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Testaments of Time: The Search for Lost Manuscripts and Records
Panorama of the astonishing work done to retrieve and restore ancient texts, of the scholar-adventurers who gave us vast new knowledge of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Mexico, and Central Asia, and of the origins of the Bible.
590 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 3, 2009
Terrific book, although I am somewhat obsessed with the loss of literature over time. I read this a couple of years ago and am reading it again. I just can't help myself. Here is an email I sent to some friends of mine about this book:
I’ve been re-reading one of my favorite books, Testaments of Time The Search for Lost Manuscripts and Records by Leo Deuel. It is one of those true story digging-up-the-mummies sort of adventure yarns but with the added twist that the mummies were often wrapped in discarded papyrus manuscripts of such long-lost literary works as plays by Euripides, Aristotle’s The Athenian Constitution and scraps of Sappho, etc. Included in these finds is a native Egyptian poem admonishing young scribes to stick to their styluses and keep off the sauce (page 212):
They tell me that thou forsakest books,
And givest thyself up to pleasure.
Thou goest from street to street;
Every evening the smell of beer,
The smell of beer, frightens people away from thee.
It bringeth thy soul to ruin…
The information concerning "the smell of beer" explains many shortcomings and outright failures in my social life, past and present. It also makes me appreciate Egyptian culture in a new, vivid way. I highly recommend Deuel’s book; it starts off with Petrarch and Boccaccio hunting through dusty old monasteries to find lost classical literature, a treasure hunt that eventually jump-started the Renaissance. Interestingly enough, what these guys sought more than any other ancient author was Cicero….not Plato, Virgil, Catullus or Ovid (not that they’d pass up these worthies) but Cicero. This seems weird to me, not that I am overly familiar with Cicero beyond picking around some of his letters to friends in a Penguin paperback. But apparently Cicero’s Latin was exceptionally elegant and he had a reputation for great wisdom was almost mythological throughout the Dark Ages. Which shows how arbitrary literary fame can be sometimes. It’s as if a thousand years from now Donald Hall became the great poet-scholar paragon of the 20th century and T. S. Eliot survived only in a few puzzling fragments…Or maybe that’s already happened?
I’ve been re-reading one of my favorite books, Testaments of Time The Search for Lost Manuscripts and Records by Leo Deuel. It is one of those true story digging-up-the-mummies sort of adventure yarns but with the added twist that the mummies were often wrapped in discarded papyrus manuscripts of such long-lost literary works as plays by Euripides, Aristotle’s The Athenian Constitution and scraps of Sappho, etc. Included in these finds is a native Egyptian poem admonishing young scribes to stick to their styluses and keep off the sauce (page 212):
They tell me that thou forsakest books,
And givest thyself up to pleasure.
Thou goest from street to street;
Every evening the smell of beer,
The smell of beer, frightens people away from thee.
It bringeth thy soul to ruin…
The information concerning "the smell of beer" explains many shortcomings and outright failures in my social life, past and present. It also makes me appreciate Egyptian culture in a new, vivid way. I highly recommend Deuel’s book; it starts off with Petrarch and Boccaccio hunting through dusty old monasteries to find lost classical literature, a treasure hunt that eventually jump-started the Renaissance. Interestingly enough, what these guys sought more than any other ancient author was Cicero….not Plato, Virgil, Catullus or Ovid (not that they’d pass up these worthies) but Cicero. This seems weird to me, not that I am overly familiar with Cicero beyond picking around some of his letters to friends in a Penguin paperback. But apparently Cicero’s Latin was exceptionally elegant and he had a reputation for great wisdom was almost mythological throughout the Dark Ages. Which shows how arbitrary literary fame can be sometimes. It’s as if a thousand years from now Donald Hall became the great poet-scholar paragon of the 20th century and T. S. Eliot survived only in a few puzzling fragments…Or maybe that’s already happened?
October 6, 2023
I bought this book a long time ago and had browsed through quite a bit of it back in the day. As fascinating as it was, I didn't have the time to leisurely read it cover to cover which I now have done. In spite of being somewhat dated, it's as fascinating a read as ever. The only thing dated about it is that, since it was originally published in 1965, it leaves you wondering what has been discovered in the last 60 years.
The story starts with the Renaissance era humanists, Petrarch, Boccaccio and others, as they seek out manuscripts of the ancient Roman writers, their favorite being Cicero. He goes on to discuss the finding of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the cities buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. A number of rolls were discovered, but the problem was unrolling them. So some were destroyed in the process. He then covers the papyri of Egypt which were not able to be read until the Frenchman Champollion deciphered their hieroglyphics thanks to the earlier find of the Rosetta stone. This made papyri valuable for scholars and historians, the hunt was on. A papyrus might be found with mummies or in the numerous trash heaps near ancient Egyptian settlements. Remains of classical Greek writings were discovered, including fragments of works long lost. One was Aristotle's "Constitutions of Athens".
