Bright centuries. Traveling to the world of medieval science. Falk s

The Middle Ages were not only the time of endless wars and epidemics, but also the era of scientific discoveries and a disinterested desire for knowledge. Medieval thinkers and practices investigated the world around us, founded the first universities, invented a mechanical clock and devices for observing heavenly luminaries. In this book, our guide into the world of medieval science will be a real person, a monk named John Westrik, who lived in the XIV century and was an education in the largest monastery of England. The fascinating story of his scientific works allowed the author to show not the ceremonial world of star names and discoveries, but the atmosphere of the scientific search for that time, to present the ideas and achievement of the nameless majority of people with a scientific warehouse of the mind, so often elusive of the attention of historians. Traveling with Brother John in Britain and beyond, we will meet curious characters of those years: an English abbot, a French artisan who became a spy, a Persian erudite who founded the most advanced observatory in the world. We find out how these people were guided by the stars, multiplied the Roman numbers, treated diseases and determined the time with the help of astrolabia, and revise the attitude to the Middle Ages as dark times.