WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 Welcome to today's deep dive. I'm your host and 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:06.219 I am genuinely so excited to get into this one. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.300 And I'm your expert guide today. Really thrilled 00:00:08.300 --> 00:00:10.640 to be here. Yeah. So imagine you're deep inside 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:12.679 the most heavily guarded vaults of the Vatican 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:15.400 Library. Oh, setting the scene right away. I 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:17.960 like it. You know me. But seriously, picture 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:21.300 it. You're surrounded by centuries of Latin scriptures, 00:00:21.579 --> 00:00:25.300 these like rigid papal decrees, Catholic dogmas. 00:00:25.420 --> 00:00:29.280 And right there sitting on the shelf is a 13th 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.939 century Arabic love story which is just wild 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:36.079 to think about right and right beside it a microscopic 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:39.259 circular manuscript kept in this custom -made 00:00:39.259 --> 00:00:41.859 octagonal case and then I mean just down the 00:00:41.859 --> 00:00:44.039 hall from that there's a revolutionary mathematical 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:47.560 diagram that Well, you would eventually help 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:49.259 prove that the earth revolves around the sun. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:51.659 The sheer variety is staggering. It really is. 00:00:51.939 --> 00:00:54.500 So today, we aren't reading a traditional history 00:00:54.500 --> 00:00:56.820 book. We are deciphering what is basically a 00:00:56.820 --> 00:00:59.960 treasure map disguised as a Wikipedia disambiguation 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:02.159 page. Yeah, and it's quite the map. So if you 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:04.760 are joining us today, get ready, because we are 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:08.060 looking at a seemingly sterile, bullet -pointed 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:10.319 list that actually blows the doors off everything 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:12.620 you thought you knew about the medieval world. 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:16.299 It perfectly demonstrates how Sometimes the most 00:01:16.299 --> 00:01:18.400 profound stories in history aren't just found 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:20.379 in the text itself. Right, yeah. It's in the 00:01:20.379 --> 00:01:22.620 mere existence of the objects being listed, the 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:24.980 fact that they survived at all. Okay, let's unpack 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:28.560 this. The page we are looking at is titled vat 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:32.980 .r. vat .r. Exactly. Which sounds like, I don't 00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:35.219 know, the top secret Clarence code? It does sound 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:38.040 like something from a spy movie. But it is actually 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:40.879 just the academic abbreviation for Vatikhani 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:43.719 Arbi. This is the official designation for the 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:46.260 collection of Arabic manuscripts held securely 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:48.239 inside the Vatican Library. Yeah, and the source 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:50.900 we are working from today highlights 13 notable 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:53.680 works from this specific collection. When I first 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:55.980 read this list, You know, it didn't feel like 00:01:55.980 --> 00:01:58.359 a library catalog to me. It felt like I was reading 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:01.120 an Indiana Jones inventory log book. Oh, that's 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.230 a great way to put it. Right. It's just item 00:02:03.230 --> 00:02:05.930 after item of incredible cross -cultural artifacts. 