Science in the Medieval West

Chapter 1

Introduction

John D. North

• 1. Interacting cultures

• 2. The Universities

• 3. Renaissance and Renaissances

• 4. The many faces of science

• 5. The unity of science

• 6. Aristotle and the theological shell of science

• 7. At the fringe of science

Chapter 2

Learning and institutions

Wesley M. Stevens

• 1. Religious institutions and the development of knowledge

• 2. Centres of culture and the dissemination of knowledge

• 3. Latin as a vehicle of communication – The terminology of scientific knowledge

Chapter 3

The structure of learning

Alfonso Maierù

• 1. The classification of knowledge

• 2. Mechanical arts

• 3. The literary genres

Chapter 4

Science and Christianity: the man and the cosmos

Giulio Lucchetta

• 1. The dispute over pagan science

• 2. A model of Christian science: anthropology

• 3. The disputes over the arché in the Commentaries on the Genesis by Basil and Origen

• 4. Divorce from pagan culture

• 5. Nature or supernaturalness of the Heavens

• 6. Scientific institutions in the Christian world

Chapter 5

The Augustinian tradition and the Platonism

Pasquale Porro

• 1. The scientia between curiositas and sapientia

• 2. The function of the liberal arts

• 3. The predominance of grammatical knowledge and the physics of Mirabilia

• 4. The late-ancient encyclopaedic tradition

• 5. Dialectics as a ‘science of sciences’

• 6. The Neoplatonic Universe

• 7. The Christian Universe: the idea of Nature

Chapter 6

Arithmetic and geometry

Menso Folkerts

• 1. The mathematical disciplines of the quadrivium

• 2. Arithmetic: Bede, Alcuin and Gerbert

• 3. Geometry before translations from Arabic

Chapter 7

Astronomy, computus and astrology

Bruce S. Eastwood

• 1. Astronomy

• 2. Computus

• 3. Astrology

Chapter 8

Music

Christian Meyer

• 1. Late Antiquity

• 2. Medieval reception: conceptual transformations and mutations

Chapter 9

Images of the Nature

Baudouin van den Abeele, Wesley M. Stevens, Uta Lindgren

• 1. Natura rerum: the ‘kingdoms of Nature’

• 2. Encyclopedism and interpretation of the world

• 3. Representations of the Earth

• 4. The theory of tides and the terrestrial latitude

• 5. Geographical literature

Chapter 10

Life sciences and medicine

Berenice Cavarra

• 1. Life sciences and medicine in Latin Europe

• 2. The development of medicine in Byzantium

Chapter 11

The mechanical arts

Robert Halleux

• 1. The historiographical problem

• 2. The status of technical knowledge in the Early Middle Ages

• 3. Scholarly tradition and practical applications

• 4. Agriculture

• 5. Architecture and crafts of art

• 6. From military art to engineering