Tylenum Tiauntha. Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're

Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast brought to you with the support of the

philosophy department at King's College London and the LMU and Munich online at history

of philosophy dot net today's episode chance, Reviving Hellenistic Philosophy.

Dip into any introduction to Renaissance philosophy and you'll quickly find a reference to Ptojoachorini's rediscovery of on the nature of things, an ancient Latin poem by the Epicurean philosopher Lucretius.

This podcast series is no exception. I mentioned Poggio and Lucretius back in the first episode on the Italian Renaissance.

But what exactly did it mean to rediscover an ancient Latin text?

Nowadays, tracking down a book usually involves little more than entering its title into Google. Other internet search engines are available.

You'd probably be annoyed even at having to click through to the second page of search results. In the 15th century, the second page of search results.

In the 15th century, the process was a bit more taxing.

It was more like today's record collectors who sort through bins of dusty vintage vinyl,

or perhaps even gold prospectors in Pioneer,

era California. Tracking down a lost book required willingness and

opportunity to travel long distances. It called her patience in a connoisseur's eye and these were all assets that belong to a pojo.

The famous discovery happened in 1417 in Germany, probably at a Benedictine Abbey in Folde.

Pojo had come so far north because he was in attendance at the Council of Constance in 1415

as Secretary to Pope John the 23rd.

Things didn't go so well for the Pope, who was deposed after fleeing the Council,

but POGO's Book Collection fared much better.

In addition to finding Lucretius, he had the triumph of tracking down a copy of Quintilian's work on rhetoric at St. Gall.

In one of the more than 500 surviving letters written by Poggio, he explains that this priceless text was lying in a jumble of moldering books in a sort of

foul and gloomy dungeon at the bottom of one of the towers. Like the modern day vinyl

...