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:08.569 I think the log book analogy is exactly the right 00:02:08.569 --> 00:02:11.129 mindset to have, because you have to remember 00:02:11.129 --> 00:02:14.229 that an archive, especially one as historically 00:02:14.229 --> 00:02:17.090 significant and physically fortified as the Vatican 00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:20.009 Library, is not just a storage closet for old 00:02:20.009 --> 00:02:22.629 paper. It's way more than that. Exactly. It is 00:02:22.629 --> 00:02:26.490 a highly curated memory of humanity. Every single 00:02:26.490 --> 00:02:29.129 item in an archive takes up physical space. Which 00:02:29.129 --> 00:02:31.949 is premium real estate in the Vatican. Unbelievably 00:02:31.949 --> 00:02:34.610 premium. It requires climate control, meticulous 00:02:34.610 --> 00:02:38.009 maintenance, and security. Therefore, every item 00:02:38.009 --> 00:02:40.789 that survives in a place like this survived because 00:02:40.789 --> 00:02:44.189 someone at some point deemed it absolutely vital 00:02:44.189 --> 00:02:46.729 to hold onto. They made a conscious choice to 00:02:46.729 --> 00:02:49.270 save it. Right. So by looking closely at this 00:02:49.270 --> 00:02:51.990 specific list of 13 manuscripts, we aren't just 00:02:51.990 --> 00:02:55.150 reading titles. We are deducing a sweeping narrative 00:02:55.150 --> 00:02:57.449 about what was valued enough to be preserved 00:02:57.449 --> 00:03:00.129 across centuries. And the sheer variety on this 00:03:00.129 --> 00:03:02.050 list is what immediately grabs you. Oh, absolutely. 00:03:02.289 --> 00:03:03.930 Let's start with the most heavily represented 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:07.009 items here, which are the religious texts, specifically 00:03:07.009 --> 00:03:09.189 the Qur 'ans. Yeah, that's a big chunk of the 00:03:09.189 --> 00:03:11.689 list. Over half of the notable items on this 00:03:11.689 --> 00:03:14.669 disambiguation page are manuscripts of the Qur 00:03:14.669 --> 00:03:19.560 'an. We have Vot R204, which is noted as a Nasq 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:23.460 Ottoman Quran manuscript. Then there is Vot R230, 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:27.020 709, and 931. And before we move past that first 00:03:27.020 --> 00:03:29.180 one, it is worth explaining what Nasq Ottoman 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:31.379 actually means. Yeah, we do. Because it tells 00:03:31.379 --> 00:03:34.139 us a lot about the book's functions. So. Nasq 00:03:34.139 --> 00:03:37.680 is a specific style of Islamic calligraphy. Before 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:40.460 Nasq became popular, many Arabic manuscripts 00:03:40.460 --> 00:03:43.680 were written in Kufic script. And Kufic is very 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:47.759 angular, blocky, and honestly quite difficult 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:49.680 to read quickly. I've seen it. It looks beautiful, 00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:52.520 but... Definitely hard to scan. Exactly. Nasq 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:55.120 was developed to be fluid, highly legible, and 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:58.219 easier for scribes to copy rapidly. So an Ottoman 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.780 Quran written in Nasq script isn't just a holy 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:03.300 book. Right. It represents a standardized, highly 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:05.699 accessible format meant for clear reading and 00:04:05.699 --> 00:04:07.939 widespread distribution across the Ottoman Empire. 00:04:08.020 --> 00:04:09.719 That makes total sense. It's like the medieval 00:04:09.719 --> 00:04:11.800 equivalent of switching from a complicated cursive 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:14.819 font to Times New Roman. That is a perfect comparison. 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:16.779 Just so everyone can actually read the document. 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:19.379 But what really caught my attention wasn't just 00:04:19.339 --> 00:04:22.019 the quantity of these texts, or even the font. 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:25.980 What was it? It was the physical, tangible reality 00:04:25.980 --> 00:04:28.379 of them, the sheer extremes in their dimensions. 00:04:29.100 --> 00:04:31.720 Ah, yes. The physicality of a book is often just 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:33.720 as informative as the words written inside it. 00:04:33.779 --> 00:04:36.439 Totally. In the medieval and early modern world, 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:38.800 paper and parchment were incredibly expensive. 00:04:39.579 --> 00:04:43.290 Ink was painstakingly crafted from sop. galls 00:04:43.290 --> 00:04:45.389 and minerals. It was a whole production. It really 00:04:45.389 --> 00:04:48.430 was. Binding was a highly specialized art. So 00:04:48.430 --> 00:04:50.889 the size of a book was never an accident. It 00:04:50.889 --> 00:04:53.990 was a deliberate, often massively expensive choice. 00:04:54.089 --> 00:04:57.670 Which brings us to Vat R 1484. According to our 00:04:57.670 --> 00:05:00.290 source, this is a Quran manuscript, and it is 00:05:00.290 --> 00:05:02.750 the largest one in the entire Vatican Library. 