Book ID: CBB807017202

The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science (2020)

unapi

Falk, Seb (Author)


W. W. Norton & Co.


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 416
Language: English

An illuminating guide to the scientific and technological achievements of the Middle Ages through the life of a crusading astronomer-monk. 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.

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Reviewed By

Review J. Rodríguez-Arribas (2022) Review of "The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 434-435). unapi

Review Nicholas A. Jacobson (2021) Review of "The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science". HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology (pp. 159-161). unapi

Review Marion Dolan (2021) Review of "The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science". Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (pp. 549-552). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB807017202/

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Authors & Contributors
Andrzej M. Sołtan
Recio, Gonzalo Luis
Peter Frankopan
Oh, Wan-Tak
Bernardi, Gabriella
Schuster, William J.
Concepts
Astronomers
Astronomy
Science and civilization
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Biographies
Astronomical observatories
Time Periods
Medieval
19th century
20th century
18th century
Modern
Ancient
Places
Turin (Italy)
Portugal
Poland
Germany
China
Asia
Institutions
Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa
Observatoire de Paris
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