The Light Ages
The Surprising Story of Medieval Science
by Seb Falk
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Pub Date Nov 17 2020 | Archive Date Oct 31 2020
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Description
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.
Advance Praise
“A 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. Required reading for anyone who thinks that the Middle Ages were a dark age.” - Tom Holland, author of Dominion
“Compulsive, 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. Seb Falk uses the monk John of Westwyk to weld us into the medieval ways of imagining as well as thinking. And there are surprises galore for everyone, no matter how knowledgeable they may think they are. I can’t recommend it highly enough.” - Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England
“Like a fictional scientist cloning dinosaurs from wisps of DNA, Seb Falk takes barely surviving fragments of evidence about an almost forgotten astronomer in a storm-chilled, clifftop cell to conjure the vast, teeming world of scientific research, practice, and invention in the Late Middle Ages…Profoundly scholarly, wonderfully lucid, and grippingly vivid, The Light Ages will awe the pedants and delight the public.” - Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Out of Our Minds
“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
“Seb Falk has framed a fascinating book around his personal quest to understand how scientific thinking flourished. The Light Ages reveals the intellectual sophistication that flourished against a backdrop of ritual and liturgy. It offers for most of us a novel perspective on a ‘dark’ historical era, and should fascinate a wide readership.” - Lord Martin Rees, author of On the Future
“Long before the word ‘scientist’ was coined, John of Westwyk devised a precision instrument to explore the universe and our place in it. Falk recreates the schooling of this ordinary (if gadget-obsessed) medieval monk in loving detail. There’s a world of science on every page.” - Nancy Marie Brown, author of The Abacus and the Cross
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781324002932 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Jessica M, Librarian
A wonderful tour of the misunderstood medieval period of history, viewed through the eyes of a monk of that time. Enough scientific detail to inform, but not bog the reader down, and historical notes and tidbits that entertain. Delightful writing and a fun, at times amusing, walk through the past.
Michelle L, Reviewer
The Medieval period is often looked down upon by historians and laypeople alike as backward and lacking, especially when compared to the Classical era and Renaissance. Even its names are dismissive -- The Middle Ages, The Dark Ages, The Medieval Period.... all of those imply that the era is lesser than. Only a bridge between one "great" era and the next. That thought couldn't be more wrong.
The light ages takes a long hard look at the era (particularly the High Middle Ages) through the lens of a regular old monk in rural England. The technological advancements that were present in the age. The scientific theory. The innovation. The inventions. Things that we see as ubiquitous now but were groundbreaking in their day.
The book is a pleasant mix of easy to read with some real depth to this. For an average reader, it may be difficult but the author clearly tries to make the subject matter interesting. For a history buff, it's right on point. And for a scholar, there's enough meat here to lead some great jumping off points.
Some interesting parts early on include just how reliant the medieval peasant was on astronomy. That time as we know it wasn't codified until this era. That there was exchanges of knowledge from all over the world. That Monks in England knew of advances in places like the Middle East and China. That the populace was more literate than we think. That mathematics was more advanced. Frankly I was intrigued.
The author clearly knows their stuff and has done a ton of research and it shows. This is the kind of book I would have loved in my High Middle Ages course in College or in my Medieval England Course. I also feel that this would be a good book for people who are writing in the Medieval period to read since it disabuses many of the incorrect notions about how "backward" the period was. It also covers a lot of what daily life was sometimes like.
Five Stars for an absolutely wonderfully well-researched book that doesn't just focus on the luminaries of the time but the real people.
I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher, W. W. Norton and Company, for the opportunity to read this book.
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