00:05:02.829 --> 00:05:05.670 It's a behemoth. Its dimensions are a massive 00:05:05.670 --> 00:05:10.459 540 by 420 millimeters. For you listening, picture 00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:12.100 that in your hands. That is over half a meter 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:14.060 tall and almost half a meter wide. You'd need 00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:16.720 a serious desk just to open it. Exactly. It is 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:20.139 a gigantic, heavy, cumbersome object. But then, 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:23.439 on the exact same list, housed in the exact same 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:27.259 library collection, we have VAT RTAC 924. A total 00:05:27.259 --> 00:05:30.259 shift. Right. This is also a Quran manuscript, 00:05:30.699 --> 00:05:33.870 but it is a small circle. A perfect little circle, 00:05:34.529 --> 00:05:37.670 just 45 millimeters in diameter. Tiny. And it 00:05:37.670 --> 00:05:40.730 is kept in a tiny octagonal case. It is a stunning 00:05:40.730 --> 00:05:45.209 contrast, from over half a meter to just 45 millimeters. 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:47.649 Here's where it gets really interesting. If we 00:05:47.649 --> 00:05:50.170 think about these objects functionally, the massive 00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:53.230 540 millimeter manuscript is essentially the 00:05:53.230 --> 00:05:55.430 IMAX screen of the medieval world. I love that, 00:05:55.430 --> 00:05:57.449 the IMAX screen. Because it's a public broadcast, 00:05:57.589 --> 00:05:59.029 right? You don't read a book that size and bet. 00:05:59.050 --> 00:06:01.089 No, you definitely don't. It's meant to be read 00:06:01.089 --> 00:06:03.939 from afar. resting on a massive lectern, serving 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:06.699 as a focal point for a whole mosque or a congregation. 00:06:07.019 --> 00:06:10.779 It is performative. Yes. But that tiny 45 millimeter 00:06:10.779 --> 00:06:14.060 circular manuscript, that is the medieval smartwatch. 00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:16.740 What's fascinating here is, well, I like where 00:06:16.740 --> 00:06:18.379 you're going with this, but let's deepen that 00:06:18.379 --> 00:06:21.639 analogy a bit. OK, let me. That 45 -millimeter 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:24.600 Qur 'an in the octagonal case isn't just a smartwatch 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:26.980 because it's wearable tech. It's a smartwatch 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:30.379 because it's a piece of localized, highly personal 00:06:30.379 --> 00:06:33.199 technology. Oh, I see. In the medieval Islamic 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:36.120 world, miniature Qur 'ans like this were often 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:39.680 meant to be worn as amulets. Wait, really? Like 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.360 jewelry? Yeah, exactly. They function not just 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:44.860 as a readable text, but as a physical shield 00:06:44.860 --> 00:06:47.399 of spiritual protection for the wearer. Wow. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:50.500 So you are wearing the actual Word of God as 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:53.300 armor. Precisely. You have perfectly captured 00:06:53.300 --> 00:06:55.800 the dual nature of religious experience documented 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:58.519 by this archive. And I should note, for you listening, 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:00.879 we're just reporting on the historical and cultural 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:03.180 significance of these texts based on our source, 00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:05.259 not taking any theological stances ourselves. 00:07:05.379 --> 00:07:07.000 Of course. We're just looking at the history. 00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:09.360 Right. And historically, a massive text like 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:13.160 Vadar 1484 is a display of institutional wealth 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:15.420 and power. It projects authority. Because it 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:18.069 cost a fortune to make. Exactly. The labor and 00:07:18.069 --> 00:07:20.490 materials required to create something that large 00:07:20.490 --> 00:07:22.649 demonstrate the immense resources of whoever 00:07:22.649 --> 00:07:25.910 commissioned it. Conversely, the 45 millimeter 00:07:25.910 --> 00:07:28.589 text is deeply intimate. Totally different vibe. 