Book Review: “The Light Ages” by Seb Falk

The Light Ages by Seb Falk

We are all familiar with the intellectual pitfalls of ‘centrism’, ethnocentrism and every other form of over estimating the importance of our own personal characteristics and situation.

The Light Ages reminds us of another common ‘centrism’, temporal-centrism, in the form of shallow histories filled with blank “Dark Ages”.  Falk is here to tell us that the times we know as “Medieval” were far from a “Dark Age”, and, specifically were not an anti-scientific age.  (And given today’s intellectual and political currents, who are we to talk about ignorant, knuckle dragging, know-nothings?)

OK, 800 years ago European, Mideastern, and Chinese folks didn’t do science like we do it now.  They weren’t trying to do science the way we define it.  But they did do what science is really all about, asking questions and seeking answers from nature.  And they definitely were not constrained by received doctrines in the way often portrayed.  A lot of that repression of dissent came later, during the religious wars in the time of “The Enlightenment”.

Furthermore, the questioning and seeking was an international affair, from Ireland to India, Sweden to Egypt.  Despite politics, war, and religious schism, scholars were able to share data and theories everywhere.  Not only able, but eager to share, even before the printing press.  And  there was  great respect for competent thinkers from different lands and religions, as well as the classical past.   The windows in St Albans portrayed admired scholars including Greek, Roman, Jewish-Moorish, and Persian figures.

The book is organized around the biography of an English monk, John of Westwyk.  Much of his life was spent in the monastery at St Albans, then a center of learning.  But he also spent time at Oxford, Tynemouth, crusading in Flanders, and the really cool Inn of St Albans in London.

The monastic life was dedicated to religious pursuits, and some of them involved philosophy and natural philosophy.  Many of the most advanced scientific knowledge was developed in these cloisters, with the notably strong support of the church hierarchy.  Advancing knowledge was considered a strategic asset for the church.

Falk is clearly a Astrolabe-o-phile, and a contemporary expert on Astrolabology.  it’s not surprising, then, that the book has vastly more detail than one really needs to know about Medieval astrolabes and related instruments, including John ow Westwyk’s own super-computer thing.   (This material is a lot easier to understand if you have an actual instrument to play with.  He gives some pointers to more hands on materials.)

This emphasis makes sense because astronomy, astrology, and timekeeping were central to Medieval culture and the target of significant intellectual attention.  They had quite a substantial knowledge of astronomy, which was advanced by many innovations and patient research.

Their theoretical understanding was sophisticated as well.  They were well aware of the shape and geometry of the Earth, and certainly acutely aware of the anomalies and limitations of their theories and methods.  The Copernican Revolution was built on the very solid foundations of Medieval observational and computational astronomy.

In short, the so called “Dark Age” was a construction put forward to flatter the achievements of later times.

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1. Seb Falk, The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science, New York, W. W. Norton, 2020.

 

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