The Map of Knowledge

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In The Map of Knowledge, Violet Moller traces the journey taken by the ideas of three of the greatest scientists of antiquity – Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy – through seven cities and over a thousand years. In it, we follow them from sixth-century Alexandria to ninth-century Baghdad, from Muslim Córdoba to Catholic Toledo, from Salerno’s medieval medical school to Palermo, capital of Sicily’s vibrant mix of cultures, and – finally – to Venice, where that great merchant city’s printing presses would enable Euclid’s geometry, Ptolemy’s system of the stars and Galen’s vast body of writings on medicine to spread even more widely.Vividly told and with a dazzling cast of characters, The Map of Knowledge is an evocative, nuanced and vibrant account of our common intellectual heritage.‘As the historian Violet Moller reveals in her expansive book, the passage of ideas from antiquity through the Middle Ages and beyond was fraught with obstacles . . . fascinating.’ Daisy Dunn, Sunday Times‘What Moller does . . . is to imagine vivid scenes and scenarios and to populate them with colourful historical figures thinking big, bold, beautiful ideas.’ Ian Sansom, Spectator‘The Map of Knowledge is an endlessly fascinating book, rich in detail, capacious and humane in vision.’ Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern