Offers a comprehensive introduction to medieval science, presented in the context of an historical narrative.

The scientists of the twelfth century were daring, original, inventive, and above all determined to discover purely rational explanations of natural phenomena. Their intense interest in the natural world for its own sake, their habits of precise observation, and the high value they place on man as a rational being portend a new age in the history of scientific thought. This book offers a comprehensive sampling of medieval scientific thought in the context of an historical narrative.

This 1997 book views the substantive achievements of the Middle Ages as they relate to early modern science.

In this book, sixteen leading scholars address themselves to providing as full an account of medieval science as current knowledge permits. Designed to be introductory, the authors have directed their chapters to a beginning audience of diverse readers.

Named a Best Book of 2020 by The Telegraph, The Times, and BBC History Magazine An illuminating guide to the scientific and technological achievements of the Middle Ages through the life of a crusading astronomer-monk. "Falk’s bubbling curiosity and strong sense of storytelling always swept me along. By the end, The Light Ages didn’t just broaden my conception of science; even as I scrolled away on my Kindle, it felt like I was sitting alongside Westwyk at St. Albans abbey, leafing through dusty manuscripts by candlelight." —Alex Orlando, Discover Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black Death: these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks. As medieval thinkers sought to understand the world around them, from the passing of the seasons to the stars in the sky, they came to develop a vibrant scientific culture. In The Light Ages, Cambridge science historian Seb Falk takes us on a tour of medieval science through the eyes of one fourteenth-century monk, John of Westwyk. Born in a rural manor, educated in England’s grandest monastery, and then exiled to a clifftop priory, Westwyk was an intrepid crusader, inventor, and astrologer. From multiplying Roman numerals to navigating by the stars, curing disease, and telling time with an ancient astrolabe, we learn emerging science alongside Westwyk and travel with him through the length and breadth of England and beyond its shores. On our way, we encounter a remarkable cast of characters: the clock-building English abbot with leprosy, the French craftsman-turned-spy, and the Persian polymath who founded the world’s most advanced observatory. The Light Ages offers a gripping story of the struggles and successes of an ordinary man in a precarious world and conjures a vivid picture of medieval life as we have never seen it before. An enlightening history that argues that these times weren’t so dark after all, The Light Ages shows how medieval ideas continue to color how we see the world today.

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance were a period of scientific and literary reawakening. Scientific development and a renewed interest in classical science led to new discoveries, inventions, and technologies. Between 500 and 1600 A.D., scientific explorers rediscovered ancient Greek and Eastern knowledge, which led to an eruption of fresh ideas. This reference work describes more than 75 experiments, inventions, and discoveries of the period, as well as the scientists, physicians, and scholars responsible for them. Individuals such as Leonardo da Vinci, Marco Polo, and Galileo are included, along with entries on reconstructive surgery, Stonehenge, eyeglasses, the microscope, and the discovery of smallpox. Part of a unique series that ranges from ancient times to the 20th century, this exploration of scientific advancements during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance will be useful to high school and college students, teachers, and general readers seeking information about significant advances in scientific history.