Dawn Of Modern Science: From The Ancient Greeks To The Renaissance [Paperback]

Thomas Goldstein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0306806371 | ISBN-13: 978-0306806377 | Publication Date: March 22, 1995

Dawn of Modern Science explores the beginnings of science from the cosmology of ancient Greece to the cataclysmic conflict between the Medieval understanding of nature through spiritual contemplation and the Renaissance's revolutionary efforts to forge an awareness by observing and exploring the physical world. The author brings to life such figures as the Ionian exile Pythagoras, who developed the mathematical language by which we apprehend the intrinsic order of nature; al-Khwarizmi, court mathematician in the ninth century who developed the Arabic numerals; Roger Bacon, the Franciscan teacher and thinker who foresaw the machine age with stunning, prophetic vision; Dominican Albertus Magnus, whose studies of plant and animal life—made during long travels barefoot across northern Europe—laid the foundations of major empirical sciences; the aged astronomer and geographer Paolo Toscanelli, who measured the path of the sun on a cathedral floor and whose letter to Columbus launched the discovery of the New World; Leonardo da Vinci, the lonely genius of science and art, who personified the Renaissance, and its fascination with life itself. Across the centuries, Goldstein guides the reader through a shining intellectual pageant in a way that is both illuminating and unforgettable.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"Goldstein argues that, beginning roughly in the 12th Century, numerous factors?social, cultural, philosophical, and theological?converged with certain conditions and attitudes within the church to favor the reemergence of a scientific perspective.... Strongly recommended" (LJ 3/15/80).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Thomas Goldstein is a noted authority on Medieval history, the Italian Renaissance, and the Age of Discoveries. He lives in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 22, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306806371
• ISBN-13: 978-0306806377
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,347,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical, but Superficial, April 5, 2011

By 

Metallurgist (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dawn Of Modern Science: From The Ancient Greeks To The Renaissance (Paperback)

This review is written from the perspective of a scientist who is interested in the history of science, and from this perspective I do not feel that this book met my needs. I was looking for a book, like Kuhn's "Copernican Revolution" or Lindberg's "The Beginnings of Western Science", in other words a book that describes some science and how it evolved. This book does not contain very much science and provides only a very superficial discussion of the evolution of science. The book is, however, well written, and lyrical in its prose.

The author is quite upfront in his acknowledgement that - "As I look back, I realize that I grew up with a profound distrust, not to say hostility, towards science and its twin, technology. To my essentially romantic soul, science seemed the great destroyer, Siva, the unfeeling foe of scenic beauty and poetic simplicity, ...". The book is written from the perspective of a humanist and tries to describe science from that perspective. The book is divided into a series of essays on topics such as - "The idea of the Earth in Renaissance Florence", `Science and Faith in Chartres", "Art and Science of the Renaissance". This may appeal to one interested in such general topics, but not for one like myself who was interested in a more detailed discussion of science and I could therefore only give the book three stars. Someone interested in the aforementioned topics would likely rate it higher.

Please note - This book is based on a 1980 edition, which I believe to be essentially the same as later edition listed here, although this later edition is listed as having 316 pages, whereas my 1980 edition contains 297 pages plus 17 pages numbered in Roman numerals and three un-numbered pages.