The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science

by Seb Falk

Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks, proving that the Middle Ages were home to a vibrant scientific culture.


In The Light Ages, Cambridge science historian Seb Falk takes us on an immersive tour of medieval science through the story of one fourteenth-century monk, John of Westwyk. From multiplying Roman numerals to navigating by the stars, curing disease, and telling time with an ancient astrolabe, we learn emerging science alongside Westwyk, while following the gripping story of the struggles and successes of an ordinary man in a precarious world. An enlightening history that argues that these times weren’t so dark after all, The Light Ages shows how medieval ideas continue to color how we see the world today.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Medieval, Medieval History, History Of Science, Historical

398 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 17, 2020

About the author

Seb Falk is a historian, broadcaster, and lecturer at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches medieval history and history of science. His research is focused on scientific instruments of the Middle Ages. He lives in Cambridge, England.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Pretty interesting deep dive into a medieval scientist/monk's work, which shows the period as far more multicultural, intellectually curious, techy, and open minded than one might think. There is a *lot* on how astrolabes and such work which completely lost me (yes, I have less technical ability than a medieval monk) but you definitely get the gist: these people were working on, effectively, computers, in multinational collaboration. A good reminder that so much of what we believe about the past is somewhat patronising and self aggrandising.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Light Ages. As opposed to the Dark Ages. Indeed.

If I had to compare this to other History of Science nonfiction books, I'd have to rate this rather high. Of course, it debunks the basic idea that there was barely any science in the middle ages, that most people were ignorant savages, etc, but the truth is very different. (I've read a great number of books that say pretty much the same thing.) But the accepted wisdom is different, of course, and should be looked at with a good deal of skepticism.

No, 50% literacy rate, at least for common word usage, isn't that high for NOW, but it's not insignificant. Learning a ton of memory techniques, working extra hard to copy books by hand, pushing the bubble of science wider against all odds, and spreading the love of learning across the western world isn't exactly nothing. And add to that the fact that the Renaissance came from these times, and so did Oxford and so many other huge educational centers, and we have to ask ourselves WHY we assume that these were the Dark Ages. Is it just because there wasn't a printing press?

Knowledge and learning have always been around. This book brings up some of the most delightful aspects that were progressed during this time. My favorites always revolve around the stars, but between proto-calculus tables, charting, medical analysis, alchemy, and of course the big names like Ptolomy, we need to honor those who came before us.

This book does a very nice job of highlighting a few great minds of the day and draws direct lines to our modern day. A must-read for those who love the history of science, especially the popular version.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The framing of the medieval period as 'the Dark Ages' has long since lost its power. Even knowing that, it's still stunning to see just how fundamentally wrong that terminology is. As Seb Falk says in his introduction, the science of this period isn't conceived in the same way as we do today and the people in this book aren’t scientists as we understand the term. But it’s important not to compare medieval concepts and methods directly with our own. Instead, we should look at how important the ideas were at the time and what impact they had. In doing so, we can feel the wonder of medieval invention and discovery.

Imaginatively structured, the book explores medieval science through the life story of one man: John Westwyk. Though the extant source material is scant, Falk recreates the life of this ordinary 14th century monk using tantalising traces left in the historical record and a wealth of contemporary evidence, from the local to the global. If Westwyk’s monastic world is fascinating, then the way Falk links these experiences to the wider story of medieval science is more so. Clocks and calendars, astrolabes and astrology, religion and war. All the varied endeavours of the age are told here through stories, small and large. At the same time, Falk doesn't shy away from revealing what we may consider the crazier side of medieval thinking. Though how anyone who's seen what's on the internet these days can throw shade at people in this period for believing in weird stuff I don't even know.

There were times when it got a little too scientific for me, but overall Falk managed to present the information in an engaging way. His book is beautifully presented, with colour pictures, maps, diagrams, charts, and even poetry. A wonderful addition to our understanding of the period and to any bookshelf.

ARC via publisher

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In brief - I found this fascinating at times and rather too technical at other times. Full review nearer the time of publication

This book seeks to address the idea that the Middle Ages were not dark times. The author, a Cambridge science historian, opens the book with a discussion on this subject. While this is something of an overview he quickly looks at the particular too. In the course of this book Seb Falk manages to bring in many aspects of medieval science and discovery.

The author considers a manuscript from 1392 which appears to be possibly from Chaucer about an unknown scientific instrument - the Equatorie or Equatorium. After detailed investigation during the latter part of the last century the Chaucer theory seemed unlikely. However eventually the path led to a Brother John of Westwick (or Westwyck) as being the likely author. For a time he was a monk at St Albans. The book then uses what information that can be gleaned about this monk and, more generally, the lives of other people around that time.

