2

• to demonstrate how the contents of these books corresponded to the pan-European experience of the world: the “sum” of knowledge confined between two book covers makes it clear that the people of that time saw themselves in a finite, “closed” and geocentric universe which was Europe.
  
  

• to demonstrate the possible relevance of this late classical and medieval scholarship for modern systems theory (e.g. data linking methods, relationships between text and hypertext, or culture transfer possibilities).