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:31.519 The craftsmanship required to write legibly in 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:34.860 a circle that small is astounding, but its primary 00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:37.540 purpose is personal comfort and private faith. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.779 Both extremes of that human experience, the booming 00:07:41.779 --> 00:07:45.000 public authority and the quiet personal protection 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.279 were deemed important enough to be locked away 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:49.439 and preserved in the Vatican. It paints such 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:52.100 a vivid picture of the people holding these books, 00:07:52.180 --> 00:07:54.699 you know, not just the words on the page. Absolutely. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:57.319 And speaking of the physical reality of these 00:07:57.319 --> 00:08:02.100 old books, we have to talk about Vagas 16051. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:04.839 Our source simply describes this as additional 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:08.500 folia to the Codex Parasino Petropolitanus. Which 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:10.759 is quite a mouthful. It's a huge mouthful. But 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:14.060 that specific entry is an absolute favorite of 00:08:14.060 --> 00:08:16.060 historians because it highlights the violent, 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:19.300 precarious nature of ancient texts. Folia simply 00:08:19.300 --> 00:08:21.959 means the leaves or pages of a manuscript. Right. 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:24.759 And the name of the codex it belongs to, Parasino 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:27.370 Petropolitanus, gives away the punchline. It 00:08:27.370 --> 00:08:29.730 really does. Paris and St. Petersburg. It literally 00:08:29.730 --> 00:08:31.529 tells you that the rest of this book is scattered 00:08:31.529 --> 00:08:33.570 across the globe. Yeah, the bulk of it is in 00:08:33.570 --> 00:08:36.009 Paris. And another chunk is in St. Petersburg, 00:08:36.009 --> 00:08:39.490 Russia. And here, sitting quietly in the Vatican 00:08:39.490 --> 00:08:42.830 are the additional pages. How does a single book 00:08:42.830 --> 00:08:45.350 get blown apart by the winds of history like 00:08:45.350 --> 00:08:48.549 that? It is a fantastic question. We often imagine 00:08:48.549 --> 00:08:51.049 historical books sitting safely on shelves for 00:08:51.049 --> 00:08:53.870 centuries, but the reality is much more chaotic. 00:08:53.990 --> 00:08:56.720 I can imagine. Ancient texts were frequently 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:00.399 fragmented. They survived fires, sieges, thefts, 00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:03.279 and just a simple passage of time. A single volume 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:05.879 might be divided up by heirs when a scholar died. 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.519 Oh, like splitting up an inheritance. Exactly. 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:11.480 Or it might be sold off page by page by antiquarian 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:13.559 merchants who realized they could make more money 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:16.200 selling 50 individual pages than one complete 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:19.019 book. That is so depressing, but also makes total 00:09:19.019 --> 00:09:22.139 economic sense. Right. Or, very commonly, they 00:09:22.139 --> 00:09:25.269 were taken as spoils of war. Napoleon's troops, 00:09:25.309 --> 00:09:27.850 for instance, were notorious for looting archives 00:09:27.850 --> 00:09:30.110 across Europe and the Middle East, which is how 00:09:30.110 --> 00:09:33.269 so many fragments ended up in Paris. So piecing 00:09:33.269 --> 00:09:35.850 together human history is quite literally a physical 00:09:35.850 --> 00:09:39.159 jigsaw puzzle. Literally! page in this Vatican 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:42.039 Archive is a survivor of some unrecorded disaster 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:44.639 or theft. Exactly. The fact that the Vatican 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:48.419 Library holds these specific detached pages shows 00:09:48.419 --> 00:09:50.580 that curators are essentially playing a massive 00:09:50.580 --> 00:09:53.159 game of historical recovery. It really is a miracle 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:56.799 any of this survives. Yeah. If Arabic was the 00:09:56.799 --> 00:09:59.519 language of God for the Islamic world, it wasn't 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:01.600 strictly confined to Islam. And this brings us 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:03.700 to a major transition in our source list. Yes, 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:06.080 a very important shift. We've been talking about 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:08.220 Islamic text, but let's remember where we are. 