This book manages to be very wide ranging in the topics it covers. From looking at the importance of agriculture the book then considers that in the context of lunar and solar positions and seasons. From seasons and planting it is but a short jump to the history of numbers! I found the information about Hindu-Arabic, Roman and more recent numbering systems fascinating. This in turn leads to clocks, saints days and calendars. The importance and complexity of clocks in that era was remarkable.

Another area that fascinated me was the birth of universities and their development. The fact that books and text books which were emerging were copied but at the whim of the person who was doing the copying was again interesting. Among a number of other subject maps, magnetism and medicine make an appearance and that is in just one chapter! I really enjoyed the information on maps and navigation. At the end the book returns to the subject of the Equatorie or Equatorium and gives a round up of the Middle ages generally.

I'm a little conflicted in my views on this book. I may well not be the target audience for this book - the science I did was a long time ago. Even the history that I studied is a fair way back. That said I really did find parts of this book truly fascinating and I learned a lot from it. Sadly some subjects went into too much depth to retain my interest to any real degree and there were parts that I found myself skipping a little. For me it is quite an academic book and on that level should work fairly well I imagine. I guess that might not be the case for a more casual reader. That said I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone with a real interest in the subject.

Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review

[Tim O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always a pleasure when a book you've been waiting for since its publication was announced turns out to be every bit as good as you expected. And it's a double pleasure when a book on a subject you thought you knew quite a bit about teaches you something new on almost every page. After about 30 years studying medieval science and battling the popular misconception that there was no science in the Middle Ages, I look forward to any book that might bring this fascinating subject to a wider audience. Seb Falk's The Light Ages does this in superb style. While he doesn't stint on the details and gets reasonably technical in places (a reader will need to follow the diagrams closely), Falk is something many historians are not - a great storyteller.

He choose to anchor his tale of science in the Middle Ages by tracing the life of a medieval scientist. Instead of choosing one of the better known examples - such as Albertus Magnus, Robert Grosseteste or Roger Bacon - he uses a reasonably obscure fourteenth century English monk, John Westwyk, as his protagonist. Falk begins with a detective story about the authorship of the Middle English work the Equatorie of the Planetis, a manuscript discovered in 1952 and originally attributed to the poet and amateur astronomer, Geoffrey Chaucer. The Equatorie - a technical work describing the construction and use of a complex instrument that calculates the positions of the planets - has since been identified as a work by Westwyk, and Falk uses this monk's life and work to structure his story of medieval people's rational analysis of the physical world.

It's an effective narrative device. Falk ranges over a broad array of topics, from the folk astronomy used by medieval farmers, to the importance and difficulty of drawing up accurate calendars, to detailed descriptions of medieval astronomical instruments, their use and their attendant mathematics. Some readers may find these sections hard work, but they go a long way toward dispelling the myth that the medieval period was a scientific "dark age". Falk's detailing of the degree of precision and the relatively difficult and laborious calculations these instruments required puts paid to the popular image of monks as superstitious idiots copying prayer books all day.

And it's the way he expands this theme in various directions to illuminate this supposedly "dark" period and bring it to life that makes this book far more than dry recitation of obscure ancient astronomical terms. Digressions on medieval agriculture, international exchanges of ideas with the Byzantine and Muslim worlds, ship development, trading networks, book making and book selling, university life and warfare all find their way into his tale. In the process we see why medieval monks' fascination with light lead to their invention of eye glasses, why the need to mark hours of monastic prayer lead to the development of mechanical clocks that were actually mechanical computers and we even get treated to the criminally neglected story of Ailmer of Malmesbury and his medieval flying machine.

Falk avoids the trap of pretending medieval people and their world were more or less like us and our world view. He explains the very different ways they saw the world clearly, and so avoids the other pitfall of reducing their differences to them being merely "weird" or, worse, "stupid". What emerges is a highly detailed, vivid and fascinating picture of a world that is too often ignored because of Renaissance and Enlightenment era prejudices and silly Hollywood clichés. Falk makes it clear that people in the Middle Ages were every bit as intelligent and as interested in the universe around them as anyone in the Classical world before them or the Modern world since. His book has won well-deserved praise and is the latest in a number of popular works that are, slowly, changing popular misconceptions about this unfairly maligned period of our history.

[Suzannah Rowntree]

Medieval science was not trying to understand the workings of a coldly mechanistic natural world but a living cosmos endowed by God. Even when, as we have seen, they saw the universe functioning as a predictable machine, they were less interested in how it worked than why. We may casually say that science explains ‘why’ nature is the way it is, but we often confuse ‘how?’ for ‘why?’ As any parent of a four-year-old knows, beyond every ‘why?’ lies another one. Medieval people hoped to follow that trail of ‘why?’s back to the mysteries of Creation, and mankind’s place in it. We don’t think of ourselves as backward, even though we – like the medievals – are well aware that there are questions we haven’t yet answered. And we would not like future generations to belittle us for failing to answer those we hadn’t – we couldn’t possibly have – posed.

