A spellbinding journey through the life of an English monk, an age of discovery and the mysteries of the medieval mind
Seb Falk is a historian and lecturer at Cambridge University. In 2016 he was named as a BBC New Generation Thinker. This is his first book.
Stunning: both exquisitely written and so very clever. By
following the life of one little-known monk, John of Westwyk, Falk
opens up for us the sophisticated and utterly different ways in
which people in the Middle Ages thought and makes us question our
assumptions about the medieval past. -- Suzannah Lipscomb * BBC
History Magazine Books of the Year *
Turns our understanding of medieval science on its head ...
Falk shows how scientific inquiries central to the Renaissance
actually began generations earlier than we thought, and despite our
perception of the church as the enemy of science, those
intellectual pioneers were often monks * The Telegraph Books of the
Year *
As fascinating as it is exquisitely written . . . the range
of mathematics, astronomy, and engineering is impressive. More
impressive still is the elegance with which Falk tells the tale
-- Tom Whipple * Times Books of the Year *
Remarkable ... a book that illuminates not just the visionaries
of the past but also the troubled state of anti-intellectualism in
the modern world * Financial Times *
"Might it change minds?" is my criterion. The Light Ages
might. Seb Falk's dazzling study of a late-medieval scientist is
an uncontainably tentacular monograph, reaching from a
windswept cell at Tynemouth, where John of Westwyck built an
astrolabe, to penetrate unexplored recesses of the history and
philosophy of science, and extending across Christendom into the
cultures that surrounded and informed it. Falk excises errors
about the Middle Ages without filleting their enchantment --
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto * TLS Books of the Year *
Unambiguously and successfully an antidote to the cliche of the
'Dark Ages' as a millennium of stagnation and regression . . .
Falk's approach is to explain the things we share with our medieval
forebears and the things we differ on: to reveal how they saw the
universe * Literary Review *
Riveting. . . a brilliant study of medieval astronomy and
learning . . . I agree with Falk. We need to give more respect
to the giants of the Middle Ages on whose shoulders we stand *
Spectator *
Fascinating . . . the Dark Ages were anything but dark;
Falk's book is a lucid and eloquent reproof to anyone who says
otherwise * Prospect *
Seb Falk lays out the wonders of medieval science. . . The
mechanical clock, spectacles, advances in navigation, a grasp of
tides and currents - these were among the achievements of the
Middle Ages * The Economist *
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
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
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
Fernandez-Armesto, author of Out of Our Minds
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
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
