Sunday, October 23, 2005

FURTHER TO THE EARLIER LOST BOOKS DISCUSSION, David Meadows points to an article in the Australian on Missing Masterpieces," including lost books by Homer, Confucius, Aeschylus, and some much more recent authors. Interesting, but this should not have been repeated without qualification:
But on December 22, AD640, a reader with a very different agenda was in control of Alexandria. Where literary works were concerned, he was strict: "Those which disagree with the Word of God are blasphemous, those which agree, superfluous." Amrou Ibn el-Ass, on orders from his caliph, decreed that the library be burned. The scrolls opened a final time, unfurled by the flames, and the complete works of Aeschylus became lost forever.

The story about Muslim fanatics burning the contents of the Library of Alexandria should be taken with a good firkin of salt. The sources for the story are very late and unreliable and its historicity is quite doubtful. Julius Caesar may be the one responsible for (accidentally) burning down the library, although this is debated. Details are here. Note especially the last three links in the post.

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