Medieval Science
Italian pharmacy jar, about 1400 AD
(Metropolitan Museum, New York)
During the Middle Ages, the best scientists
and doctors were not in Europe, but in the Islamic
Empire to the south and east. Most of the science and medicine that
people were doing in Europe was learning from Islamic
scientists and doctors. The Crusades,
by sending a lot of Europeans to go live in West
Asia for a while, helped to spread Islamic science to Europe. Other
scientific knowledge came from Islamic Spain to France. Because people
thought Arabs were the best doctors, this Italian jar for holding medicine
is decorated in an Islamic style,
even though neither the jar nor the medicine inside it came from West
Asia.
In medieval Europe, people were very interested in scientific
observation. Together with Islamic scientists, they learned a lot
about plants, and also astronomy. Europeans learned how to use an astrolabe
from Islamic astronomers in Spain. On the other hand, Europeans seem
to have learned about the compass
about 1200 AD from the Chinese through the
Mongol Empire, and then
to have passed that knowledge on to the Arabs.
One important kind of medieval science was alchemy (al-KEM-ee), which
we call chemistry today. Alchemists tried to find ways to help people
live forever, and they were especially interested in turning lead
into gold (so they could
get rich). They never were able to do that, but along the way they did
learn a lot about chemistry. The word "alchemy" comes from
the Arabic word for "the
chemistry", originally from a Greek
word meaning "fluids".
Logic was also an important
part of medieval science, mainly through the Catholic
Church. Men like Peter Abelard
and Thomas Aquinas were interested in using logic to prove the existence
of God. Professors taught Aristotle
and Socrates' methods
of argument in European universities, just getting started in the 1100's
AD.
In mathematics, the Middle Ages saw the introduction of what we call
Arabic numbers (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) from West Asia to Europe. This
way of writing numbers seems to come originally from India.
Europeans seem to have been more independent and original when it
came to engineering. They invented new tools for farmers. During the
early Middle Ages, the horseshoe was invented, and also a new kind of
horse harness that worked
better than what the Romans had. People began to use the harrow to turn
over plowed earth, and the pitchfork. Chimneys were also invented in
Europe in the Middle Ages. And once they had learned about gunpowder,
a Chinese invention which reached Europe through the Mongol Empire,
Europeans led the way in the invention of cannons, which seem to have
first been used around 1320.
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