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:11.580 The Vatican Library. The beating heart of the 00:10:11.580 --> 00:10:14.200 Catholic Church. And yet, this collection is 00:10:14.200 --> 00:10:16.659 not exclusively Islamic. Not at all. And that 00:10:16.659 --> 00:10:19.100 is where the historical assumptions of many modern 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:21.399 readers get completely upended. For instance, 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:23.779 we have VADAR 5. This is the Psalter of Book 00:10:23.779 --> 00:10:25.720 of Psalms written entirely in Arabic. Yep. And 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:29.799 then we have Vadar 657, which is Ilya Ibn Ubaid's 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:32.320 concordance of faith. So what does this all mean? 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:35.299 I have to be honest. It is a bit confusing at 00:10:35.299 --> 00:10:38.179 first glance. How so? Well, we modern readers 00:10:38.179 --> 00:10:40.919 tend to think in strict binaries, right? We assume 00:10:40.919 --> 00:10:43.120 the historical Vatican equals Latin, Europe, 00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:45.940 and Catholicism, while Arabic equals the Middle 00:10:45.940 --> 00:10:48.159 East and Islam. It's a very common assumption. 00:10:48.429 --> 00:10:51.409 But an Arabic book of Psalms sitting deep inside 00:10:51.409 --> 00:10:53.970 the Vatican totally shatters that binary. If 00:10:53.970 --> 00:10:56.409 we connect this to the bigger picture, it absolutely 00:10:56.409 --> 00:10:59.509 does. It is a brilliant pushback against how 00:10:59.509 --> 00:11:02.190 history is often oversimplified in our heads. 00:11:02.470 --> 00:11:06.230 These texts represent a vibrant complex historical 00:11:06.230 --> 00:11:09.210 reality where Arabic was not exclusively the 00:11:09.210 --> 00:11:12.929 language of Islam. For centuries, Arabic was 00:11:12.929 --> 00:11:15.509 a shared linguistic medium, a lingua franca, 00:11:15.929 --> 00:11:18.909 for multiple faiths across a massive geographic 00:11:18.909 --> 00:11:20.970 area. It was just the language of the day. Exactly. 00:11:21.029 --> 00:11:22.809 If you lived in the Middle East or North Africa 00:11:22.809 --> 00:11:25.549 or parts of Spain, Arabic was simply the language 00:11:25.549 --> 00:11:28.129 of intellectual and daily life. So Christians 00:11:28.129 --> 00:11:29.990 living in those regions were praying in Arabic. 00:11:30.470 --> 00:11:32.190 They were reading the Psalms of David in Arabic. 00:11:32.649 --> 00:11:35.309 Precisely. The existence of an Arabic Psalter 00:11:35.309 --> 00:11:37.710 proves that Christian devotion was actively happening 00:11:37.710 --> 00:11:40.950 in Arabic. And Elia Emineubad's Concordance of 00:11:40.950 --> 00:11:43.210 Faith is even more telling. Tell me about that 00:11:43.210 --> 00:11:45.549 one. Well, a concordance is essentially a massive 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:47.789 cross -reference tool for theological study. 00:11:47.909 --> 00:11:50.210 It helps you navigate religious concepts, compare 00:11:50.210 --> 00:11:52.190 scriptures, and build theological arguments. 00:11:52.610 --> 00:11:55.649 OK, but I have to push back here. Go ahead. We 00:11:55.649 --> 00:11:58.289 are talking about this as if the Vatican was 00:11:58.289 --> 00:12:01.990 just being, like, wonderfully inclusive and culturally 00:12:01.990 --> 00:12:04.850 diverse. Ah, I see where you're going. Isn't 00:12:04.850 --> 00:12:07.570 it highly likely these texts were collected as 00:12:07.570 --> 00:12:10.289 intelligence? I mean, you don't hoard a massive 00:12:10.289 --> 00:12:12.289 concordance of faith from the Arab world just 00:12:12.289 --> 00:12:14.990 to be nice. You hoard it to understand and maybe 00:12:14.990 --> 00:12:18.049 convert or debate the rival theologians of the 00:12:18.049 --> 00:12:20.610 era. This feels like opposition research. That 00:12:20.610 --> 00:12:22.809 is an excellent point. And you are absolutely 00:12:22.809 --> 00:12:25.110 right to challenge the motive. The Vatican was 00:12:25.110 --> 00:12:27.669 not operating a modern diversity program. It 00:12:27.669 --> 00:12:30.529 was a geopolitical and spiritual superpower. 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:33.710 Knowledge was quite literally power. And again, 00:12:34.070 --> 00:12:36.929 just analyzing the history here impartially to 00:12:36.929 --> 00:12:39.289 debate Islamic scholars, to send missionaries 00:12:39.289 --> 00:12:42.049 into the Middle East, or even to maintain pastoral 00:12:42.049 --> 00:12:44.970 control over Arab -speaking Christians, Rome 00:12:44.970 --> 00:12:47.149 needed to know exactly what was being said and 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:50.009 in what language. They needed the raw data. Exactly. 