Writing Matters
Poggio Bracciolini throws a book at fellow scholar, Tortelli Fleece Blanket.
The year was 1417; the Renaissance was not yet in full bloom; there was no printing press; Columbus was decades away from sailing the ocean blue; and Martin Luther’s Reformation was still a century in the future. But an event of epic proportions occurred, one hard winter day that year, when a man fast approaching forty, short in physical stature but keenly alert, made an astonishing discovery that had laid hidden to the world for some fifteen centuries. His name was Poggio Bracciolini. He was a writer, scholar, and Renaissance humanist, and he had once been the personal secretary, the Apostolicus Secretarius, of Pope Martin V. In his vaunted position, he regularly took dictation from the pope and wrote letters on his behalf. Subsequently, as a book hunter, he was responsible for discovering many original Latin manuscripts and seeing that they were preserved, by copying each one with great precision. As such, he became famous for his exquisite and highly-readable book hand. In fact, other imminent scholars of the time wanted their works preserved in his book hand that is known today as the typographical font called Roman―the world’s most utilized such font.
Marko Perko & Stephen M. Stahl’s TESLA (Prometheus)
“…imminent scholars…wanted their works preserved in his book hand that is known today as…Roman―the world’s most utilized such font.”
So what was it that Bracciolini had discovered in a remote German monastery’s library that was so astonishing? Surprisingly, it was a six-thousand line epic poem that was revolutionary in thought, precariously radical, and unquestionably antithetical to the temper of the time. The ancient Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura), was written in 50 BCE., but then it vanished. In it, he set down what he had known for future academics, thinkers, and scientists—the basis of what has come to be known as general physics, atomism, cosmology, and the humanities, and Epicureanism. His words have influenced such scientific giants as Nikola Tesla, Galileo Galili, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein. Because of Bracciolini’s discovery and the efforts of those who followed him, the thoughts and written words of Lucretius and others survive to this very day.
Writing matters.
The summers of 1776 and 1787, produced two of the most magnificent and profound works, showcasing human thought and preserved in the form of the written word. Many consider America’s Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, unparalleled examples of such efforts. From Thomas Jefferson’s eloquent writing found in the Declaration, to the rights of man enumerated in the Constitution, such writing set the tone for what was to come. Moreover, 1776 also saw the publication two critical books: Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Edward Gibbon’s first edition of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Writing matters.
In 1869, the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy made his contribution to the pantheon of world literature when he published War and Peace. Although, Tolstoy flinched at the idea of calling his masterwork a novel, because much of the book was a series of philosophical discussions, as opposed to the classic narrative style, it nonetheless gave the reader an insight into the author’s complex mind and how he viewed the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the very same year that the British invaded America for the second time.
Alexander Poltorak and Dmitry Chukhrai’s War and Peace: The Graphic Novel (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2022)
Writing matters.
In 1906, American novelist and journalist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book that produced a sea change in America: it exposed the dreadful overall human condition that existed in the early part of the 20th century in the meat packing industry. It was an effort to raise the human condition by focusing society’s best efforts on positive change and it worked.
Writing matters.
In 1949, George Orwell published Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel. Orwell utilized the tool of social science fiction that proved to be all too real then and now. His view of a dystopian society has awakened the multitudes over the decades since its publication to the ugly and destructive manifestations of totalitarianism.
Writing matters.
In 1997, J.K Rowling published her first work of fantasy fiction entitled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. In 2007, she published Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series. Aside from the books being publishing phenomena by any metric one chooses, they introduced children and adults alike to the joy of reading, and why it is so critical to the fulfillment of one’s life.
Writing matters.
“…writing matters, because it preserves…ideas, thoughts, or opinions for future generations to learn from.”
Whether it be seminal ideas, thoughts, or opinions carved into stone or written on papyri millennia ago…writing matters, because it preserves such ideas, thoughts, or opinions for future generations to learn from. And whether it be powerful words that wafted out of an inkwell and landed onto pages of fine vellum centuries ago, or alphanumeric characters inputted into a computer and then miraculously appearing on its screen…writing matters.
Writing always matters!
Marko Perko is a graduate of the University of Southern California. He has always had an insatiable thirst for knowledge of all types, and as such, he is highly regarded as a modern-day Renaissance man, author, historian, polymath, and polemicist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed and wildly popular book entitled Did You Know That...? now in its fourth edition. He is the author of the upcoming novel Lethal Action: A Nick Raasay Thriller and the co-author of the work of fiction entitled Khamsin: A Thriller. Moreover, he is the writer of the international bestselling knowledge-based board game Twenty Questions. He is also the creator of the Cultural Enrichment Programs education series, and he is active in software development―Krypti.com. Perko has also written for and edited numerous publications, and he has worked as a columnist, speechwriter, composer, musician, lecturer, and playwright. He is a member of The Authors Guild, the Biographers International Organization, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Broadcast Music, Inc., the Organization of American Historians, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the British Library. He recently completed a “new-style” biography (with Stepehen M. Stahl) about Nikola Tesla entitled Tesla: His Tremendous and Troubled Life to be published by Prometheus Books in March 2022. He is also in production on” the podcast for the curious” called History’s Greatest Lies and Myths. Additionally, he is writing new books, as well as working on television and film projects based upon several of his intellectual properties. He lives in California with his wife Heather and their daughter “Skye Mackay” Perko.