In the next sections, he covers the discoveries relating to the ancient peoples of Syria, Phoenicia and Canaan. The ancient city of Ugarit was discovered at Ras Shamra near the coast of Syria, with a treasure trove of cuneiform tablets which when deciphered were written in a Semitic language related to Hebrew, and which cast a lot of light on the Canaanite cultural setting in which the ancient Israelites were immersed, and so also on the history of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures.
Searches were also going on for copies of New Testament writings. Perhaps the most spectacular was when in the mid-19th century Constantin von Tischendorf came across the Codex Sinaiticus - a Greek language bible dating from the 4th/5th century. And papyrus fragments were discovered at a site in Egypt, Oxyrhynchus, which had fragments of the Gospel of John on them, which had the effect of showing that John's gospel had been written a lot earlier than many biblical scholars had thought.
The next section of this book discusses findings of Hebrew scriptures. The Cairo Geniza was discovered. A geniza is a place attached to a Jewish synagogue where they deposit worn out Torahs, but also any work they considered heretical or sectarian. A large section - about 2/3 of the book of The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach" ("Sirach" for short) also known as "Ecclesiasticus" was found there. Sirach heretofore had only survived in its Greek translation in the Septuagint (It is part of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bibles to this day, but most Protestants consider it apocryphal).
The next section tells the story of Aurel Stein's search in Central Asia and in the Chinese province of Xinjiang (Wade-Giles spelling "Sinkiang"), where he discovered large remains of Buddhist scriptures, many long lost. His finds also shed light on how Buddhism came to China from India.
And the last section of the book covers the books and writings of the pre-Columbian Aztecs, Mayas et al. of Mexico and Central America (principally Guatemala), how so much was destroyed and lost, but also tells how so much of what did survive as been rediscovered and deciphered. Also a quite fascinating epic!
The story starts with the Renaissance era humanists, Petrarch, Boccaccio and others, as they seek out manuscripts of the ancient Roman writers, their favorite being Cicero. He goes on to discuss the finding of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the cities buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. A number of rolls were discovered, but the problem was unrolling them. So some were destroyed in the process. He then covers the papyri of Egypt which were not able to be read until the Frenchman Champollion deciphered their hieroglyphics thanks to the earlier find of the Rosetta stone. This made papyri valuable for scholars and historians, the hunt was on. A papyrus might be found with mummies or in the numerous trash heaps near ancient Egyptian settlements. Remains of classical Greek writings were discovered, including fragments of works long lost. One was Aristotle's "Constitutions of Athens".
In the next sections, he covers the discoveries relating to the ancient peoples of Syria, Phoenicia and Canaan. The ancient city of Ugarit was discovered at Ras Shamra near the coast of Syria, with a treasure trove of cuneiform tablets which when deciphered were written in a Semitic language related to Hebrew, and which cast a lot of light on the Canaanite cultural setting in which the ancient Israelites were immersed, and so also on the history of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures.
Searches were also going on for copies of New Testament writings. Perhaps the most spectacular was when in the mid-19th century Constantin von Tischendorf came across the Codex Sinaiticus - a Greek language bible dating from the 4th/5th century. And papyrus fragments were discovered at a site in Egypt, Oxyrhynchus, which had fragments of the Gospel of John on them, which had the effect of showing that John's gospel had been written a lot earlier than many biblical scholars had thought.
The next section of this book discusses findings of Hebrew scriptures. The Cairo Geniza was discovered. A geniza is a place attached to a Jewish synagogue where they deposit worn out Torahs, but also any work they considered heretical or sectarian. A large section - about 2/3 of the book of The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach" ("Sirach" for short) also known as "Ecclesiasticus" was found there. Sirach heretofore had only survived in its Greek translation in the Septuagint (It is part of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bibles to this day, but most Protestants consider it apocryphal).
The next section tells the story of Aurel Stein's search in Central Asia and in the Chinese province of Xinjiang (Wade-Giles spelling "Sinkiang"), where he discovered large remains of Buddhist scriptures, many long lost. His finds also shed light on how Buddhism came to China from India.
And the last section of the book covers the books and writings of the pre-Columbian Aztecs, Mayas et al. of Mexico and Central America (principally Guatemala), how so much was destroyed and lost, but also tells how so much of what did survive as been rediscovered and deciphered. Also a quite fascinating epic!
February 25, 2008
Just about my favorite book ever on the history of books! It's a little dated now, but still superb.
August 31, 2025
Chingiz Aitmatov wrote: "... art should call for joy, life-affirmation, optimism. But it is also true that art should plunge a person into deep thought and shock, evoke in him powerful feelings of compassion, protest against evil, give him a reason to lament, grieve and thirst to restore, to defend that best in life that was trampled, destroyed...
March 6, 2019
An excellent book and highly recommended. If you happen to have read 'The Swerve' and liked it, then you will absolutely love this book.
January 11, 2008
One of those books I took out of the library as a kid. Finally bought a copy, was a little disappointed. Still has that romance of finding something missing for hundreds of years.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews