I’ve just been listening to a philosophy podcast which mentioned that although Aristotle was a prolific writer, the only material of his that has survived are his lecture notes.

I can understand why texts from the ancient world would get destroyed over time, but how were texts preserved, to the point where we can quote from them today? As a follow up question, when do we go from having zero historical record of our ancestor’s writing, to having patchy records, to having a virtually complete record?