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The Five Classis were basic Confucian texts. They were in use from before 1000 BCE along with a sixth book, now lost, the Classic of Music. This work was lost at the time of the first emperor, Qin-Shi-Huang-Ti, who ordered books to be burned and…

The Book of Jasher, also called The Book of the Upright or The Book of the Just Man, is a lost book mentioned in the Hebrew Bible at Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18. The title is a translation of the Hebrew ספר הישר (Sefer ha Yashar). The book is an…

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Pliny wrote about everything. His Naturalis Historia is the very model of the modern encyclopedia. It is not surprising that he would devote an entire book to this obscure subject: it was a critical skill in his time, and he was, after all, a Roman…

Besides his Commentaries, bane of so many young scholars, the Divine Julius wrote, as a youth, a tragedy on Oedipus and a long poem praising Hercules. Pompeius Macer, Augustus’ librarian, proposed to the emperor that these works be published in…

Swans sing before they die – ‘t were no bad thing

Should certain persons die before they sing. - Coleridge.

Maecenas will never be remembered for his poems, but he will have an imperishable home on the side of Mt. Parnassus for being dear…

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While he was sniffing around Alexandria, Cleopatra showed Caesar her library. He was impressed: on returning to Rome, he told his friends that Rome should have a library, too, a Roman library. He enlisted Marcus Varro, who wrote the De bibliothecis…

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One of the most celebrated couples of all time: he was a French philosopher, a forerunner to empiricism, she was one of the earliest contributors to modern feminist thought. Their story of passion and tragedy is intensely felt in these poems.