Knowledge Lost

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The history of knowledge has often emphasized formal accumulation through systems, collections, and institutions, presenting a narrative of advancement and expansion. Martin Mulsow, however, offers a different perspective, highlighting the loss of knowledge—through burned manuscripts, the death of oral traditions, and censorship of new ideas. This work explores efforts from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment to counteract such losses. It illustrates how critics of political and religious regimes devised strategies to preserve their ideas, often embedding them in footnotes and allusions, circulating handwritten copies, and enlisting younger scholars to disseminate their works posthumously. Rich in detail, this narrative follows the precarious journey of knowledge through captivating episodes, focusing on interpretations of the Bible, Orientalism, and marginalized topics like magic. Rather than centering on prominent philosophers, it sheds light on overlooked figures in the "knowledge underclass," such as Pietro della Vecchia, a libertine painter and intellectual; Charles-César Baudelot, an antiquarian and numismatist; and Johann Christoph Wolf, a pastor and Hebrew scholar who witnessed the persecution of heretics.