If the Library of Alexandria hadn’t been burned to the ground, how many years foward do you think we’d be in future techneological advances?
The burning of the library of Alexandria, did not destroy technology or knowledge. It destroyed a centre of knowledge. Yes, it might have been convenient for a particular philosopher to turn up in Alexandria and rummage through its manuscripts (perhaps, prove that the earth was round), had he the means to do so, but, in itself, all was not lost.
Much of what was attributed to Greek philosopers came from the East and that knowledge was not lost. In the same way as the knowledge which inspired the Renaissance came from the Arab Moors, via Spain - contrary to the popular belief that the Renaissance began in Italy.
Amazing what ramblings can be poured from a decent bottle of Chardonnay. 
Tomorrow I’ll be celebrating St George’s Day with some chums from the Campaign for Real Ale, if any para-militaries wish to join us, they’re welcome.
Well, what I mean is if we added the lost knowledge of Alexandria (We don’t even know what was there) to the knowledge we had held seperate during that time, where would we be now?
I’m not sure we would have been any further advanced? There may have been knowledge of science and technology which was lost, but then there may not have been. It is a fascinating question.
Much of what was known was not lost to the Eastern countries, when Rome fell. It seems to me that what really kept the reins on progress, was religeous bigotry. Anyone exploring and investigating new theories were seen as challenging the Catholic church - Copernicus, Gallileo - and many were accused of heresy.
Back to lost technology. I seem to recall that there were a number of items found in Babylonia (?) which, when placed together, constituted an electric battery?
Well we are not sure what they knew…so it was terrible loss. Yet a library is no good if you cant read. It was surely a set back but not sure how much further we would be along.
If we had a major global distruction and somehow the major libraries of the world survived the few remaining humans would have a better success rate at rebuilding than if they would without it. Im sure one can imagine what a setback it would be today if we suddenly lost the US library of Congress. And thats just one of the worlds major libraries.
Although many claim they can…you cant predict the future and if you have to return a starting point its much easier if you have it written down.
As 32Bravo said, most of the knowledge probably survived. Maybe all of it.
The library was a research and teaching institution more like a modern university than a modern library. It disseminated knowledge as well as storing it.
It seems that most or all of the disseminated knowledge survived in the fields of mathematics, astronomy and philosophy as these ideas were widely disseminated. As for technical developments we’ll never know, but given the dissemination factor it seems likely that any important discoveries in that area probably filtered out beyond the library.
There seems to be a mythical quality ascribed to the knowledge stored there, as if it was hugely advanced and could have answered important questions long before they were answered.
I doubt it.
For example, Aristotelian astronomy was the basis of the mainstream astronomy of the type likely to have been stored as knowledge at the library, but it was a hopeless way of accurately predicting the movement of the planets etc. If the library was such a powerhouse of advanced thought it should have corrected the theory and disseminated it before being burnt down (upon whichever of the various dates that occurred, but the latest in the 7th century AD - or CE if you want me to be politically correct ). As it was, Aristotelian theory wasn’t corrected until the 16th and 17th centuries when Corpernicus, Brahe and Kepler sorted out the basics. (I happen to know a bit about this from a university subject I took about 35 years ago. It’s never been of the slightest practical use until now. It just goes to show that education is never wasted, and you never know when it will come in handy. )
Gen Sanworm, I know what you want to say and I agree with your point, but in this particular example I would have to fisapoint you. 5/6 of the world’s population would not notice. And not only because they either can not read or do not care, but also because they rely on different information sources.
As I remember Gallileo was not acused of any else then civil disobidience (Catolic church was one of the legal powers in the society) and death sentence never was a danger for him. You can actually find the actual transcripts of the trial on the net.
Copernicus was burned for other heresy, not for his Geliocentric views. The same goes for Jordano Bruno.
This as I remember it. It has been few years since I looked into these cases. Am I wrong?
“So that, as clear is the summer’s sun”
Thank you, Egorka, for filling in the detail of that which lay dormant somewhere deep in the dark recesses of my mind.
I was merely using the cases of Copernicus and Gallileo to illustrate that the Roman christian church obstructed and in cases crushed any free thought that might challenge the teachings of their doctrine.
It is generally believed that the library was founded by Ptolemy II. This makes sense as both Alexander and Ptolemy had been students of Aristotle. Aristotle being a champion of knowledge gained from emperical study.
[i]"Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the site of the Library of Alexandria, often described as the world’s first major seat of learning.
