The scientific achievement of the Middle Ages

RICHARD C. DALES, The scientific achievement of the Middle Ages, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973, 8vo, pp. ix, 182, illus., $12.50. Professor Dales has selected extracts from primary sources to illustrate early medieval scientific thought, from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, and presents them with lengthy introductions in the form of an historical narrative. There are also included evaluations of medieval science by modem scholars of varying points of view. His topics concern the twelfth century when scholars were manifesting increasing curiosity and intellectual adventuresomeness, Grosseteste (c. 1168-1253) and scientific method, the tides, studies of the rainbow, studies of local motion, astronomy, and the fringes of science, which includes astrology and alchemy. There is also an introductory essay on science and culture of early Europe, and a most valuable bibliographical essay at the end. The author has omitted medicine and biology because of the small advances made in them during the Middle Ages. Even if this is true, it would have given the book more balance had a brief survey of them been provided. It should also be noted that the book's title is misleading inasmuch as most of the material concerns the early medieval period.