A Book We Are Loving: The Swerve
To say that The Swerve, by Stephen Greenblatt, took us by surprise is not catching the power of it. We found it on Audible when we were looking for a TV-alternative one evening, and had no idea … .
Non-fiction, historical, inspiring, culturally important, beautifully read, meaningful…
The Swerve is the story of a monk in the 15th century who had a passion for books. He was heavily involved in papal politics, but apparently the drama in that realm held nothing for him compared to reading.
He knew monasteries often kept old manuscripts, usually scrolls, simply because they were old, and because they could. So our monk, named Poggio, set out to find them.
Mostly they weren’t available: the monasteries wanted to hold onto them. But Poggio was blessed with the elegant hand of a scribe, so he copied what he found for himself.
These were often long manuscripts, and copying a laborious task, but he was FAST.
Many scholars of his day were aware of the possible existence of manuscripts because they had been referred to in ancient writings, say from the time of Christ, give or take several hundred years. But no one living had ever read them because they had disappeared. Poggio’s premise was that they might well be found, it you knew where to look.
The result was the return to our culture of several precious ancient writings containing ideas unknown for more than a millennium, and so surprising as to cause major upheavals.
The Swerve is the story of Poggio, but also of the impact of his greatest find, the only known work of Lucretius, who live in the century before the birth of Christ.
We strongly recommend reading this broadly cast story of the restoration and reverberation of ideas through the efforts of a simple monk with a passion for books.
Peg and John Lewis
Peg Lewis is a novelist, science writer, and world traveler. She likes to write about stimulating locations, such as the Pacific Northwest (the Always Maggie Series about Old Love — Maggie Awake, Maggie Alone, Maggie At Last, and Becoming Ernest) and the Desert Southwest (the Songdog series, in preparation). She also co-authors books (fiction and non-fiction) on space with her husband, well-known space scientist Dr. John S. Lewis.
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