God's Philosophers : How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science

This is a powerful and a thrilling narrative history revealing the roots of modern science in the medieval world.The adjective 'medieval' has become a synonym for brutality and uncivilized behavior.Yet without the work of medieval scholars there could have been no Galileo, no Newton and no Scientific Revolution.In "God's Philosophers", James Hannam debunks many of the myths about the Middle Ages, showing that medieval people did not think the earth is flat, nor did Columbus 'prove' that it is a sphere; the Inquisition burnt nobody for their science nor was Copernicus afraid of persecution; no Pope tried to ban human dissection or the number zero. "God's Philosophers" is a celebration of the forgotten scientific achievements of the Middle Ages - advances which were often made thanks to, rather than in spite of, the influence of Christianity and Islam.Decisive progress was also made in technology: spectacles and the mechanical clock, for instance, were both invented in thirteenth-century