How much did events like the burning of the library at Alexandria and the destruction of the house of wisdom effect scientific and technological development?

by Gma_fister

I heard somewhere that without the destruction of the house of wisdom it's possible that humans could have had legitimate medical science practice almost 400 years sooner. Is this true or is it exaggerated?

SJHalflingRanger

Hi gma! There's quite a few answers about the Library at Alexandria in the FAQ you may enjoy reading while waiting for someone to discuss it further. /r/badhistory also has a thread on their FAQ discussing the problems with a prominent piece of popular history that covered the Library, Sagan's Cosmos.