A Polish-Egyptian team has excavated parts of the Bruchion region of the Mediterranean city and discovered what look like lecture halls or auditoria.
Two thousand years ago, the library housed works by the greatest thinkers and writers of the ancient world.
Works by Plato and Socrates and many others were later destroyed in a fire.
Oldest University
Announcing their discovery at a conference being held at the University of California, Zahi Hawass, president of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the 13 lecture halls uncovered could house as many as 5,000 students in total.
A conspicuous feature of the rooms, he said, was a central elevated podium for the lecturer to stand on.
“It is the first time ever that such a complex of lecture halls has been uncovered on any Greco-Roman site in the whole Mediterranean area,” he added.
“It is perhaps the oldest university in the world.”
Professor Wileke Wendrich, of the University of California, told BBC News Online that the discovery was incredibly impressive.
Alexandria was a major seat of learning in ancient times and regarded by some as the birthplace of western science.
Birthplace of geometry
It was a tiny fishing village on the Nile delta called Rhakotis when Alexander the Great chose it as the site of the new capital of his empire.
It was made Egypt’s capital in 320 BC and soon became the most powerful and influential city in the region.
Its rulers built a massive lighthouse at Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the famed Library of Alexandria.
It was at the library that Archimedes invented the screw-shaped water pump that is still in use today.
At Alexandria Eratosthenes measured the diameter of the Earth, and Euclid discovered the rules of geometry.
Ptolemy wrote the Almagest at Alexandria. It was the most influential scientific book about the nature of the Universe for 1,500 years.
The library was later destroyed, possibly by Julius Caesar who had it burned as part of his campaign to conquer the city."[/i] BBC news
It was at the library that Archimedes invented the screw-shaped water pump that is still in use today.
Battery powered to operate chocolate fountains, excellent when used for dunking fresh strawberries.
“And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn’d his balls to gun-stones …”
Not unlike the magic Aristotle wrought upon the movement of the planets with his endless circles circulating the sun, and lesser big balls, around the earth.
Although there’s nothing wrong with my balls.
Aaah, the music of the heavenly spheres.
The spherical orchestra plays on, until the music stops abrupty with an orchidectomy.
What has this to do with the Library at Alexandria, you (and other puzzled readers) may ask?
Well, here is a revelation.
The surgical skills of the ancient world, as supposedly represented by the vast and mythically advanced knowledge stored in the Library, were such that in the 3rd century AD a couple of Syrian surgeons, the twins Cosmas and Damian, performed two feats not seen since, although elements of the second feat appear sproradically in nations with nationalised health care.
First, they transplanted the leg from a black man onto a white man. Perhaps giving rise to the Harlequin.
Second, and vastly more amazing, they worked for free!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Damian
They were also tortured, with no effect upon them.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04403e.htm This immunity gave rise to the old line about God pushing to the head of the food queue in heaven and a bystander asking “Who does he think he is? A doctor?”.
More seriously, there are some marvellous stories about the brilliance of the ancient world trotted out by credulous people, who also tend to have great faith in crystals, wire pyramids, astrologers and herbal healers as the modern inheritors of these ancient traditions, but Cosmas and Damian would have been doing brilliantly to set a compound fracture of a femur at half of today’s accepted minimum standard, not to mention controlling the infection, never mind transplanting the whole bloody leg!
Physicians of the Utmost Fame
Were called at once, but when they came
They answered, as they took their Fees,
‘There is no cure for this disease…’
STrange things do survive - wonderful and amazing things. Who here is familiar with the fabulous analog computer discovered in a sunken Greek ship off of the island of Anthykithera in the early part of the 20th century under more than 100’ of water? This absolutely astounding piece of precision wheels and gears - thought to be a calendar that could reproduce planetary movement, lunar cycles, etc - turns most of what we thought about technology and the Greeks on its head! But it also illustrates a point that the advancement of technology is not linear at all. Tremendous advancements can be overshadowed by long periods of somnolence on the parts of cultures and knowledge is not necessarily advancing all the time. This invention or early calculating machine, could not have been the only one, but must have descended from a long line of learning and knowledge, which then vanished for all practical puproses. The very precision of the gear teeth and the way they interacted pre-figured such later inventions in Europe by well over a thousand years. Sometimes things go forward; other times they go backward. Knowledge can be “lost”. Just ask the long-dead inventors of electro-plating equipment found in the Tigris-Eurphrates river valley. LOL
“The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on; nor all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line.”
Far more poetic, that, than, “Blacken the skies with B52s”.