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Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A millennium heritage
Edited by Francesco Stella
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIV] 2024
► pp. 518–554

Chapter 25
Medieval science in daily life

| University of Manitoba , Canada

Life has three spatial dimensions for everyone, as do the cultures we create. And so it was in the Middle Ages. Historians benefit from writings left behind to prove any of their theses, but that was only a part of it. We shall look back to barns, to the bridges which helped them travel hither and yon, and to the buildings which survive. We shall not neglect the mathematics which was required to keep all these constructions standing. Astronomy was developing too, always something new. With quite a lot of singing and dancing to instruments, perhaps music added a fourth dimension to the common life of ordinary people.

Keywords: science, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, music
Article outline
  • Look around us
  • The Aachen chapel
  • Arithmetica and Geometria
  • Bridges and barns
  • The heavens above
  • Time and time again
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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