He discusses what the remarkable life and (perhaps) ordinary achievements of John Westwyk tell us about the place of precise planetary astronomy within monastic life, and within medieval culture more generally. The Light Ages is an attempt to write a history of science in the later Middle Ages which focuses on everyday practices of calculation, demonstration, teaching, learning and instrument use.įalk's talk will examine what we can know about the astronomical skills of a poorly-recorded monk in fourteenth-century England. The Light Agesįalk talks about his book The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery, published in Dutch as De verlichte middeleeuwen. Histories of medieval sciences, especially those written for non-academic audiences, have often focused on big ideas and famous names. This time the lecture will be given by Dr Seb Falk (University of Cambridge). 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.On 26 November, the next (online) edition of the lecture series of the Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies will take place. 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. 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. What I found was a pacey, articulate, and consistently intriguing read. As someone who enjoys history but had little knowledge of Falk’s area of interest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book.
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. Seb Falk’s The Light Ages is simply marvellous. 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. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks.
Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black Death: these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era.
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.Īn illuminating guide to the scientific and technological achievements of the Middle Ages through the life of a crusading astronomer-monk.
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