00:12:50.269 --> 00:12:53.049 The church recognized that to engage with the 00:12:53.049 --> 00:12:55.389 broader world, whether to defend against it, 00:12:55.610 --> 00:12:57.950 convert it, or govern it, they had to collect 00:12:57.950 --> 00:13:01.250 its texts. They were actively gathering the intellectual 00:13:01.250 --> 00:13:04.590 output of the Arabic world as intelligence. That 00:13:04.590 --> 00:13:08.250 makes the Vatican Library seem less like an exclusive 00:13:08.250 --> 00:13:11.049 quiet club for monks and more like a global listening 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:14.049 post. That is a very apt way to describe it. 00:13:14.169 --> 00:13:16.509 They were gathering data on the spiritual landscape 00:13:16.509 --> 00:13:18.669 of the world, regardless of the alphabet it was 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:21.029 written in. If you want to win a theological 00:13:21.029 --> 00:13:23.350 argument, you better have your opponent's playbook 00:13:23.350 --> 00:13:25.389 in your vault. And it wasn't just the spiritual 00:13:25.389 --> 00:13:27.210 playbook they were interested in either. No, 00:13:27.289 --> 00:13:29.129 it wasn't. Because if Arabic was the language 00:13:29.129 --> 00:13:31.730 of theology, it was also the language of science. 00:13:32.029 --> 00:13:34.169 And this is the part of the list that I find 00:13:34.169 --> 00:13:35.850 just incredibly fascinating. As we move from 00:13:35.850 --> 00:13:38.789 faith and theology to the secular pursuits of 00:13:38.789 --> 00:13:42.470 the mind, we see that the Vatican Arabi is a 00:13:42.470 --> 00:13:45.509 repository of profound scientific and cultural 00:13:45.509 --> 00:13:47.710 knowledge. The secular artifacts on this list 00:13:47.710 --> 00:13:50.490 show the sheer breadth of what the Vatican curators 00:13:50.490 --> 00:13:52.750 deemed worthy of eternity. Let's run through 00:13:52.750 --> 00:13:56.179 the variety here. We have Vadar 182. which is 00:13:56.179 --> 00:13:59.519 al -Razi's Altaib al -Ruhani, a famous text blending 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:01.620 medicine and spiritual psychology. The classic. 00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:05.700 We have a Vat R 319, which is a 13th century 00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:08.759 diagram of the Tusi couple created by the Islamic 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:13.070 polymath Tusi himself. We have Vat R 368. described 00:14:13.070 --> 00:14:16.769 as the story of Bahad and Riyadh, a 13th century 00:14:16.769 --> 00:14:19.389 Arabic love story. A great one. And finally, 00:14:19.690 --> 00:14:24.269 we have Avadar 782, a 16th century copy of the 00:14:24.269 --> 00:14:26.970 Galland manuscript. It is a breathtaking cross 00:14:26.970 --> 00:14:29.110 section of human thought. Okay, but we cannot 00:14:29.110 --> 00:14:30.830 just list these without explaining what they 00:14:30.830 --> 00:14:32.789 actually are because the details are mind -blowing. 00:14:33.009 --> 00:14:36.169 Let's start with the 2C couple. Oh yes, the 2C 00:14:36.169 --> 00:14:37.950 couple. I had to look this up and it is incredible. 00:14:38.289 --> 00:14:40.389 For you listening, imagine a small circle rotating 00:14:40.389 --> 00:14:43.070 inside a larger circle that is exactly twice 00:14:43.070 --> 00:14:45.490 its size. If you trace a point on the smaller 00:14:45.490 --> 00:14:47.690 circle, it doesn't just spin in loops, it moves 00:14:47.690 --> 00:14:49.470 back and forth in a perfectly straight line. 00:14:49.570 --> 00:14:52.700 Yeah. 2C invented this geometric model in the 00:14:52.700 --> 00:14:55.080 13th century. And we have to explain why that 00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:57.240 mathematical device was so revolutionary. Please 00:14:57.240 --> 00:14:59.679 do, because the math is over my head. Well, before 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:02.139 2C, astronomers were using Ptolemy's models to 00:15:02.139 --> 00:15:05.220 track the planets. But Ptolemy's math was flawed. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:08.480 It required all these clunky, irregular movements 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:11.940 to explain planetary orbits. This is messy. Very 00:15:11.940 --> 00:15:15.009 messy. Tusi's couple was a brilliant way to convert 00:15:15.009 --> 00:15:17.769 circular motion into linear motion, which solved 00:15:17.769 --> 00:15:20.210 massive problems in understanding the heavens. 00:15:20.710 --> 00:15:23.529 Wow. What makes this Vatican manuscript so explosive 00:15:23.529 --> 00:15:27.309 is that hundreds of years later, Nicholas Copernicus 00:15:27.309 --> 00:15:30.090 used the exact same geometric model, the Tusi 00:15:30.090 --> 00:15:33.190 couple, to help prove his heliocentric theory. 