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Science The Definitive Visual Guide First American
Edition Dk Digital Instant Download
Author(s): DK, Robert Dinwiddie, Giles Sparrow, Marcus Weeks, Carole
Stott, Jack Challoner, David Hughes, David Burnie, Adam Hart-Davis (editor)
ISBN(s): 9780756655709, 0756655706
Edition: First American Edition
File Details: PDF, 125.55 MB
Year: 2009
Language: english
THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL GUIDE
 science

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 science
E DI TOR -I N-CH I E F A DAM H ART-DAV I S

THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL GUIDE

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 LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE,
MUNICH, AND DELHI

Senior Art Editors Senior Editors First American Edition, 2009

Stephen Knowlden, Vicky Short Janet Mohun, Kathryn Wilkinson
Published in the United States by
Section Designers Section Editors DK Publishing
Vivienne Brar, Paul Drislane, Mandy Earey, Ann Baggaley, Kim Dennis-Bryan, 375 Hudson Street
Clare Joyce, Mark Lloyd, Heather McCarry, Jemima Dunne, Martha Evatt, New York, New York 10014
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Martyn Page 08 09 10 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designers
Keith Davis, Supriya Sahai, Silke Spingies Editors [ID042—October 2009]
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Illustration Visualizer Frank Ritter, Nikki Sims, Sarah Tomley, Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley Limited
Peter Laws Angela Wilkes All rights reserved

Jacket Designer US Editor Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
Duncan Turner Jane Perlmutter this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
Production Controller Production Editors (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise),
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the above publisher of this book.
Picture Researchers Associate Publisher
Ria Jones, Sarah Smithies, Louise Thomas Liz Wheeler Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited

Managing Art Editor Managing Editor A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Louise Dick Julie Oughton
ISBN: 978-0-7566-5570-9
Art Director Publisher
Bryn Walls Jonathan Metcalf DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for
sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For
details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014 or [email protected].

Illustrators
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Stuart Jackson Carter, Terry Pastor, and Mick Posen at The Art Agency www.dk.com

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 Editor-in-Chief Adam Hart-Davis
Adam Hart-Davis is a writer, broadcaster, and photographer, and one of the world’s most
popular and respected “explainers” of science. His TV work includes What the Romans,
Victorians, Tudors and Stuarts, and Ancients Did For Us, Tomorrow’s World, Science Shack,
The Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide, and Just Another Day. He is the author of more than 25
books on science, invention, and history.

Main Consultants
John Gribbin Jeremy Cherfas Marty Jopson David Bradley
Physics Biology Biology Chemistry
Popular science writer, astrophysicist, and Writer and broadcaster in biological subjects, Science communicator and TV broadcaster, Science writer and editorial consultant,
Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University with a PhD in animal behavior. with a PhD in plant cell biology. chartered chemist and member of the Royal
of Sussex, UK. Society of Chemistry, UK.

Douglas Palmer Iain Nicolson Barry Lewis

Earth Sciences Astronomy and Space Math
Technology
Science writer and lecturer for the University Formerly Director of Maths Year 2000 and
of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Formerly Principal Lecturer in Astronomy at now President of the Mathematical
Education, UK, specializing in earth science the University of Hertfordshire, UK; writer, Association, UK.
and paleontology. lecturer, and occasional broadcaster on
astronomy and space science.

Contributors
David Burnie Biology and Medicine David Hughes Astronomy Other contributions Ann Baggaley, Hayley
Jack Challoner Physics Giles Sparrow Physics and Space Birch, John Farndon, Andrew Impey, Jane
Robert Dinwiddie Earth Sciences and Technology McIntosh, Sally Regan, Frank Ritter, Mark
Physics Carole Stott Astronomy Steer, Amber Tokeley, Martin Toseland, James
Derek Harvey Biology and Chemistry Marcus Weeks Math and Technology Urquhart, Diana Vowles.

