Bright Ages: A Journey into the World of Medieval Science

A historian and lecturer at Cambridge University shows that the Middle Ages were not only a time of endless wars and epidemics but also an era of scientific discoveries and selfless knowledge. Medieval thinkers and practitioners sought to explore the surrounding world, established the first universities, invented mechanical clocks, eyeglasses, and instruments for observing celestial bodies.
In this book, our guide through the world of medieval science will be a real person, a monk named John Westwick, who lived in the 14th century and was educated at the largest monastery in England. The fascinating story of his struggles and successes allows the author to show not the grand world of star names and discoveries but the atmosphere of research thought of ordinary people, which so often eludes the attention of historians.
Traveling with Brother John inside and outside of Britain, we will encounter curious characters of those years: an English abbot-clockmaker, a French craftsman turned spy, a Persian scholar who founded the most advanced observatory in the world. We will learn how these people navigated by the stars, multiplied Roman numerals, healed diseases, and measured time with the astrolabe, and we will reassess the relationship with the Middle Ages as a dark time.