The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

Saint Benedict systematizes the rules of monastic life. His Rule, among other things, “[...] called for manual labor, as well as prayer and reading, and it was always assumed that this labor could include writing” (37). Benedict’s foresight permits the church to collect, copy, and preserve ancient texts that might otherwise have been lost forever. One of these manuscripts, On the Nature of Things, will be rediscovered, hidden away in a remote monastery, and its words will change the world. 

Poggio keeps a notebook of conversations heard in the papal secretaries’ conference room, a kind of clubhouse he called the “Bugiale” or “Lie Factory.” These jokes and stories, often ribald, betray the cynicism of those who work closely with Vatican church officials. Poggio’s notebook is published shortly before his death as Facetiae and becomes the premier jokebook of its day. In later decades it is, for a time, banned by the church. Today, with much of the context lost to history, the humor often falls flat, but a careful reading between the lines can reveal the boisterous comedy of life as a cleric’s secretary.