Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages [Paperback]

Jean Gimpel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Middle Ages, writes French scholar Jean Gimpel, saw an extraordinary flourishing of technological development throughout Europe. With the era came waterwheels and clock towers, nearly uniform machine parts and improvements in public hygiene, vaulting cathedrals and towering city walls, and a notion of spiritual and earthly progress that promised better things to come. In analyzing the growth of precision in measurement and of the experimental sciences, and in considering the careers of medieval geniuses such as the architect-inventor Villard de Honnecourt, Gimpel clearly conveys the intellectual excitement of the time. Sadly, it was undone by religious intolerance, brutal warfare, and the arrival of the plague as quickly as it rose.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (November 17, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140045147
• ISBN-13: 978-0140045147
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and readable account. November 17, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The criticisms made by some of the other reviewers on Amazon.com concerning this book's often political undertone are quite valid, however the subject has seen scant analysis. Relevations concerning pollution controls in force six hundred years ago are particularly interesting as being demonstrative of the relative sophistication of medieval Europeans. Gimpel's book is very approachable in its prose and it conveniently covers a number of areas, but it doesn't cover technology transfer (especially from Byzantium or the East) in adequate detail. The copy of this book I have is fairly old (1976) and subsequent research has clarified some of the points made in Gimpel's work. Recent issues of Scientific American and other "popular" sources, for example, contain information on diverse areas such as ship building which would have been beneficial to be included in Gimpel's work. In this respect Gimpel's book can not be considered authoratative. It is pleasant though to read a book on this subject, which for some readers will demonstrate the ingenuity of the medieval engineer.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Re-assessment of medieval technology July 9, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

An excellent work marred by a little too much enthusiasm, this book will convey to the student of history the notion that the middle ages were not the black hole of lack of technology that most historians portray them to be. The author compares the changes in technology, and the scope of their results, to the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century, and he may be pushing the analogy a bit. However, it is certainly true that technology did advance in ways in the Middle Ages. As for biases and tone, the author veers deceptively about, now seeming anti-industrialist, now communist, now capitalist, now labor historian. The book is marred by a final chapter in which the author tries to draw a parallel between the Middle Ages and the modern day that is both not well described and does not seem to be accurate given the circumstances of the world 20 years after the writing. But for the descriptions of technology alone, and of corporate-like structures in the middle ages, this is a good read.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars facinating August 11, 2003

By A. Richins

Format:Paperback

What I liked about the book was how it provided a glimpse into the every day life in the Middle ages by describing technological advances. It just opened up that facet of Medieval History that is hardly ever touched on.

Medieval times are usually protrayed as a step backwards from the classical era in terms of technology and sophitication. This book sort of dispells our generic view of the Middle Ages as an age of Pagentry and fairy tales, and shows us how commerce was run during that era. Maybe I'm just a geek, but I found it very interesting.