of this life here on earth is to pursue pleasure,
by hand on parchment or papyrus rolls) that Poggio was peace and happiness; that there is no afterlife, no gods
able to rise to the position of private secretary to the Pope who reward or punish you, and therefore no reason to fear.
himself in Rome’s Vatican. He believed that the universe is infinite and eternal, and
The church was so corrupt, a fact even then known that everything – the sun, the planets, the stars, humans,
far and wide, that Poggio himself wrote a joke book, all creatures, all there is – is made up of the smallest
distributed within the Vatican, that included humor possible matter, that which is so small it cannot be divided
describing sexual escapades between the professed any smaller: the Greek word for such matter is atom. An
abstinent clergy and their faithful congregations. (Several infinite number of atoms are in constant motion throughout
of these jokes reproduced in this book are too bawdy the universe of space; when they collide, whatever they
even for me to include here!) Unfortunately for Poggio, form (stars, humans, animals, etc.) exists for a time, then
his Pope was only one of three claimants to the title of dies and the atoms move on again to another collision.
Holy Father – three Popes, each ruling over a territory and Therefore, death is final. The soul dies with the body. Since
enriching his vast treasury – and, during an international there is only this life, the purpose of this life should be to
conference that was finally called to settle the dispute, enjoy as much pleasure as possible.
Poggio’s Pope lost out and narrowly escaped with his life. In an age when Christianity, most particularly the
So it was that in 1417, unemployed and with a highly Catholic church, used fear, torture and threat of death
developed interest in the great writings of antiquity, Poggio to maintain the faithful’s commitment to sacred dogma,
journeyed throughout Europe to remote monasteries, the philosophy embodied by Epicureanism and described
where most of the copying of manuscripts took place at so beautifully in Lucretius’s elegant poem was the most
that time. Monks sitting in large open rooms would work dangerous possible enemy. But for those known as
laboriously, for long hours, copying by hand the written “humanists,” who had come to doubt what they perceived
works from their originals, mostly papyrus scrolls. These as the hypocrisy of a corrupt church, Epicureanism had
were the “books” of their day. Thousands were produced, a strong attraction.
Palm City Auto and remain to this day our sole record of such documents Book Review on page 9
– those which were not destroyed by fire, flood, insects,
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