[choeger]

> with the rise of Islam in the 7th century, Christian sites in the Sinai Desert began to disappear, and Saint Catherine’s found itself in relative isolation. Monks turned to reusing older parchments when supplies at the monastery ran scarce.

That sounds ... odd. If the monks were isolated then why should they copy books, especially when they had to delete older material to do so? At the very least this implies that the monks had a supply of books to copy and also had to return the originals to someone somehow.

I think the more logical explanation is that the deleted texts were considered worthless.

[bluGill]

Because some books are more valuable than others. You might enjoy Harry Potter, but if your only copy of a calculus 101 is deteriorating you will erase Harry Potter and copy the calculus text over the top to save the more important calculus book - or maybe you would erase the calculus textbook to copy Harry Potter over the top. This is a statement of relative value when paper is scarce, but it doesn't mean they didn't value the lost text, just that the replacement was even more valuable. If they had plenty of paper they wouldn't have erased the lost text in the first place and probably would have made a new copy.

[hypertele-Xii]

There's a third way.

You combine the best halves of calculus and Harry Potter into one book.

It'll be more difficult to understand, but managing so grants one the best of both worlds.

[kmstout]

  - Harry Potter and the Two-Sided Limit.
  - Harry Potter and the Area Beneath the Curve.
  - Harry Potter and the Osculating Circle.

[williamdclt]

It's probably how "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" (an actual real thing) came about.

[phyrex]

And what an amazing read it is! Www.hpmor.com

[rendall]

> 'I think the more logical explanation is that the deleted texts were considered worthless.'

It's your contention that the monks had unlimited access to parchment, but just chose to overwrite older work?

> If the monks were isolated then why should they copy books, especially when they had to delete older material to do so?

A religious order dedicated to copying books as a spiritual discipline isn't going to just sit around when parchment is hard to come by.

[pure_simplicity]

Books were not only copied to have 2 functional copies, but also to have 1 fresh copy remaining once the older copy is no longer usable. Books are perishable and the more they are used, the quicker they disintegrate. That in itself is sufficient reason to sacrifice some works to preserve other works.