 This program will be presented virtually via Zoom webinar.
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The Middle Ages is frequently referred to as a dark age for knowledge, a backwards time when little of intellectual substance was done and written; this assertion, however, could not be further from the truth. In After Hours with Medieval Science, Cambridge University’s Seb Falk will join the Linda Hall Library's Jason W. Dean to shed light on this falsehood, echoing the arguments Dr. Falk makes in his 2020 book, The Light Ages.
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Seb and Jason will focus on a single title in the Library’s collection: a copy of the medieval astronomy textbook Sphaera Mundi, composed c. 1215 by John of Holywood (called Sacro Bosco), and printed by Erhard Ratdolt in 1482. Using this extraordinary example, they will talk about the book, what it does, its importance, and why it was reprinted so widely almost three hundred years after its first appearance as a manuscript. Seb and Jason will also touch on the transmission of knowledge from manuscript to print and examine significant material aspects of the Library’s copy, while using the book to illuminate the important science and knowledge creation of the Middle Ages.
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Join Seb and Jason at 7:00 PM BST (1:00 PM CST) on Monday, June 3, for an engaging conversation on medieval science.
Seb Falk teaches medieval history and history of science at Cambridge University, where he is a University Proctor and a Fellow of Girton College. He received his B.A. in History and Spanish from Oxford University and an M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. He stayed at Cambridge for a Ph.D. and completed his thesis on late medieval astronomical instruments in 2016. In 2020, his first book, The Light Ages, appeared to great acclaim. The Light Ages was selected as a Book of the Year in 2020 in The Times, the TLS, The Telegraph, and several other publications.
Jason W. Dean is the Library’s Vice President for Collections & Public Services. He has previously held positions at the University of Arkansas and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. He earned an undergraduate degree in history from Hardin-Simmons University and his MS in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University. Jason’s areas of research interest include descriptive and analytical bibliographical examinations of the works of Galileo and Newton, American color printing, and the life and work of S. Fred Prince.
