{"product_id":"2940169117523","title":"The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAfter the Fall of Rome, when many of the great ideas of the ancient world were lost to the ravages of the Dark Ages, three crucial manuscripts passed hand to hand through seven Mediterranean cities and survived to fuel the revival of the Renaissance amp;mdash; an exciting debut history.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe foundations of modern knowledge amp;mdash; philosophy, math, astronomy, geography amp;mdash; were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYet some texts did survive and \u003ci\u003eThe Map of Knowledge\u003c\/i\u003e explores the role played by seven cities around the Mediterranean amp;mdash; rare centers of knowledge in a dark world, where scholars supported by enlightened heads of state collected, translated, and shared manuscripts. In 8th century Baghdad, Arab discoveries augmented Greek learning. Exchange within the thriving Muslim world brought that knowledge to Cordoba, Spain. Toledo became a famous center of translation from Arabic into Latin, a portal through which Greek and Arab ideas reached Western Europe. Salerno, on the Italian coast, was the great center of medical studies, and Sicily, ancient colony of the Greeks, was one of the few places in the West to retain contact with Greek culture and language. Scholars in these cities helped classical ideas make their way to Venice in the 15th century, where printers thrived and the Renaissance took root.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Map of Knowledge\u003c\/i\u003e follows three key texts amp;mdash; Euclid's \u003ci\u003eElements\u003c\/i\u003e, Ptolemy's \u003ci\u003eThe Almagest\u003c\/i\u003e, and Galen's writings on medicine amp;mdash; on a perilous journey driven by insatiable curiosity about the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47114050306288,"sku":"2940169117523","price":17.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169117523_p0.jpg?v=1763761377","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169117523","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}