This book was on my radar for a while, but I wondered whether it would cover a lot of the same ground as James Hannam's GOD'S PHILOSOPHERS, a high-level overview of the way medieval natural philosophers laid the foundations for the modern scientific method. This book turned out to be quite a different beast, however.

I was prompted to start reading in the course of drafting my current novel, which has a character using an astrolabe, and it turned out that several of the most helpful videos and blog posts on the topic were by Seb Falk, the author. In THE LIGHT AGES, Falk doesn't so much trace the roots of the modern scientific method in medieval natural philosophy; so much as tell the story of one very obscure monk, mathematician, astronomer and instrument-maker, using what few facts of his life are known, to show a picture of medieval education, mathematics, astronomy, timekeeping, medicine, travel by compass, and more in the fourteenth and surrounding centuries. But the central theme of the book is medieval mathematics: how it was done, why it was done, and how closely connected it was to the twin practices of what we now know today as astronomy and astrology. I'll be honest, much of the mathematics in this book drifted right over my head. I absolutely would have failed at medieval trigonometry, but that's hardly news!

Falk tells his story with engaging enthusiasm, especially in the audiobook, and when he wasn't avidly describing trigonometry, it was a really fun read. The more so as I had just finished Barbara Tuchman's 1978 history of the fourteenth century, A DISTANT MIRROR, in which she paints a picture of a century full of despair and horrors. By comparison, Falk's fourteenth century is a time of boundless curiosity, sophisticated educational systems, and immense technological strides - in fact, an age of light.

It's really only in the introduction and the epilogue that Falk ties his wander through the natural philosophy of the fourteenth century together with some commentary about what we today can learn from the story of one long-forgotten medieval inventor, but they alone are well worth the price of the book. Medievals lived in a world when faith was the motivation for science and although it's hard to tell from this book whether Falk is a believer himself or not, his contention is one that echoes thoughts I've long had myself: that science impoverishes itself when it cuts itself off from any larger worldview or questions about the "why"s of the universe and our place in it.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this chunky title, Seb Falk sets out to prove very effectively that, certainly from the scientific viewpoint, the suggestion that medieval Europe spent a period of time in the 'dark ages' is misrepresentation. Historians, of course, dumped the 'dark ages' title some time ago, but it still lingers on in our imaginations.

The backbone of Falk's book is the life and work of a fourteenth century English monk by the name of John Westwyk, who spent most of his adult life at St Alban's Abbey. Westwyk enters the story with a 1951 discovery of a manuscript on an astrolabe-like device, found in Cambridge: a manuscript that was first attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer. (If this seems bizarre, bear in mind that as well as Canterbury Tales and his other titles, Chaucer was the author of a beginners guide to using that versatile medieval astronomical tool, the astrolabe.)

It turns out that Westwyk was the author of the manuscript, as well as a number of other astronomical contributions, but Falk uses his story as a stepping off point to a whole range of different topics, bringing in all the well-known names of the period from Roger Bacon to the Oxford Calculators. There's loads of fascinating detail on astrolabes, but also on everything from calculating techniques to medicine, and crusading (Westwyk took part in an ill-fated venture against the 'other side' when the Catholic Church briefly split under two opposing popes) to clocks and timekeeping - the latter tied into both astronomy and St Albans, where the abbot, Richard of Wallingford, was responsible for a remarkable early astronomical clock.

Falk obviously knows and loves his subject, often delving into scrupulous and richly imagined detail. This attention to detail is, perversely, the only flaw in the book - it makes it a wonderful reference source, but takes away from the readability of a book that promised so much. (It's not often you get a history of science title with a prologue that manages to mention Lord Mountbatten, Chaucer and Steve Bannon.) I found myself getting rather bogged down in the detail on a number of occasions and skip-reading forward until it got interesting again.

That said, there is so much to like here. I wouldn't recommend it as a primer on the medieval European science of this period - there is just too much detail - but if it's a period you already know a little and want to immerse yourself in, it's brilliant.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a serviceable introduction to European science before the Renaissance. However, its strengths are also its weakness. Islamic sources are glossed over; Byzantine science and technology isn't even mentioned; Chinese contributions are mostly confined to magnetism. Thus, this is mostly a retread of eurocentric histories. You can read the same themes in numerous tomes.

