The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

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. 

An Epicurean is a follower of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, who believes that the material world functions without divine intervention, that the soul is mortal, and that the purpose of humanity is happiness. A popular belief system in the ancient world, Epicureanism is suppressed by the Catholic church during the late Roman Empire and Middle Ages; its beliefs are rediscovered in 1417 in a long-lost Roman poem, On the Nature of Things, that describes Epicurean philosophy in detail. The poem causes conflict within the Catholic church, but it has a huge influence on artists and thinkers whose works launch the Renaissance.

In the 1300s, Petrarch discovers ancient Greco-Roman texts stored away in monasteries; the manuscripts’ classical ideas beguile Petrarch and others, who begin a systematic search for more such works. This study of “the humanities” begins a scholarly tradition in the Western world called humanism. Poggio, a church official and humanist, finds numerous ancient texts and brings them back to the world. 

A kind of men’s club, the “Lie Factory” or “Bugiale” is a room at the papal court where the pope’s personal secretaries meet to gossip and tell funny stories about the people at court, including tales of the pope himself. Poggio, a powerful papal secretary, writes down these tales, exaggerations, and jokes in a journal he calls Facetiae, which is published just before his death to great success. The chatter and gossip of the Lie Factory reveal cynicism about the politics, corruption, and venality of the papal court. 

Today, a notary’s job is fairly simple, mainly to authenticate legal documents and proceedings. In Poggio’s time, a notary had to have a wide knowledge of law, making him somewhat akin to a lawyer. Poggio’s father is a notary, and Poggio becomes one as well; his training in law and as a scriptor, along with his renown as an expert in handwriting, give him entrée to the Vatican court, where he rises to the rank of personal secretary to a succession of popes. 

On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura) is the only known poem of Lucretius (99 BC to 55 BC) and describes—in 7,400 lines of dactylic hexameter spread over six volumes—the beliefs of Epicurus. Epicurus asserts that the universe is made of atoms that obey their own law without interference by gods; that atoms “swerve” slightly on their paths to create the objects of the world; that the soul is made of atoms and dies with the death of the body; and that the true purpose of humans is to live happily. The poem is hidden away by the Catholic church for centuries, only to be rediscovered by church official Poggio, who copies and shares it with his humanist friends; this begins the process of awakening European thinkers to the Epicurean beliefs that spawn the Renaissance. 

Poggio begins his Vatican career as a scriptor, “a skilled writer of official documents in the papal bureaucracy” (19), who must be knowledgeable in church legal affairs, eloquent in Latin, and able to write in a beautiful hand. Scriptors can have great power: “they were permitted to charge fees for executing documents and obtaining what were called ‘concessions of grace,’ that is, legal favors” (21). 

English scholar and statesman More pens an unusual book, Utopia, that describes a people who live far away in the Americas, where they enjoy a life based on the precepts of the Epicureans. More is no church protestor; on the contrary, he wishes to protect its authority. His book cautions that the people of Utopia (which means “nowhere” in Latin) all adhere to a strict belief in a recognizably Christian God. This is quite different from the agnostic philosophy of Epicurus, but More believes that no society can long avoid chaos if its members lack all fear of divine punishment.