NEW BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL SCIENCE

NEW BEGINNINGS IN GENERAL SCIENCE

We have dwelt thus at length on the subject of medical science,

because it was chiefly in this field that progress was made in

the Western world during the mediaeval period, and because these

studies furnished the point of departure for the revival all

along the line. It will be understood, however, from what was

stated in the pr 20220j915u eceding chapter, that the Arabian influences in

particular were to some extent making themselves felt along other

lines. The opportunity afforded a portion of the Western

world--notably Spain and Sicily --to gain access to the

scientific ideas of antiquity through Arabic translations could

not fail of influence. Of like character, and perhaps even more

pronounced in degree, was the influence wrought by the Byzantine

refugees, who, when Constantinople began to be threatened by the

Turks, migrated to the West in considerable numbers, bringing

with them a knowledge of Greek literature and a large number of

precious works which for centuries had been quite forgotten or

absolutely ignored in Italy. Now Western scholars began to take

an interest in the Greek language, which had been utterly

neglected since the beginning of the Middle Ages. Interesting

stories are told of the efforts made by such men as Cosmo de'

Medici to gain possession of classical manuscripts. The revival

of learning thus brought about had its first permanent influence

in the fields of literature and art, but its effect on science

could not be long delayed. Quite independently of the Byzantine

influence, however, the striving for better intellectual things

had manifested itself in many ways before the close of the

thirteenth century. An illustration of this is found in the

almost simultaneous development of centres of teaching, which

developed into the universities of Italy, France, England, and, a

little later, of Germany.

The regular list of studies that came to be adopted everywhere

comprised seven nominal branches, divided into two groups--the

so-called quadrivium, comprising music, arithmetic, geometry, and

astronomy; and the trivium comprising grammar, rhetoric, and

logic. The vagueness of implication of some of these branches

gave opportunity to the teacher for the promulgation of almost

any knowledge of which he might be possessed, but there can be no

doubt that, in general, science had but meagre share in the

curriculum. In so far as it was given representation, its chief

field must have been Ptolemaic astronomy. The utter lack of

scientific thought and scientific method is illustrated most

vividly in the works of the greatest men of that period--such men

as Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, and the hosts of

other scholastics of lesser rank. Yet the mental awakening

implied in their efforts was sure to extend to other fields, and

in point of fact there was at least one contemporary of these

great scholastics whose mind was intended towards scientific

subjects, and who produced writings strangely at variance in tone

and in content with the others. This anachronistic thinker was

the English monk, Roger Bacon.