The only thing that is somewhat novel is viewing the period through the eyes of John Westwyk. However, this approach doesn't work. Besides the treatise that bears his name, nothing is known about him or his science. It's all guesswork based on the fact that he just happened to live in the fourteenth century and probably knew the usual science of his day. In other words, insert any name on a monastic role, and you would have the same book. While reading, it's easy to forget about Westwyk as the the science of the period is discussed. He gets overshadowed by discussions of university teachings and overly-detailed descriptions of calculating methods.

Falk does shine when he is describing difficult astronomical calculations and medieval computational tools. However, one is left to wonder why the reader is taught how to calculate time through heavenly motions and how to use astrolabe when these skills are no longer necessary. The history slows down and dies as the reader is asked to follow unnecessarily complicated descriptions of outdated science.

Finally, the idea that the Middle Ages are one monolithic period of darkness was destroyed years ago. Westwyk is a product of the Twelfth-century Renaissance and the High Middle Ages. The High Middle Ages are remarkably different from what Falk suggests. It is well documented that the 14th century was a time of great progress in the arts and sciences. It has been know for centuries that the High Middle Ages were full of "light" relative to the Early Middle Ages. Falk's title is frustratingly misleading. It suggests that the Early Middle Ages had light. However, this is just another description of the work of others who have shown that Europe came out of the Dark Ages during the Crusades and the twelfth-century translation movement that reintroduced Aristotle to the West and stimulated the growth of universities culminating in the relatively "light" High Middle Ages.

There is not much new here. The strengths Falk has of describing ancient calculators and calculations techniques really belongs in a technical manual.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soaring Gothic cathedrals, violent crusades, the Black Death: these are the dramatic forces that shaped the medieval era. But the so-called Dark Ages also gave us the first universities, eyeglasses, and mechanical clocks. As medieval thinkers sought to understand the world around them, from the passing of the seasons to the stars in the sky, they came to develop a vibrant scientific culture. In The Light Ages, Cambridge science historian Seb Falk takes us on a tour of medieval science through the eyes of one fourteenth-century monk, John of Westwyk. Born in a rural manor, educated in England's grandest monastery, and then exiled to a clifftop priory, Westwyk was an intrepid crusader, inventor, and astrologer.

From multiplying Roman numerals to navigating by the stars, curing disease, and telling time with an ancient astrolabe, we learn emerging science alongside Westwyk and travel with him through the length and breadth of England and beyond its shores. On our way, we encounter a remarkable cast of characters: the clock-building English abbot with leprosy, the French craftsman-turned-spy, and the Persian polymath who founded the world's most advanced observatory.

The Light Ages offers a gripping story of the struggles and successes of an ordinary man in a precarious world and conjures a vivid picture of medieval life as we have never seen it before. An enlightening history that argues that these times weren't so dark after all, The Light Ages shows how medieval ideas continue to colour how we see the world today. Written in an engaging tone and in an accessible fashion, this is one of the nonfiction reads of 2020 for me as it crackles with interesting information and fascinating stories illustrating exactly how we reached the level of modernity at which we currently find ourselves. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Allen Lane for an ARC.

[Boudewijn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about science in the Middle (Dark) Ages which in fact, at least according to the author, was not that Dark after all. There is a lot about astonomy and complicated machinery in which I got lost. On the other hand, a description of the life of a medieval monk was very interesting. In the end it all boils down to this: those monks were as intelligent (or in my case, even more intelligent) as we are today and their discoveries were - given the tools and knowledge they posessed - as advanced as we today take for granted.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really excellent book and has absolutely transformed my view of medieval history, science and culture. I didn't even think that I was particularly interested in either medieval science, the history of science or medieval monasticism, but I have learnt so much about all three and also about medieval life and culture, in what is a really page-turning book of the best sort of narrative history.

This is a really wide-ranging book which nominally follows the life of a monk, John of Westwyk, and his scientific studies, but on its way the reader learns so much about the medieval mindset and how any sort of reductionist view of medieval thinkers as 'primitive', ignorant or essentially unmethodical, unscientific religious zealots is way off the mark.

The author dispels many of the received myths about medieval science and culture, and the reader learns about medieval medicine, mathematics, astronomy, cultural exchange, the importance of Islamic mathematicians and scientists, and makes it very clear that the idea of a cultural and scientific dark age only ending with the sudden turning on of the lights of the Renaissance is a simplistic and quite frankly erroneous view of history.

All in all, I found this a cracking good read, and enjoyed it tremendously, at the same time as learning a huge amount about astronomy, the history of science and thought, and the international cultural exchanges that took place at such an early date. I am also totally impressed with what was achieved with no computers to ease the way! Falk's book certainly shows us a world beyond the cathedrals and illuminated manuscripts usually presented as the essence of the medieval mind, and I really do recommend it wholeheartedly.

Thanks are due to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an advance copy for review.

