Alvaro’s Books

Paul Alvaro of Córdoba, Indiculus Luminosus and Vita Eulogii

Paul Alvaro of Córdoba

He and Eulogius destroyed the letters and verses they wrote each other as students, “lest posterity should appraise the writers by such trivial fruits of youthful enthusiasm.” Alvaro says so himself, which is how anyone knows the letters existed.

Catch rate: 53 / 255
Base research: 146
Stat total: 282

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina70

Contend76

Defend64

Popularity72

Total282

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 70

Two short works from Eulogius’s closest friend, written across the decade he watched him die in.

Contend 76

The complaint about Arabic poetry lands harder than any of his theology — it is a diagnosis, not an argument.

Defend 64

He was there for the friendship the whole way through, which is not the same as being an unbiased witness.

Popularity 72

Short. He wrote it at an advanced age, in a hurry to get it down.

Cited for this book

Alvaro was Eulogius’ close friend from youth, and he outlived him. He complained that Córdoba’s brightest young Christians could recite Arabic poetry but could not write a decent letter in Latin. That was his explanation of what was happening to the Christian community, and it was sharper than anything the council said.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Delight in the Poems of the Arabs	Ethics	Argument	84	100%	10
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
25	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
34	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
38	Whet Thy Sword	Experience	Argument	82	100%	10
50	Speak Latin	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“My fellow-Christians,” he says, “delight in the poems and romances of the Arabs; they study the works of Mohammedan theologians and philosophers, not in order to refute them, but to acquire a correct and elegant Arabic style… Christians have forgotten their own tongue, and scarce one in a thousand can be found able to compose in fair Latin a letter to a friend!”
Paul Alvaro of Córdoba, Indiculus Luminosus (854), quoted in Dozy, Spanish Islam (trans. Stokes, 1913), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

Delight in the Poems of the Arabs

EthicsArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameNot a complaint about doctrine — a diagnosis of what actually happened to a generation. The brightest young Christians in Córdoba could write elegant Arabic verse and could not manage a plain letter in their own tongue. Nobody argued them out of the faith. Nothing had to.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

he cried to the Kady: “restore my … soul to its creator; but think not that I will permit my body to be torn with the lash!”
Eulogius of Córdoba, before the qadi, 11 March 859, quoted in Dozy, Spanish Islam (trans. Stokes, 1913), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

Whet Thy Sword

ExperienceArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameOffered a beating instead of a death sentence, for the crime of teaching a girl who asked him to. He refused the lighter charge on the spot.