![]() The Swerve is the story of how that happens.Ĭhapters 1 and 2 describe how, in the 1300s, ancient tomes long lost are brought back to life, beginning with the rediscovery of Titus Livius’ History of Rome. It describes the ideas of an ancient sect, the Epicureans, whose beliefs will overturn many of the medieval church’s most cherished tenets and remake the western world. Poggio scours Europe and finds many such manuscripts one of these is a long and beautiful poem by Titus Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of Things. In 1417, papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini sets out on a search for the lost books of the Roman Empire. Most of the literary works of ancient Greeks and Romans are lost through neglect or destruction the rest lie unused in the moldy recesses of monastic libraries. With the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 CE, Europe moves into the Middle Ages, and Christianity is the only permitted religion. ![]()
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