THERE WAS A TIME, NOT so very long ago, when the taunt was true that history was written as if it were a mere string of anecdotal biographies of great men. But

Gibbon offers an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell, a task made difficult by a lack of comprehensive written sources, though he was not the only histori

The circulation of books was the motor of classical civilization. However, books were both expensive and rare, and so libraries - private and public, royal and