[Abigail Hartman]

A discursive journey into the scientific world of a late medieval monk, touching on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and more. Some of the discussions become quite technical -- especially if you, like me, struggle with math or with thinking in three dimensions -- but Falk's writing style is accessible and even friendly. Most of all I appreciated his passionate 'apology' for medieval science and that science's underlying foundation: that to study the created world is to better know the Creator. Falk makes the point that for all the comforts we've attained in the modern world, we may have lost the humility and sense of wonder that the medieval monks had.

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science’ (2020), by Seb Falk, sets out to re-evaluate the Middle Ages, traditionally seen as a period of intellectual stagnation, presenting it as an era of scientific progress and innovation. Falk centres his narrative on the figure of John Westwyk, a 14th century monk, and his manuscript ‘The Equatorie of the Planetis’, using it as an example of the scientific practices of the time.

Although Falk's intention is laudable in emphasising that the Middle Ages were not entirely a ‘dark age’, his approach has some significant limitations. By focusing on the 14th century, the author neglects the preceding centuries, in which Western Europe experienced a clear scientific stagnation. Classical knowledge was preserved and expanded mainly by Islamic scholars in North Africa and Asia during this period. It was the translation of Greek and Arabic texts into Latin in the 12th and 13th centuries that brought lost knowledge back to Europe and catalysed the European intellectual renaissance.

The case of John Westwyk illustrates this dependence: his work on the ‘Equatorie’ is largely based on the writings of Ptolemy, later developed by Islamic scholars such as Ibn al-Samḥ. Therefore, presenting Westwyk as an example of European innovation without fully recognising these influences can be misleading.

Furthermore, Falk's criticism of figures such as Carl Sagan and Edward Gibbon, who described the Middle Ages as a period of intellectual darkness, seems to disregard the broader historical context. While it is true that there was some intellectual activity in medieval Europe, the overall picture between the 4th and 14th centuries is marked by a significant pause in scientific progress, especially when compared to the dynamism observed in Asia and North Africa.

Although 'The Light Ages' offers a relevant perspective on medieval science, its selective approach to only a few late works limits its effectiveness in a comprehensive reassessment of the Middle Ages. A more balanced analysis would recognise the exceptions and the general hiatus in European scientific development during much of this period.

Instead, I recommend reading ‘The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe’ (2022) by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry, which does suffer from some of the same problems, but is much more comprehensive and far more convincing.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some people would dispute the very existence of science as a discipline during the Early Middle Ages; not Seb Falk. He takes as his starting point a manuscript giving detailed instructions for the manufacture of an astrolabe. At one time thought to have been written by Chaucer, it was subsequently attributed to a monk called John Westwyk.

Falk uses Westwyk's work as a way of focusing on the astronomy and mathematics underlying the use of astrolabes. In the process he explains how the observation of the stars and the movement of the sun were used for navigation, for time keeping, for measuring distance, for determining the liturgical calendar, for deciding when to administer medical treatment, for choosing the auspicious time to set out on an expedition – in fact for just about everything of any importance in the medieval world.

What is fascinating is to see how completely embedded so much of this knowledge was in the society of the time. Nonetheless, I have to admit that I struggled as I got further into this book because the maths was, frankly, quite difficult. There was rather a lot of trigonometry involved and I frequently got lost. (I shall never scoff at the middle ages again.)

Moreover, if, like me, you are not especially good at visualisation, the task gets steadily harder. We don't spend our time observing the stars in the way that medieval folk did – for one thing, we can't really see them – so it gets harder and harder to remember whether we are talking about an angle in relation to the equator or the ecliptic, or why exactly the difference between the tropical year and the sidereal year mattered.

Despite these reservations, I found this an extremely interesting book, wonderfully well-researched and, true to its title, highly enlightening. I'm just not convinced it's pitched at the general reader. You have to be quite mathematically minded to follow it properly. Of course, there's still a lot in here if you're not (for example, I now know how to tell the time using an astrolabe) but it's by no means an easy read. Those monks put in a lot of hours of observation and calculation; if you want to meet them on equal terms, you need to be prepared for a certain amount of hard thinking.

[Genni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was Seb Falk inspired by two of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis and Barbara Tuchman?

In A Distant Mirror, Tuchman takes a relatively unknown person from the Middle Ages and, by following him around, manages to touch on the various events, issues, and people of the time. Seb Falk takes this very device and traces developments in Medieval science. But he goes beyond simple narrative.

The Discarded Image, by C.S. Lewis, does a wonderful job of reproducing the "tapestry" from which Medieval art and literature arose. Falk's writing reveals this tapestry by immersion; combining prose, Medieval poetry, and vivid descriptions of verdant scenery (one of his favorite adjectives to use, lol), proving himself to be quite the writer.

