History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Research Cluster Seminar

Abstract: Histories of medieval sciences, especially those written for non-academic audiences, have often focused on big ideas and famous names. The Light Ages is an attempt to write a history of science in the later Middle Ages which focuses on everyday practices of calculation, demonstration, teaching, learning and instrument use. This talk will examine what we can know about the astronomical skills of a poorly recorded monk in fourteenth-century England.  We shall discuss what the remarkable life and (perhaps) ordinary achievements of John Westwyk tell us about the place of precise planetary astronomy within monastic life, and within medieval culture more generally.