James Hannam - The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution

the genesis of

science

the genesis of

science

the genesis of

science

H o w t H e C H r i s t i a n M i d d l e a g e s l a u n C H e d t H e s C i e n t i f i C r e v o l u t i o n james hannam

Copyright 2011 by James Hannam All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, broadcast, or website.

Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress ISBN 978-1-59698-155-3

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Originally published in the UK in 2009 by Icon Books Ltd 2nd edition published in the UK in 2010 by Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre, 3941 North Road, London N7 9DP

This is the first Regnery edition published in 2011

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To Vanessa

contents

List of Illustrations:

ix

Map of medieval Europe:

xxi

Introduction: The Truth about Science in the Middle Ages xiii

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 53

Chapter 5: Heresy and Reason

Chapter 6: How Pagan Science Was Christianized 83

Chapter 7: Bloody Failure: Magic and Medicine in the Middle Ages

Chapter 8: The Secret Arts of Alchemy and Astrology 113

Chapter 9: Roger Bacon and the Science of Light 129

Chapter 10: The Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford 147

Chapter 11: The Merton Calculators 161

Chapter 12: The Apogee of Medieval Science 177

Chapter 13: New Horizons

Chapter 14: Humanism and the Reformation 209

Chapter 15: The Polymaths of the Sixteenth Century 229

Chapter 16: The Workings of Man: Medicine and Anatomy 247

Chapter 17: Humanist Astronomy and Nicolaus Copernicus 267

Chapter 18:

Reforming the Heavens

Chapter 19: Galileo and Giordano Bruno 303

Chapter 20: Galileo and the New Astronomy 317

Chapter 21: The Trial and Triumph of Galileo 329

Conclusion: A Scientific Revolution?

Suggestions for Further Reading

Timeline

List of Key Characters

Notes

Bibliography of Works Cited

Acknowledgements

Index

List of iLLustrations

1. Ottoman astrolabe from the Muse de lInstitut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 21

2. Map from Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae (Augsburg: Gnther Zainer, 1472), 29

3. Diagram of the universe from Peter Apian, Cosmographia (Antwerp: Arnold Berckmann, 1539), 32

4. Manuscript illumination by Laurentius de Voltolina from the Kupfer-stichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 45

5. Manuscript illumination from Bible Moralisee, Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS Codex Vindobonensis 2554, 59

6. Manuscript initial from Johannitius, Isagoge, Bethesda MA, National Library of Medicine, MS DeRicci [78], 107

7. Photograph of a large trebuchet, 132

8. Eastern and western Arabic numerals compared to modern western numerals, 153

9. Diagram from Nicole Oresmes De configurationibus qualitatum, Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Conv. Soppr. J. IX. 26, 184

10. A map of the world from Ptolemy, Geographia (Ulm: Leonard Hol, 1482), 198

11. Woodcut from Johannes de Ketham, Fasiculo de medicina (Venice: Zuane

& Gregorio di Gregorii, 1494), 254

12. Woodcut of a standing flayed figure from the studio of Titian in Andreas Vesalius, De fabrica corporis humanis (Basle: Joannes Oporinus, 1543), 257

13. A woodcut of a uterus from Vesalius, De fabrica, 259

14. Model of the universe from Johannes Kepler, Mysterium cosmographicam (Tbingen: Georgius Gruppenbachius, 1596), 293

15. A diagram from Galileo Galilei, trans. Henry Carew and Alfonso de Salvio, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (New York: Macmillan, 1914), 337

16. A diagram from William Heytesbury, Regule solvendi sophismata (Venice: Bonetus Locatellus, 1494), 339

Gods Philosophers Map 4/6/09 15:16 Page 1

Map of Medieval Europe

Gods Philosophers Map 4/6/09 15:16 Page 1

Gods Philosophers Map 4/6/09 15:16 Page 2

in t roduC t ion

the truth about

science in the

middLe ages

the most famous remark made by Sir Isaac Newton (16421727) was: If I have seen a little further then it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.1 Most people assume that he meant his scientific achievements were built on the discoveries of his predecessors.

In the same letter, he alludes to Ren Descartes (15961650), the French philosopher and mathematician, so presumably he was one of Newtons giants. Few people realize, however, that Newtons aphorism was first coined in the twelfth century by the theologian Bernard of Chartres (who died around 1130).2 Even fewer are aware that Newtons science also has its roots embedded firmly in the Middle Ages. This book will show just how much of the science and technology that we now take for granted has medieval origins.

The achievements of medieval science are so little known today that it might seem natural to assume that there was no scientific progress at all during the Middle Ages. The period has received bad press for a long xiii

xiv

introduction

time. Writers use the adjective medieval as a synonym for brutality and uncivilized behavior. Recently, the word has affixed itself to the Taliban of Afghanistan, whom commentators routinely describe as throwbacks to the Middle Ages, if not the Dark Ages. Even historians, who should know better, still seem addicted to the idea that nothing of any consequence occurred between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. In 1988, Daniel Boorstins history of science The Discoverers referred to the Middle Ages as the great interruption to mankinds progress. William Manchester, in his 1993 book A World Lit Only by Fire, described the period as a mlange of incessant warfare, corruption, lawlessness, obsession with strange myths and an almost impenetrable mindlessness. Charles Freeman wrote in The Closing of the Western Mind (2002) that this was a period of intellectual stagnation. He continued, It is hard to see how mathematics, science, or their associated disciplines could have made any progress in this atmosphere.3

Closely coupled to the myth that there was no science worth mentioning in the Middle Ages is the belief that the Church held back what meager advances were made. The idea that there is an inevitable conflict between faith and reason owes much of its force to the work of nineteenth century propagandists such as the Englishman Thomas Huxley (1825