00:15:33.470 --> 00:15:35.649 The theory that the earth revolves around the 00:15:35.649 --> 00:15:38.970 sun. Exactly. So the math that eventually unseated 00:15:38.970 --> 00:15:41.289 humanity from the center of the universe was 00:15:41.289 --> 00:15:43.409 sitting right there. an Arabic manuscript. It 00:15:43.409 --> 00:15:45.990 was. If you were the Pope and you want your scholars 00:15:45.990 --> 00:15:48.389 to map the stars or calculate a precise calendar, 00:15:48.909 --> 00:15:51.549 you aren't just relying on Latin texts. You need 00:15:51.549 --> 00:15:54.190 the cutting edge science. And in the 13th century, 00:15:54.289 --> 00:15:56.909 the cutting edge was Arabic. This raises an important 00:15:56.909 --> 00:15:59.090 question for you to consider. What does it mean 00:15:59.090 --> 00:16:01.929 for a religious library to truly capture human 00:16:01.929 --> 00:16:04.909 civilization? If a library only collected holy 00:16:04.909 --> 00:16:07.629 books, it would only capture how humanity relates 00:16:07.629 --> 00:16:10.879 to the divine. But by holding Al -Razi's medical 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.139 insights alongside a mathematical breakthrough 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:16.299 like the Tusi couple, the library expands its 00:16:16.299 --> 00:16:19.240 scope to the physical universe. It acts as an 00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:22.480 agnostic protector of human genius. Okay, but 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.940 again, keeping my priestess pushback in mind. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:26.779 I knew you were going to bring that up. I have 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:29.100 to. The agnostic protector sounds very noble, 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:31.620 but they saved Tusi's math because it was useful, 00:16:32.059 --> 00:16:34.440 right? They needed the geometry. Fair point. 00:16:34.940 --> 00:16:38.460 What is harder to explain is the fiction. Why 00:16:38.460 --> 00:16:41.440 on earth is an institution dedicated to eternal 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:44.440 salvation hoarding an ancient Arabic romance, 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.419 like the story of Bayad and Riyadh, or the Gallon 00:16:48.419 --> 00:16:50.360 Manuscript? Yeah, that's the real puzzle. And 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:52.299 we should explain the Gallon Manuscript, because 00:16:52.299 --> 00:16:53.980 that name might not ring a bell for everyone, 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:56.100 but its contents definitely will. It certainly 00:16:56.100 --> 00:16:58.840 will. The Gallon Manuscript is the oldest surviving 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:02.019 Arabic manuscript of the 1001 Nights. What we 00:17:02.019 --> 00:17:04.160 commonly call the Arabian Nights in English, 00:17:04.430 --> 00:17:07.269 Exactly. It is the foundational text that brought 00:17:07.269 --> 00:17:10.390 stories like Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad the 00:17:10.390 --> 00:17:12.829 Sailor to the wider world. I'm trying to picture 00:17:12.829 --> 00:17:16.230 the incredibly serious Vatican archivist in his 00:17:16.230 --> 00:17:19.369 robes deciding that a romantic fiction about 00:17:19.369 --> 00:17:22.190 Bayad and Riyadh or the magical tales of the 00:17:22.190 --> 00:17:25.069 Arabian Nights belonged on the exact same high 00:17:25.069 --> 00:17:28.710 security shelf as divine scripture and astronomical 00:17:28.710 --> 00:17:31.230 diagrams. It is wonderfully chaotic. Totally 00:17:31.230 --> 00:17:33.650 chaotic. It is chaotic, but it is also deeply 00:17:33.650 --> 00:17:36.539 human. The inclusion of these stories emphasizes 00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:38.980 that knowledge transcends the boundaries of its 00:17:38.980 --> 00:17:42.119 origin. The people who archived these works understood 00:17:42.119 --> 00:17:44.440 that human civilization is built on medicine, 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:47.119 math, and romance just as much as it is built 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:49.339 on theology. That's a beautiful way to look at 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:52.160 it. Even in an institution focused on the afterlife, 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:55.279 the everyday human experience of love, storytelling, 00:17:55.500 --> 00:17:58.420 and fantasy was recognized as a vital piece of 00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:00.759 the human record. It is comforting in a way. 00:18:00.779 --> 00:18:03.160 How so? To know that someone hundreds of years 00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:05.579 ago read a love story or a tale about a magical 00:18:05.579 --> 00:18:08.539 genie and thought, yes. This needs to go into 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:10.680 the vault. Future generations need to know we 00:18:10.680 --> 00:18:13.099 imagine these things. Yeah, absolutely. The Vatican 00:18:13.099 --> 00:18:16.319 -Irabe really is a safe harbor, where texts from 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:19.259 incredibly diverse, sometimes hostile origins 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:22.200 dropped anchor and survived the storms of history. 