Embedded in all of this is a gentle polemic against today's Scientism. In a similar vein, he treats religion, from which you cannot separate Medieval science, with great respect.

This said, I have two modest quibbles. One is with the title. "The Light Ages" makes obvious reference to "The Dark Ages," which refer to the Early Middle Ages. None of the science he talks about in the book has anything to do with this period. It is only with the century or two before the Rennaisance. So really, it is more of an argument for an earlier "start" to the Rennaisance or something. In this sense, it isn't terribly "surprising" to find the elements and environment of learning slightly earlier than is generally assumed.

Secondly, in talking about the use of poetry in science, he doesn't talk about its use as a memory aid. I find this to be an interesting omission, but not a glaring one.

In short, I absolutely loved this and recommend it to anyone interested in the subject!

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an enthralling read and a book I picked up on Jimmy Akin's recommendation

I previously had some appreciation of this era and the misnomer The Dark Ages is. This book tells its story via the lens of a specific Benedictine monk as the clues to his life come to be known via a scientific work once thought to have been written by Chaucer. Describes as a "crusading astronomer-monk" in the blurb.

The author brings this period to life, and I enjoyed all the details of what they could discover about his life and times. Little details were great, such as the mnemonic systems that were used to remember feast days. Using the astrolabe in daily life.

The storytelling is excellent and there is not a hint of "chronological snobbery."

[T.J. Gillespie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The popular conception of the Middle Ages is pretty solid: in 476 A.D., after 500 years of the glory of Rome, the eternal city was sacked by a barbarian horde and Europe was plunged into the so-called Dark Ages. Ignorance, illiteracy, superstition, and blind religiosity reigned. Fast-forward to 1401 when a group of artists competed to design the doors of a church in Florence and lo and behold the Renaissance commenced and we were on our way to modernity.

The Dark Ages is, of course, a myth. This book’s title seeks to set the record straight. Yes, it was a time of Crusades, Black Death, and self-flagellation. But it also marked the birth of the university, major developments in clockmaking, mapmaking and navigation, the adoption of Arabic numerals and the resulting breakthroughs in mathematics, alchemy transforming itself into chemistry, and an interest in optics and astronomy lead to a real study in, well, light.

The book opens with promise. In addition to well known names like Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon and Chaucer, we get Fibonacci, al-Khwarizmi (father of algorithm), Hermannus Contractus – Hermann the Lame, and the also fantastically named Robert Grosseteste. (Of all of these guys, the one I want to read more about is Isadore, the long-serving bishop of Seville!) Falk settles on John Westwyck, an English astronomer and a Benedictine monk who embodies the best qualities of his age.

But then the book leaves the realm of history and turns into a trigonometry textbook. We trade the personalities of interesting figures for word problems. How much do you want to know about the astrolabe? I hope it is a lot. This might be my personal failing. I want to learn about characters much more than I want to calculate the lengths of arcs that intersect on the curving surface of a sphere.


Here’s a sample:

“This rising at right angles to the horizon is the reason that distance measured along the celestial equator is called right ascension. And at that unique latitude, where the celestial equator is at right angles to the horizon, it is fairly easy to calculate the segment of the equator that rises in the same time as a certain segment of the ecliptic.

General theory of the ascensions on the sphere. The equator and ecliptic meet at E, the equinox, and the angle between them is the obliquity (ε), about 23½ degrees.
In that case, we can calculate the ascension ET = ER (the time taken for segment EA of the ecliptic to rise) from the right-angled spherical triangle EAR, using ε and the declination AR. But if you are not at the equator, so R is not at T, the oblique ascension ET must be found by subtracting TR (the ascensional difference) from the right ascension ER.


Uhhhh….Have you had enough?


At least Falk knows this is boring. He recognizes it: “If you found the last two paragraphs confusing, you’re in good company. People have always had difficulty thinking three-dimensionally. That is why armillary spheres were so useful.”

Seb, I don’t think an armillary sphere would make this interesting.

[Raquel Pimentel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caberia aqui indagar sobre o que provoca a violência, impondo uma análise em pauta a partir de diversos ângulos. Durante muito tempo, pensou‑se que, enquanto fenómeno geral, a violência humana poderia estar relacionada com carência e insuficiência alimentar. Dados arqueológicos mostram que uma forma de violência já existia na era paleolítica. A violência coletiva parece ter surgido com a sedentarização das comunidades no final dessa era. Há de facto quem defenda que a violência tem vindo a baixar constantemente desde o século XIII. Com efeito, gradualmente, a violência foi diminuindo no espaço público, tendo parte dela passado para a esfera doméstica. Não é fácil discorrer sobre os conceitos de violência na História. O comportamento agressivo é próprio da espécie humana e apresenta múltiplas configurações. Segundo Seb Falk, reconhecido especialista em história medieval, o mito da violência e da irracionalidade ímpar da Idade Média deriva da ignorância e da soberba 'moderna' e deriva sobretudo do ódio à Igreja Católica.

