"Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, London, and subsequently published in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in 2019"--Title page verso

The great vanishing -- Alexandria -- Baghdad -- Córdoba -- Toledo -- Salerno -- Palermo -- Venice -- 1500 and beyond

"After the fall of Rome, as civilizations collapsed and libraries burned, ancient knowledge that would eventually fuel the Renaissance was at risk of being lost. This ... history tracks three crucial books as they were passed hand to hand through seven cities during a perilous thousand-year journey of survival. After the great library at Alexandria was destroyed, Baghdad, Córdoba, Toledo, Salerno, and Palermo were rare outposts of knowledge in a dark world, places where dedicated scholars collected, translated, and shared texts. ... [This book] takes us into the sparkling intellectual life that flourished there, highlighting the crucial role played by Arab scholars in improving the cornerstone ideas of Western thought"--Page 4 of cover