Embers of History

Bibliotheke: Greek, from biblion, a book (after byblos, the papyrus reed), and theke, a place where things are kept. A summer around 235 BC in Alexandria, told to you, a young copyist from Rhodes: every ship searched for books, a catalogue in one hundred and twenty rolls, a king who borrowed the plays of Athens and kept them, and a librarian who measured the whole Earth with a bowl and a shadow... Inside: the lighthouse of Pharos, the birdcage of the Muses, a big book is a big evil, the sieve of prime numbers, water clocks that whistled, the winds that carry boats up the Nile, and how the Library really ended. Eratosthenes and Callimachus will be there too. Chapters: The city · The Museum · The books from the ships · The scroll · The catalogue · The great borrowing · The librarian · The shadow · The others · The evening · The tower of light · What became of it · The night. Sources: Strabo's Geography, Galen, Cleomedes, the Letter of Aristeas; Callimachus' epigram in William Cory's translation. Read by a synthetic voice; script written and fact-checked by the show's team. Additional sounds: Joseph Sardin, BigSoundBank.com (CC0).

More calm shows for the late hours: Slow Orbit (space), The Quiet Armoury (swords and armour), Myth and Score (composers). Every episode's full script: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/embers/6.html

On YouTube: Opera Stories https://www.youtube.com/@operastoriestv · Slow Orbit https://www.youtube.com/@sloworbitlectures

Free line-by-line English translations of art songs: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/art-songs/

Enjoying the show? Leave a tip (no fees): https://ko-fi.com/artsongtranslations

Eight bells: on a sailing ship, the end of a four-hour watch, struck on the ship's bell when the last half-hour glass runs out. A night in September 1769 aboard Endeavour, a small Whitby coal ship sent around the world, told to you, a young sailor on the middle watch: the bottom of the world and a summer snowstorm, three months on Tahiti, a planet crossing the face of the Sun, a navigator who knew more of the ocean than anyone aboard, and a long search for a continent that was not there... Inside: a goat that sailed around the world twice, sauerkraut at the officers' table, a knotted line that gave us the word knots, the black drop, a gallon of rum for the first to see land. James Cook and Tupaia will be there too. Chapters: The ship · The captain · The watch · Below deck · The food · The bottom of the world · The island · The black drop · Tupaia · The empty ocean · Land. Sources: the journals of James Cook and Joseph Banks, the Royal Society's transit of Venus records. Read by a synthetic voice; script written and fact-checked by the show's team. Additional sounds: Joseph Sardin, BigSoundBank.com (CC0).

More calm shows for the late hours: Slow Orbit (space), The Quiet Armoury (swords and armour), Myth and Score (composers). Every episode's full script: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/embers/5.html

On YouTube: Opera Stories https://www.youtube.com/@operastoriestv · Slow Orbit https://www.youtube.com/@sloworbitlectures

Free line-by-line English translations of art songs: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/art-songs/

Enjoying the show? Leave a tip (no fees): https://ko-fi.com/artsongtranslations

Langeldr: Old Norse, the long fire, the hearth that ran down the middle of a longhouse. A winter night around the year 900 on the Lofoten islands, far north of the Arctic Circle, told to you, sixteen and born in the house: the Sun gone below the mountains for a month, thirty people around one fire, cod drying in the wind, a loom taller than a man, a traveller at the door and a poet who begins with the beginning of the world... Inside: a king's table on a scratched board, the fire of the sea, a silver arm-ring, the return of the Sun. Ottar of Hålogaland will be there too. Chapters: The house · The dark time · The hearth · The evening meal · The loom · The game · The guest · The story · The night · The return. Sources: archaeology of the Lofoten chieftain's houses, Ottar's account at King Alfred's court, the Hávamál, the Prose Edda. Read by a synthetic voice; script written and fact-checked by the show's team. Additional sounds: Joseph Sardin, BigSoundBank.com (CC0).

More calm shows for the late hours: Slow Orbit (space), The Quiet Armoury (swords and armour), Myth and Score (composers). Every episode's full script: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/embers/4.html

On YouTube: Opera Stories https://www.youtube.com/@operastoriestv · Slow Orbit https://www.youtube.com/@sloworbitlectures

Free line-by-line English translations of art songs: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/art-songs/

Enjoying the show? Leave a tip (no fees): https://ko-fi.com/artsongtranslations

Compline: from the Latin completorium, the completion, the last prayer of a monastery's day. A winter night in an abbey around the year 1100, told to you, a young brother of the house: the bell that wakes the dormitory at two in the morning, the stone night stairs, psalms sung back and forth in the dark church, a book copied by lamplight, a cat that once walked across a page... Inside: a sign for bread, the warming room fire, a traveller at the gate, sixteen beds of herbs. Saint Benedict will be there too. Chapters: The bell · The night office · The cloister · The book · The dawn · The chapter · The work · The table · The warming room · The gate · The infirmary · The evening · Compline · The night again. Sources: the Rule of Saint Benedict, the Cluny sign lists, the Plan of Saint Gall. Read by a synthetic voice; script written and fact-checked by the show's team. Additional sounds: Joseph Sardin, BigSoundBank.com (CC0).

More calm shows for the late hours: Slow Orbit (space), The Quiet Armoury (swords and armour), Myth and Score (composers). Every episode's full script: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/embers/3.html

On YouTube: Opera Stories https://www.youtube.com/@operastoriestv · Slow Orbit https://www.youtube.com/@sloworbitlectures

Free line-by-line English translations of art songs: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/art-songs/

Enjoying the show? Leave a tip (no fees): https://ko-fi.com/artsongtranslations

Halley's comet over England, a summer of waiting on the coast, the race north to Stamford Bridge, and one long October day on a ridge near Hastings, told quietly from a distance. Read by a synthetic voice. Script written and fact-checked by the show's team. Additional sounds: Joseph Sardin, BigSoundBank.com (CC0).

More calm shows for the late hours: Slow Orbit (space), The Quiet Armoury (swords and armour), Myth and Score (composers). Every episode's full script: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/embers/2.html

On YouTube: Opera Stories https://www.youtube.com/@operastoriestv · Slow Orbit https://www.youtube.com/@sloworbitlectures

Free line-by-line English translations of art songs: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/art-songs/

Enjoying the show? Leave a tip (no fees): https://ko-fi.com/artsongtranslations

One ordinary summer day in Rome, around AD 125: the night carts, the bakers, the water, the Forum, the baths, the river, and the night watch. Read by a synthetic voice. Script written and fact-checked by the show's team. Additional sounds: Joseph Sardin, BigSoundBank.com (CC0).

More calm shows for the late hours: Slow Orbit (space), The Quiet Armoury (swords and armour), Myth and Score (composers). Every episode's full script: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/embers/1.html

On YouTube: Opera Stories https://www.youtube.com/@operastoriestv · Slow Orbit https://www.youtube.com/@sloworbitlectures

Free line-by-line English translations of art songs: https://garryassistantoffice-alt.github.io/art-songs/

Enjoying the show? Leave a tip (no fees): https://ko-fi.com/artsongtranslations