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Mentioned as a 'wonderful short story' that contains not just every book ever written but every possible book that might be written, with the whole universe becoming a library. Referenced as deriving from the mythic quality of the Library of Alexandria.

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Referenced as having a library modeled on Borges's Library of Babel. This is Umberto Eco's novel, though the author is not explicitly mentioned in the transcript.

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Explicitly mentioned as 'a book called The Vanished Library by the Italian scholar Luciano Canfora' which argues that the Library of Alexandria did not constitute a separate room or building, which Tom finds to be the most convincing explanation.

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Described as 'the great definitive volume' on the subject, cited for the argument that the Library of Alexandria inspired a copycat example in Pergamum, where archaeological remains show no separate library building.

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Mentioned as a book from 'a few years ago' that argued classical learning was destroyed by Christians and that Christianity was responsible for plunging the world into darkness. Tom disagrees with this thesis.

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Referenced multiple times as the source of the myth that a Christian mob destroyed the Library of Alexandria in 391 AD. Gibbon is quoted directly about the library being 'pillaged or destroyed' and later quoted expressing gratitude for texts that survived rather than mourning losses.

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Quoted directly regarding Plato's view that when studying astronomy, one should 'approach it as we approach geometry by way of working out problems and ignore what's in the sky' - used to illustrate how Greeks prioritized theory over experiment.