This is a beautifully bound softcover book on a much neglected topic, the interrelationship between artisans and scholars in the late medieval / early Renaissance period, just before such characters as Galileo seem to overhaul the empirical sciences out of nowhere. While there is a scholarly tradition working in what we now see as a proto-scientific way in several places in Europe, there is something of a mysterious gap in the ways in which mathematics and empirical reasoning take their place in the 15th and 16th centuries. This book helps supplement our understanding of that transition period through a look at the unique mixing and blending of what are separable traditions at other time periods.
While I'm very interested in the history of the history of science as well as the history of science itself, the first chapter discusses the history of this field from an angle I was unfamiliar with. The author brings up many researchers who introduced the role that society, economics, and non-scholastic influences had on the development of early science, emphasizing each researcher's relationship to Marxism. I found this chapter slightly off-putting, but it did introduce me to a number of authors I was unaware of despite reading on this subject for decades. That said, I still don't find the politics of these researchers particularly helpful for my understanding of the subject matter at hand. This chapter is probably much more interesting to history of early science professors who are contemplating the nature and history of their profession, though I'm happy I read it. If you find yourself not into this chapter, just skip it. It is not required reading for the rest of the book.
The rest of the chapters are a great exposition of the authors thesis that a unique cross-pollination and blurring of lines between the artisanal and scholastic interests and studies that led the way to a new possibilities for both. Her specific use of the notion of a "trading zone" for understanding the interaction of all parties is extremely fecund. Many specific examples, from Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Michael of Rhodes to Georg Hartmann and Vesalius, are walked through in a way that will make you want to dig into this usually opaque intellectual period further.
The book is filled with many (37) fine (black and white) illustrations, end notes with exhaustive references, and a great bibliography at the end. The text itself is only 131 pages. Despite some reservations about chapter 1, I consider this book well worth reading.
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