Before the Renaissance, there was a place most history books skip over. While Europe struggled through what we politely call the Early Middle Ages, Crdoba was building the largest library in the Western world. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholars worked together, preserving Greek philosophy and advancing science. Then Toledo became a bridge, translating Arabic texts into Latin. And thanks to an unexpected consequence of the Black Death---cheap paper made from rags---those ideas finally spread across Europe via the printing press. This is the missing chapter between Rome's fall and Europe's rebirth. Starting with episode 100, Harmonia guides us through the people and systems that made the Renaissance possible, beginning with Lubna of Crdoba, a freed slave who ran a library of half a million books.
Transcript available at: https://harmonia.email/podcast-episode/missing-chapter
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