(non-fiction book review)

So ‘The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science.’ It’s a pretty interesting dive into a medieval scientist work, which shows the period as far more multicultural, intellectually curious, and open minded than one might think. It is saturated with all medieval time atmosphere you could see in ‘Monty Python’ and ‘the Holy Grail.’ But that’s not all right. This book of Cambridge historian and lecturer Seb Falk could show not only ‘heads’ but also the opposite ‘tails’ side.

Knowledge and learning have always been around. This book brings up some of the most delightful aspects that we progressed during this time. This book does a very nice job of highlighting a few great minds of the nowadays and draws direct lines to our modern day.

The Forces of Medieval Church required accurate methods of the time measuring, which required great mathematical skills and precise astronomical observation. Astrolabes and other scientific instruments originally developed to tell time were found to be useful in other fields as well, upgrading optics, navigation and medicine. Monks and priests went to universities, where, in addition to theology, they learned about scientific and mathematical advances developed by Islamic scholars. A Medieval scholar was a member of an international society devoted to the precise understanding of creation, not a benighted isolationist. The works of early scientists revealed that the universe couldn’t revolve around the Earth. Without their work, Copernicus’ calculations would have been neither possible nor necessary. In this magisterial and informative book, Falk makes a convincing argument that The Light Ages gave birth to our own age.

This book is a must-read for those who love the history of science, especially the popular version. My rating is 7 stars out of 10.