After Hours with Medieval Science

This program will be presented virtually via Zoom webinar.

 

The Middle Ages is frequently referred to as a dark age for knowledge, a backwards time when little of intellectual substance was done and written; this assertion, however, could not be further from the truth. In After Hours with Medieval Science, Cambridge University’s Seb Falk will join the Linda Hall Library's Jason W. Dean to shed light on this falsehood, echoing the arguments Dr. Falk makes in his 2020 book, The Light Ages.

 

Seb and Jason will focus on a single title in the Library’s collection: a copy of the medieval astronomy textbook Sphaera Mundi, composed c. 1215 by John of Holywood (called Sacro Bosco), and printed by Erhard Ratdolt in 1482. Using this extraordinary example, they will talk about the book, what it does, its importance, and why it was reprinted so widely almost three hundred years after its first appearance as a manuscript. Seb and Jason will also touch on the transmission of knowledge from manuscript to print and examine significant material aspects of the Library’s copy, while using the book to illuminate the important science and knowledge creation of the Middle Ages.

 

Join Seb and Jason at 7:00 PM BST (1:00 PM CST) on Monday, June 3, for an engaging conversation on medieval science.