![]() ![]() Their books are easy to read and full of interesting facts. It’s a very good overview of medieval technology and it made me want to go away and find out more about a few things. I’ve enjoyed all the books I’ve read by Frances and Joseph Gies and this one was no different. The book finishes in the fifteenth century with Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci and Gutenberg. By then there had already been many advances in Europe, mostly to do with water in the form of improvements to ships and waterwheels. The Chinese were more advanced technologically than the Romans in many areas and much of what the Romans left behind them was allowed to fall into disuse.Įventually information started coming from China and, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the translations of works by Greek scientists arrived in Europe via the Muslim world. The book opens with a survey of the technology that was available in Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages, mostly left by the Romans, and there’s also a visit to China to look at what was available there. The subtitle is Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages, but it’s more even than that. This one, however, has a much broader perspective. Some of the others are about daily life in a village, a town and a castle. Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel is one of a series of books written about the Middle Ages by Frances and Joseph Gies. ![]()
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