Why read Scribes and Scholars?

Book cover of Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature

Book description

One of the remarkable facts about the history of Western culture is that we are still in a position to read large amounts of the literature produced in classical Greece and Rome despite the fact that for at least a millennium and a half all copies had to be produced…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Scribes and Scholars as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Holger Gzella

Author

For half a century, this classic has introduced students to the ways and circumstances in which Greek and Latin texts, often seen as the pillars of any literate education, were transmitted from Antiquity throughout the Middle Ages into the Renaissance. While it is, despite its crisp and lucid presentation, a highly technical manual, it singles out, based on robust empirical evidence, the importance of tradition and unassuming daily labor in the formation and preservation of knowledge. The effects of unconscious or intentional changes in the manual transmission of ancient texts also constitute the core matter of my own field, philology.…

From Holger's list on becoming a scholar.