The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science
The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science

Author: Seb Falk

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2020-11-17

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1324002948

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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.

Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures
Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-01-28

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 9004387862

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First published as a special issue of the journal Medieval Encounters (vol. 23, 2017), this volume, edited by Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas, Charles Burnett, Silke Ackermann, and Ryan Szpiech, brings together fifteen studies on various aspects of the astrolabe in medieval cultures. The astrolabe, developed in antiquity and elaborated throughout the Middle Ages, was used for calculation, teaching, and observation, and also served astrological and medical purposes. It was the most popular and prestigious of the mathematical instruments, and was found equally among practitioners of various sciences and arts as among princes in royal courts. By considering sources and instruments from Muslim, Christian, and Jewish contexts, this volume provides state-of-the-art research on the history and use of the astrolabe throughout the Middle Ages. Contributors are Silke Ackermann, Emilia Calvo, John Davis, Laura Fernández Fernández, Miquel Forcada, Azucena Hernández, David A. King, Taro Mimura, Günther Oestmann, Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas, Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma, Petra G. Schmidl, Giorgio Strano, Flora Vafea, and Johannes Thomann.

On the Astrolabe
On the Astrolabe

Author: Farghānī

Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 9783515087131

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In the Middle Ages the astrolabe was the best known and most widely used astronomical instrument both in the Islamic world and in the West. The oldest extant description of the construction of this instrument was written by the well-known Arabic astronomer al-Farghani (Baghdad, ca. 856). His treatise is especially valuable because of the tables it contains to enable an artificer to draw the various circles and arcs on the instrument. The Arabic text of this work, including the tables, is presented here for the first time in a critical edition, accompanied by an English translation and a commentary reproducing al-Farghani's reasoning in modern mathematical notation.

TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE EDIT
TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE EDIT

Author: Geoffrey D. 1400 Chaucer

Publisher: Wentworth Press

Published: 2016-08-28

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9781372907609

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Romaunt of the Rose
The Romaunt of the Rose

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-09-28

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9781517564476

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The Romaunt of the Rose (the Romaunt) is a partial translation into Middle English of the French allegorical poem, le Roman de la Rose (le Roman). Originally believed to be the work of Chaucer, the Romaunt inspired controversy among 19th-century scholars when parts of the text were found to differ in style from Chaucer's other works. Also the text was found to contain three distinct fragments of translation. Together, the fragments--A, B, and C--provide a translation of approximately one-third of Le Roman. There is little doubt that Chaucer did translate Le Roman de la Rose under the title The Romaunt of the Rose: in The Legend of Good Women, the narrator, Chaucer, states as much. The question is whether the surviving text is the same one that Chaucer wrote. The authorship question has been a topic of research and controversy. As such, scholarly discussion of the Romaunt has tended toward linguistic rather than literary analysis. Scholars today generally agree that only fragment A is attributable to Chaucer, although fragment C closely resembles Chaucer's style in language and manner. Fragment C differs mainly in the way that rhymes are constructed. And where fragments A and C adhere to a London dialect of the 1370s, Fragment B contains forms characteristic of a northern dialect.

A Treatise on the Astrolabe
A Treatise on the Astrolabe

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9780806134130

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A Treatise the Astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer is the work of an avid amateur astronomer who happened also to be England’s greatest medieval poet. A user of the astrolabe can plot the movement of the stars, tell time, and calculate numerous other results. Chaucer translated and revised a standard Latin treatment of the astrolabe. His treatise, which is generally regarded as one of the first technical manuals in English and a model of how technical manuals should be written. Not since 1872 has a free-standing edition of A Treatise the Astrolabe been published. Thanks to the expertise of its editor, Sigmund Eisner, who supplies sixty-eight illustrations, this Variorum edition provides a more detailed exposition than previously available. Eisner’s extensive labors result in the first complete record of textual variants found in the thirty-two surviving manuscripts of the work and in all the major printed text published between 1532 and 1987. This landmark edition also presents a thorough digest of all published commentary on Chaucer’s treatise. Amplified by sixty-eight illustrations, this variorum edition of Chaucer’s A Treatise on the Astrolabe provides a more detailed exposition of the treatise than has ever before been available.