God's Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time

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Clocks became common in late medieval Europe and the measurement of time began to rule everyday life. God's Clockmaker is a biography of England's greatest medieval scientist, a man who solved major practical and theoretical problems to build an extraordinary and pioneering astronomical and astrological clock. Richard of Wallingford (1292-1336), the son of a blacksmith, was a brilliant mathematician with a genius for the practical solution of technical problems. Educated at Oxford, he became a monk and then abbot of the great abbey of St Albans. His clock there was the oldest mechanical one of which the details are known. Although as abbot he held great power, he was also a tragic figure, becoming a leper. His achievement, nevertheless, is a striking example of the sophistication of medieval science: while based on knowledge handed down from the Greeks via the Arabs, it was also capable of great originality.

Reviews

"If this book can work a comparable magic on others, inspiring more of us to take up investigation of the same historiographical path, our understanding of the Middle Ages,modernity, and the history of science will be the better for it." Steven P Marrone, Speculuma Journal of Medieval Studies 1 September 2009
'John North...is determined to put Richard on the historical map - and what a map it is. Its sweep and fine-grained detail make his account a veritable tour de force of erudition.' 17/11/2006 -- Owen Gingerich * The Times Higher Education Supplement *

Author Bio

John North, Emeritus Professor of the History of Philosophy and the Exact Sciences, University of Groningen, The netherlands andFellow of the British Academy.