If you think the term 'medieval science' is a contradiction then you should read this hugely enlightening and important book Jim Al-Khalili, author of The World According to Physics

I can't recommend it highly enough Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England And there are surprises galore for everyone, no matter how knowledgeable they may think they are.

Seb Falk uses the monk John of Westwyk to weld us into the medieval ways of imagining as well as thinking. the Dark Ages were anything but dark Falk's book is a lucid and eloquent reproof to anyone who says otherwise ProspectĬompulsive, brilliantly clear, and superbly well-written, The Light Ages is more than just a very good book on medieval science: it's a charismatic evocation of another world. Required reading for anyone who thinks that the Middle Ages were a dark age Tom Holland, author of Dominionįascinating. We need to give more respect to the giants of the Middle Ages on whose shoulders we stand SpectatorĪ wonderful book, as at home bringing to life the obscure details of a Hertfordshire monk as it is explicating the infinite reaches of space and time. a brilliant study of medieval astronomy and learning. 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.Īn enthralling story of the struggles and successes of an ordinary man and an extraordinary time, The Light Ages conjures up a vivid picture of the medieval world as we have never seen it before. We travel the length and breadth of England, from Saint Albans to Tynemouth, and venture far beyond the shores of Britain.

Following the traces of his life, we learn to see the natural world through Brother John's eyes: navigating by the stars, multiplying Roman numerals, curing disease and telling the time with an astrolabe. In this book, we walk the path of medieval science with a real-life guide, a fourteenth-century monk named John of Westwyk - inventor, astrologer, crusader - who was educated in England's grandest monastery and exiled to a clifftop priory. They gave us the first universities, the first eyeglasses and the first mechanical clocks as medieval thinkers sought to understand the world around them, from the passing of the seasons to the stars in the sky. A spellbinding journey through the life of an English monk, an age of discovery and the mysteries of the medieval mind

The uncommon reader by alan bennett