God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science

407 Pages·2009·2.53 MB·English

by  James Hannam

God’s Philosophers

HOW THE MEDIEVAL WORLD LAID THE
FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN SCIENCE

JAMES HANNAM

ICON BOOKS
Published in the UK in 2009 by
Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre,
39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP
email: [email protected]
www.iconbooks.co.uk
This electronic edition published in 2009 by Icon Books
ISBN: 978-1-84831-158-9 (ePub format)
ISBN: 978-1-84831-159-6 (Adobe ebook format)
Printed edition (ISBN: 978-1-84831-070-4)
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This edition published in Australia in 2009
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Text copyright © 2009 James Hannam
The author has asserted his moral rights.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any
means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Typeset by Marie Doherty
To Vanessa
CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
Map of medieval Europe

Introduction: The Truth about Science in the Middle Ages
Chapter 1: After the Fall of Rome: Progress in the Early Middle Ages
Chapter 2: The Mathematical Pope
Chapter 3: The Rise of Reason
Chapter 4: The Twelfth-Century Renaissance
Chapter 5: Heresy and Reason
Chapter 6: How Pagan Science was Christianised
Chapter 7: Bloody Failure: Magic and Medicine in the Middle Ages
Chapter 8: The Secret Arts of Alchemy and Astrology
Chapter 9: Roger Bacon and the Science of Light
Chapter 10: The Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford
Chapter 11: The Merton Calculators
Chapter 12: The Apogee of Medieval Science
Chapter 13: New Horizons
Chapter 14: Humanism and the Reformation
Chapter 15: The Polymaths of the Sixteenth Century
Chapter 16: The Workings of Man: Medicine and Anatomy
Chapter 17: Humanist Astronomy and Nicolaus Copernicus
Chapter 18: Reforming the Heavens
Chapter 19: Galileo and Giordano Bruno
Chapter 20: Galileo and the New Astronomy
Chapter 21: The Trial and Triumph of Galileo
Conclusion: A Scientific Revolution?

Suggestions for Further Reading
Timeline
List of Key Characters
Notes
Bibliography of Works Cited
Acknowledgements
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Ottoman astrolabe from the Musée de l’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2. Map from Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae (Augsburg: Günther Zainer,
1472)
3. Diagram of the universe from Peter Apian, Cosmographia (Antwerp:
Arnold Berckmann, 1539)
4. Manuscript illumination by Laurentius de Voltolina from the
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
5. Manuscript illumination from Bible Moralisee, Vienna, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, MS Codex Vindobonensis 2554
6. Manuscript initial from Johannitius, Isagoge, Bethesda MA, National
Library of Medicine, MS DeRicci [78]
7. Photograph of a large trebuchet
8. Eastern and western Arabic numerals compared to modern western
numerals
9. Diagram from Nicole Oresme’s De configurationibus qualitatum, Florence,
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Conv. Soppr. J. IX. 26
10. A map of the world from Ptolemy, Geographia (Ulm: Leonard Hol, 1482)
11. Woodcut from Johannes de Ketham, Fasiculo de medicina (Venice: Zuane
& Gregorio di Gregorii, 1494)
12. Woodcut of a standing flayed figure from the studio of Titian in Andreas
Vesalius, De fabrica corporis humanis (Basle: Joannes Oporinus, 1543)
13. A woodcut of a uterus from Vesalius, De fabrica
14. Model of the universe from Johann Kepler, Mysterium cosmographicam
(Tübingen: Georgius Gruppenbachius, 1596)
15. A diagram from Galileo Galilei, trans. Henry Carew and Alfonso de Salvio,
Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (New York: Macmillan, 1914)
16. A diagram from William Heytesbury, Regule solvendi sophismata (Venice:
Bonetus Locatellus, 1494)
Map of medieval Europe