Quote of the Day | July 28, 2008: One of the Great Paradoxes of History

Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence, 2000:

They compiled chronicles, a day-by-day recital of events, into which might be interwoven hearsay about previous or remote incidents. These works are valuable for their firsthand factual reports, but in these and other types of medieval literature the unhistorical mind is betrayed by the authors' failure to perceive differences of time and place: under Providence life has been the same as we see it to be; the past is uniform with the present. What interests the medieval writer is the details of visions and miracles, of sin and repentance, which explain events and individual lives. Medieval biography follows like a moralistic and theological interpretation of earthly doings, the lives of the saints being rich in lessons and miracles. . . .

And yet it is a fact, a stupendous fact, that a whole literature has come down to us from the ancient world thanks to the tireless activity of the medieval scribes. They copied and recopied the texts, apparently without noticing Difference in what that literature portrayed. This is one of the great paradoxes of history. For if we suppose that this blindness came from contempt for pagan society, why spend time preserving its records? Enough minds must have been in some way captivated if certain parts of Cicero or Tacitus were among those that the delegated Brother read aloud at meals. And then, for lack of cultural context (so to speak), that interest had no sequel. In any event, the modern world must remain grateful to the medieval copyist for copying, not only the local chronicler's exciting pages but also the scattered remnants of the previous civilization.

Tags: Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, History