Ж.К.К.: Это напоминает мне об опыте, полученном мной...

J.C.C .: It reminds me of my experience with the Louvre. Once I had to tell a small group of people about a painting at night in a museum. I chose Lesueres, an early 17th century French painter, The Sermon of St. Paul at Ephesus. In the painting, Saint Paul, with a beard and a tunic, is standing on a stone. In this long dress, he looks like a typical modern ayatollah, except perhaps without a turban. His eyes are burning. Two or three believers listen to him. In the lower part of the painting, kneeling with his back to the viewer, a black servant burns books. I went to the canvas to see what kind of books were being burned there: they, as could be seen on the ajar pages, contained mathematical drawings and formulas. The slave, most likely a convert, burns Greek science in this way. What message, explicit or secret, did the artist want to convey to us? Hard to say. But still the picture is striking. When faith comes, science is set on fire. It is more than screening; it is elimination by flame. The hypotenuse square should disappear forever.

- Jean-Claude Carrière, Umberto Eco - "Don't Expect To Get Rid of Books"