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SCIENCE 603
English to throw up, besides great and original scientists, philo^
sophers who have made the methods and implications of
science their
special study and have measured these, with
generosity and perception, against the whole ambit of human
knowledge and expectations. Many of the problems of
modern philosophers of science may be read in the works of
their medieval English predecessors. And if the theme of coiv
tinuity, which has been stressed in this is
chapter, true, we
might expect to find in the habits of medieval scientists some'
thing to remind us ofthe modern laboratory student. Chaucer's
description in the Miller's Tale of 'hende* Nicholas, a free-lance
at Oxford, may perhaps be not unfamiliar.
A chambre hadde he In that
hostelrye
Allone, with-outen any companye,
Ful fetisly y^dight with herbes swote;
And he hinvself as swete as is the rote
Of licorys, or any cetewale.
His Almageste and bokes grete and smale,
His astrelabie, longinge for his art,
His augrinvstones layen fairc axpart
On shelves couched at his beddes heed.
WORKS FOR REFERENCE
The list includes only works in English. For a general history of medieval science
see A. C. Crombie, Augustine to Galileo. The History of Science A.D. 400-1650
(London, 1952), and for a more specialized study, Robert Grossfteste and the
Origins of Experimental Science IIOO-IJQO (Oxford, 1953); both have extensive
bibliographies. Basic works in this subject are C. H. Haskins, Studies in the
History of Mediaeval Science (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), which deals with the
translators; G. Sarton, Introduction to 3% History of Science, 3 vols, (Baltimore,
1927-47), a fundamental bibliographical study; and Lynn Thomdike, A History
of'Magic and Experimental Science, 6 vols. (New York, 1923-43).
Special studies of English medieval science and technology are:
Roger Bacon, Essays contributed by various Writers on the Occasion the of Commemoration
of Us Eirtb, ed. A. G. LITTLE (Oxford, 1914).
Bede: His Life, Times, and Writings, ed. A. HAMILTON THOMPSON (Oxford, 1935).
CROWLEY, T. Roger Bacon, the Problem of the Soul in bis philosophical Cmmenterks
(Louvain and Dublin, 1950).
EASTON, S. C. Roger Bacon and bis Search for a Uw&ersat Science (Oxford, 1952).