O desenvolvimento sócio-emocional parece tão complexo como o próprio processo de formação da personalidade humana. Em 2016, Seb Falk foi nomeado, pela BBC, um dos Grandes Pensadores da sua geração. Este assunto dá realmente que pensar.

[Uudenkuun Emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book on medieval European science, debunking the all-too-common assumption that medieval people were all backward and that science only reappeared in the Renaissance.

As a researcher in medieval and early modern science, I was already familiar with the basic stuff, but since Falk's book dealt a lot with astrology/astronomy, there was a lot of new information for me. And way too much maths that I didn't understand :D

I appreciated the attention to the Arabic and other non-European sources and influences on medieval science. Also, having a single monk, John of Westwyk, and his life as the narrative thread weaving through the whole book was a brilliant idea, and worked really well to achieve cohesion and preserve the human nature of scientific endeavours.

The prologue and epilogue should be mandatory reading.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel as though for the Effort the author has given to this book and the interesting pieces that did hold my attention it deserves 3 stars, but barely. I must say, I believe I was slightly mislead here. I expected to find the story of medieval science from a historical perspective and less how to/explanation of the methods of that science itself. The science itself is impressive and I have no reservations about dismissing the notion of the Medieval people's as being stupid. Though I would have preferred a historical dialogue about John Westwick and his counterparts as opposed to the breakdown of the science, the science instruments and the mathematical calculations the academics of the time were doing.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hell of a lot more maths than I was expecting. Turns out I AM stupider than a medieval monk. Didn’t expect so many shoutouts to Tynemouth Priory, though - that was fun

[Josh Hedgepeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me this arc in exchange for fair and honest review.

Released in November 2020, The Light Ages is a fairly new release. When I saw this on NetGalley I was extremely intrigued. The first thing I thought of were the different machines we see used in Game of Thrones like that big spear they used against the dragons. Obviously, I know that's part is fiction, but I was curious to see how advanced was that period.

The book ended ip not really being about that. It focused more on more esoteric areas of science, if science is even the right way to describe it. The story is structured around this religious text by a medevil monk. Falk tries to focus in on this particular period as a way of talking about the science, but as others have noted, this focuses on a tiny sliver over the "dark ages". Unfortunately, I just don't think that's effective.

It feels like it's trying to be more of a medieval history book than a science history book. Perhaps that is to be expected since Falk is an expert on medieval history. Nevertheless, I was expecting it to be more grounded in the science. Instead it felt like we were being forced to listen to extremely obscure figures in history and seeing some the esoteric forms of science fit into the conversation. I found it extremely difficult to follow.

The writing wasn't particularly bad, and since I read this after publication, I was able to listen to the audiobook on scribd. The author narrates his own book doing an excellent job. It suggests he has the ability to communicate, so it's probably more that this book just wasn't the book I wanted it to be.

It was intriguing at times, but for the most part I just wanted to get it over with. I did not feel like I got much out of this book. I couldn't we give you a general overview of it. I can tell you a few scientific accomplishments--vecause that's what I was really looking for. Overall though, the book just wasn't focused enough for me, or perhaps a fairer way of putting it is, it wasn't focused on what I cared about.

3/5

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Light Ages" is a captivating audiobook written and narrated by Seb Falk. The book takes the listener on a journey through the Middle Ages, challenging the notion that this period was a "dark age" of ignorance and superstition.

Falk's writing is engaging and informative, painting a vivid picture of the intellectual and cultural flourishing that took place during this time. He brings to life the stories of the philosophers, scientists, and scholars who made significant contributions to the fields of astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and more.

As the narrator, Falk delivers the material with enthusiasm and clarity, making the complex ideas accessible to a wide audience. His passion for the subject matter is evident, and his delivery is well-paced and easy to follow.

One of the strengths of the book is its ability to challenge common misconceptions about the Middle Ages. Falk argues that this period was not a time of intellectual stagnation but rather a time of great innovation and discovery. He highlights the contributions of Islamic scholars, who played a crucial role in preserving and advancing knowledge during this time.

Falk also explores the interplay between science and religion during the Middle Ages, challenging the idea that these two fields were in conflict. He shows how religious institutions played a significant role in supporting and promoting scientific research, demonstrating that science and religion can coexist harmoniously.

Overall, "The Light Ages" is an enlightening and engaging audiobook that sheds light on a misunderstood period of history. It offers a fresh perspective on the intellectual and cultural achievements of the Middle Ages, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in history, science, or religion.

