Did you know that in the Middle Ages the largest libraries (at Universities of course) in Europe contained at most 500 volumes. Most libraries contained roughly thirty five volumes.
Well now you do.
3 thoughts on “Fun Facts from Church History”
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That is only true if you reduce Europe to the Latin world. But Islamic Cordoba and Greek-Orthodox Constantinople had very large libraries. Cordoba, with its 400,000 books, burned down in 1004 or something like that; Ibn Hazm records the violent death of the last scholars.
The fate of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade is well-known. Still, there must have been important libaries after 1204, because Copernicus was influenced by a (now lost) Greek translation of one of Al-Tusi’s astronomical works.
It’s always a nice antidote against European solipsism that in the Middle Ages, western civilization (with its small libraries) was just an appendix of the eastern world. In the age of Charlemagne, the most influential leader of Christendom was Timothy, the Nestorian patriarch of Ctesiphon. He appointed bishops as far east as China; he may have regarded the patrriarch of Constantinople as his equal, but he must have thought that the Pope was just a mere barbarian, protected by a Frankish leader with an unpronouncable name.
It’s a fascinating question why western Christianity, which had no intellectual tradition worth mentioning (see the libraries) was to become so influential over the past six or seven centuries, and for what reason the friendly relations between Islam and Christianity that prevailed until the Fatimids seized power, became hostile. I do not know the answer and do not know of a good book about the subject.
There is something terribly sad when you visit places like Nisibis, Mardin, the “Aramaic” towns in Syria, or the Maronites in Lebanon. The inhabitants and the monks are the last Christians over there. You, dear Jim, may be able to say something similar about the Copts you must have met during your holiday in Egypt.
Interesting! Where did you read (or hear?) that?
a forthcoming history of the dutch church