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:25.359 Safe harbor is the perfect term, and it reinforces 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:28.559 a core belief that I think is essential when 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.759 exploring history knowledge is most valuable 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:33.160 when we consider multiple perspectives. Definitely. 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:37.059 This simple Wikipedia disambiguation list proves 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:39.920 to be a vibrant, multi -dimensional snapshot 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:42.759 of a highly interconnected world. It teaches 00:18:42.759 --> 00:18:45.759 us not to judge a book by its cover, nor an archive 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.740 by its location. The boundaries between cultures, 00:18:49.059 --> 00:18:51.640 languages, and even rival religions were far 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:54.259 more porous and far more entangled than we often 00:18:54.259 --> 00:18:56.259 assume today. It has been quite a journey today. 00:18:56.539 --> 00:18:58.579 Think about the incredible distance we just traveled 00:18:58.579 --> 00:19:01.480 in this deep dive, all from a single short list. 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:03.660 We covered a lot of ground. We really did. We 00:19:03.660 --> 00:19:06.490 started with the physical awe of a massive half 00:19:06.490 --> 00:19:09.109 -meter -wide Quran built to project authority. 00:19:09.210 --> 00:19:12.009 The IMAX screen. Right. And we zoomed all the 00:19:12.009 --> 00:19:14.990 way down to a tiny 45 -millimeter circular book 00:19:14.990 --> 00:19:17.569 worn as a personal shield of faith. The smartwatch. 00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:20.289 We uncovered the physical jigsaw puzzle of a 00:19:20.289 --> 00:19:23.109 codex scattered across Paris, Russia, and Rome. 00:19:23.589 --> 00:19:25.769 We shattered modern assumptions by looking at 00:19:25.769 --> 00:19:28.349 an Arabic Psalter and realizing the Vatican was 00:19:28.349 --> 00:19:31.349 running a massive multilingual intelligence -gathering 00:19:31.349 --> 00:19:34.490 operation. a global listening post. And finally 00:19:34.490 --> 00:19:38.369 we landed on the beautiful juxtaposition of world 00:19:38.369 --> 00:19:41.250 -changing 13th century mathematics sitting quietly 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:44.009 next to the oldest surviving manuscript of the 00:19:44.009 --> 00:19:46.480 Arabian Nights. It is a reminder that the past 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:49.680 was never as simple or as isolated as a timeline 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:51.900 in a textbook makes it seem. Which brings us 00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:54.400 back to that Indiana Jones inventory log book 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:57.779 feeling we started with. We just analyzed what 00:19:57.779 --> 00:20:00.259 survived from the 13th and 16th centuries to 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:03.299 make it into the Vatican's heavily guarded vaults. 00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:05.779 We look at the math, the stories and the prayers 00:20:05.779 --> 00:20:07.839 that were deemed important enough to save from 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:10.180 the fires of history. So much history saved. 00:20:10.420 --> 00:20:12.579 Exactly. So I want to leave you with this final 00:20:12.579 --> 00:20:14.930 thought to ponder on your own today. Look around 00:20:14.930 --> 00:20:16.589 you right now. Look at your desk, your room, 00:20:16.730 --> 00:20:19.190 your bag, your phone. It's a fun thought experiment. 00:20:19.569 --> 00:20:22.589 What seemingly ordinary, everyday text or object 00:20:22.589 --> 00:20:25.190 that you interact with today might end up in 00:20:25.190 --> 00:20:27.470 a high security archive a thousand years from 00:20:27.470 --> 00:20:30.410 now, completely removed from its original context, 00:20:30.990 --> 00:20:33.329 serving as a bizarre, wonderful puzzle piece 00:20:33.329 --> 00:20:35.470 for the scholars of the future, trying to figure 00:20:35.470 --> 00:20:36.549 exactly who we were.