Pros:
* Engaging and informative writing style
* Challenges common misconceptions about the Middle Ages
* Explores the interplay between science and religion

Cons:
* May be challenging for those without a background in history or science
* Some sections may be dense with information

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking as his guide the fourteenth century monk and astronomer, John of Westwyck, Seb Falk deftly explores the concepts of science and knowledge in a world reaching for the stars that is remembered today as the ubiquitous and inwardly looking “dark ages”.

John of Westwyck is a rather obscure figure and his best claim to fame – his book, The Equatorie of the Planetis – received a great deal of attention on its rediscovery because it was originally thought to have been written by none other than Geoffrey Chaucer. Nonetheless, Falk makes enough connections – some more tenuous than others – from Westwyck’s life to make a fantastically far-reaching and intriguing narrative of medieval science.

The Light Ages is a work of “popular history” and is written in an approachable, engaging manner for a general audience. I found myself slipping easily into the book – annoyed at some of Falk’s narrative tics or choices but really enjoying it as a smooth, easy read. Unfortunately, there were parts where I did struggle and these were the parts where Falk goes into detail attempting to explain how someone like Westwyck would use an astrolabe or an equatorium and the theory behind it. I say “attempting” to explain because it did just go over my head. Maybe I’m not a “science” person, maybe the science Falk is trying to explain is so divorced from our own modern concepts of science or maybe it simply would have been better if the book had included paper or miniature models of these devices so I could follow along with the text… I just struggled with them.

However, maybe it’s just me or maybe it’s just that such a thing that’s difficult to explain in words – it has to be shown and seen to be understood. But, all in all, this is a fantastic and revelatory read.

[Reagan Vernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's time to redefine the word medieval. Rather than a synonym for backwardness, it should stand for a rounded university education, for careful and critical reading of all kinds of texts, for openness to new ideas from all over the world, for a healthy respect for the mysterious and unknown. And, of course, it stands for modesty." -Seb Falk

The Light Ages is a fantastic investigation in medieval science, centered on a benedictine monk named John Westwyk. It works against negative popular conceptions of the Middle Ages, as well as conceptions of the incompatibility of faith and reason. Falk, professor at the University of Cambridge, communicates complex historical ideas clearly. Although an academic work, the text is very readable and is worth checking out from the library if you can find it!

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Light Ages" is the biography of John Westwind author of "Equatorie of the Planets." There are not many historical documents to corroborate Westwicks accomplishments so this book relies more on the interpretation and imagination of Seb Falk than anything interested historically.

I once read "How the Irish saved Civilization" by Thomas Cahill and the argument was such a reach that I couldn't take the book seriously. I got the same feeling from this book. Falk argues that the dark ages weren't really all that dark because people were still innovating and then told the story of an invention that was first developed centuries before Westwick was born.

You can read about the Equatorium online and save yourself some time. And while I fully agree that the dark ages is a misnomer this book just presents a bad and biased argument.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science follows a clear line from one advancement to another. We split it into eras or ages. We have the Ancient Era, the Classical Era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Era, and the Modern Era. However, there is one denigrated period, and that is the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages is a time with no scientific progress. That is the accepted view.

Seb Falk hopes to change this idea with The Light Ages, his book on the period. Falk's book follows one man, John of Westwyk. John was a monk, so he had to calculate calendars and time for prayer services and the like. His lifetime saw the introduction of Universities like Oxford and Padua. The main takeaway from this is that the Dark Ages were not so 'Dark.'

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read this a couple years ago I noticed that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and that it was more info-heavy than I imagined. That’s not to say that I didn’t love it because I did!

I just didn’t finish it because I got busy with school & wanted a break from info dumps and learning etc.

Now I’m too stubborn to go back and reread from the beginning so this will stay a DNF but not because of any failures of the author. This one’s all on me. Maybe in the future I would reread this? My current TBR is 25 books that I can count but really it’s closer 60 (lol). And I’m in a fiction (heavy on fantasy) kick right now so I’m not keen on a reread at the moment

I 100% would recommend this book to anyone who loves learning about history, science, and technological advancements that led to societal changes

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astrology is the only real science

[Jack Roscoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

While certain sections are very technical for the non-mathematically inclined (I think listening to this as an audiobook was a huge boon as I could simply zone out or take the very basic gist during extended descriptions of complex astronomical calculations and instruments - if I read this as a book I think I would have struggled), I really enjoyed many things about this book.

It paints a very compelling picture of a vibrant, international academic society engaged in all sorts of activities and enquiries and really changed my historical perspective. The author is obviously very passionate about the subject and the more general history is communicated really clearly and interestingly. Added joy on audiobook whenever Old English verse is read out with the proper pronunciation and meter!