Or how to get ahead.

August 3, 2015 10:21 PM

Pope Frankenstein, by the erudite and amusing Yanko Tsvetkov.
posted by Joe in Australia (3 comments total)

Interesting! Although I think I might have better enjoyed the erudition with a bit less of the amusement. I’d long supposed the idea of an oracular ‘Brazen Head’ was specific to the story of Roger Bacon (never having read as far as Chapter 62 of Don Quixote, for example), and had no idea it was a more generic legendary gadget.
posted by misteraitch at 3:27 AM on August 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

If you like this sort of thing you might like Adventures in Unhistory by the late Avram Davidson; it has a very similar tone, but with less joking.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:16 AM on August 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

I dunno. If he'd been comparing Sylvester II's actual legacy (serious work in math and astronomy, not considering his papal activities) with William of Malmesbury's amusing anecdotes, "erudite" might be a word I'd use. Otherwise, it's just the usual Enlightenment slanders of the Middle Age West's intellectual accomplishments.

If you want some real erudition (digestable and even entertaining for non-specialists and general listeners), you could do worse than Peter Adamson's The History of Philosophy (without Any Gaps) podcast, which is deep in the Medieval West at the moment.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:36 AM on August 4, 2015 [3 favorites]