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5*4 MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
past. He gave to Oxford scholars their characteristic interest
not only in mathematics and physical science, but also in
languages, especially in Greek. His own translations from the
Greek, though mainly of non'Scientific works, included the
pseudo'Aristotelian De Lineis Indivisibilibus and a substantial
part of Simplicius's commentary on Aristotle's De Caelo, a late
Greek treatise containing a fundamental analysis ofastronomi/
cd theories, with a profound influence on astronomy from
Grosseteste himselfto Galileo. With the appearance ofGrosser
teste upon the scene, science in England took on an entirely new
life and became, for a century and a half, for all practical pur^
poses synonymous with science in Oxford. Grosseteste's HV
fluence was especially strong among the Franciscans, in whose
house at Oxford he had taught, and who provided the most
original scientific thinking of the period.
3
The achievements of English science in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries can only be briefly indicated. The revolt
tion introduced by Grosseteste was primarily one of method,
and this made Oxford for a time the leading scientific centre in
the west; the study of mathematics, of physics, and of the logic
of science came to be as characteristic of Oxford as were
metaphysics and theology of Paris, and law and medicine of
Bologna. Only in astronomy, dynamics, and magnetics could
the Parisian science ofthe period match that ofOxford, though
some ofthe best work was to be done neither in England nor in
France, but in Germany, for example Jordanus Nemorarius's
mechanics, Albertus Magnus's zoology and botany, and
Theodoric of Freiberg's optics, and in Italy, for example
Rufinus's
botany, and medical studies at Bologna and Padua,
whose medical schools were equalled in the west only by
Montpellier.
By personality and position Grosseteste was well placed to
exploit for their own good the historical circumstances in
which he found the Oxford schools. In the twelfth century
philosophers had learnt from Euclid's Elements and Aristotle's