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 1 2
Greek Mathematics

Contents and Geometry

t ARISTOTLE
Ancient Ideas of
34
36

the World 38
Simple Machines 40
THE DAWN OF How Gears Work 42 RENAISSANCE &
SCIENCE t ”EUREKA!”
Floating and Sinking
44
46
ENLIGHTENMENT
PREHISTORY TO 1500 12 Algebra 48
1500–1700 64

Introduction and Water and Wind Power 50 Introduction and Timeline 66

Timeline 14 Alchemy 52 Birth of Experimental
Fire Power
Early Metalworkers
16
18
t ZHANG HENG
Gunpowder and
54
Science
Renaissance Medicine
and Surgery
68

70
Evolution of the Wheel 20 Fire Weapons 56
The Human Body Revealed 72
Elements of Life
Early Medicine
22 The Printing Revolution

t ALHAZEN
58
60 t THE SUN-CENTERED
UNIVERSE 74
and Surgery 24 East Meets West 62 Planetary Motion 76
The First Astronomers 26 Magnetic Fields 80
Ancient Number Systems

t PYTHAGORAS
30
32
t GALILEO GALILEI
Exploring the Skies
82
84

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 3
Motion, Inertia, and Friction 86
t JOSEPH BLACK 148 The Fossil Record 186
Methods of Calculating
Circulation of the Blood
88
90
Organic Chemistry
Plant Life Cycles
150
152
t FINDING
ARCHAEOPTERYX 188

t ROBERT HOOKE
Microscopic Life
92
94
How Plants Work

t THE FIRST
154 Dating the Earth
Shaping the Landscape
190
192
VACCINATION 156 Probability and Statistics 196
Discovery of the Vacuum 96
THE INDUSTRIAL
t ROBERT BOYLE
The Behavior of Gases
98
100 REVOLUTION
Static Electricity

t BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
158
160
t DARWIN’S THEORY
OF EVOLUTION 198

Graphs and Coordinates 102 1700–1890 124 t THE FIRST BATTERY 162 How Evolution Works 200

Newton’s Laws of Motion 104

Electric Current 164
t CHARLES DARWIN 202

t NEWTON’S IDEA OF
GRAVITY 106
Introduction and Timeline

t THE NEWCOMEN
126 Electromagnetism
The Electric Motor
166
168
Laws of Inheritance
Atmospheric Movement
204
206
Gravitational Force 108
ENGINE
Steam Power to
130
t MICHAEL FARADAY 170 Predicting the Weather 208

t ISAAC NEWTON 110 Steam Engine 132

Accurate Measurement 172 Structure of
the Atmosphere 210
Speed and Velocity
The Nature of Light
112
114
t HARRISON’S
CHRONOMETER 134
Calculating and
Computing 174 Studying the Oceans 212
Navigating the Oceans 136 Energy Conversion 176 Animal and Plant Cells 214
Splitting and
Bending Light 116 The Nature of Matter 138 The Nature of Heat 178 Digestion 216
Comets and Meteors 118 Laws of Thermodynamics 180 Food and Health 218
States of Matter 140
Measuring Time 120 Liquids under Pressure 144 The Solar System 182 The Nervous System 220
Classification of Species 122 The Discovery of Gases 146 How Rocks Form 184 The Brain 222

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 4
Muscles, Bones, The Nature of Sound 256 How Cells Divide 306
and Movement 224 Electromagnetic Spectrum 258 Chromosomes and
Human Reproduction 226 Telegraph to Telephone 260 Inheritance 308
Safer Surgery 228 Photography 262 t THE DISCOVERY OF

t MENDELEEV’S TABLE 230

t THOMAS EDISON 264
PENICILLIN
The Development
310

The Periodic Table 232 Capturing Sound 266

THE ATOMIC AGE of Medicines 312
Chemical Reactions 234 Radio and Radio Waves 268
1890–1970 280 Quantum Revolution 314
Speeding Up Reactions
Acids and Bases
236
238
Breathing and Respiration
The Five Senses
270
272 Introduction and Timeline 282
t THE EXPANDING
UNIVERSE 318
Regulating the Body 274 Structure of the Atom 286 The Big Bang 320
Mass Production
of Chemicals
The Spread of Disease
240
242
Animal Behavior
Cycles in the Biosphere
276
278
Chemical Bonds
Taking Flight
288
290
t THE FIRST ATOM BOMB
Fission and Fusion
322
324
Bacteria and Viruses
Natural Defenses
244
246
Vacuum Tubes
The Discovery of X-rays
292
294
t RICHARD FEYNMAN
The Life Cycle of Stars
326
328
Immunization and
Vaccination 248
t MARIE CURIE
Radiation and
296 Ecology and Ecosystems
Conservation Biology
332
334
Artificial Light 250 Radioactivity 298
The Age of Plastics 336
Generating Electricity 252 t EINSTEIN’S EQUATION
Theories of Relativity
300
302
Rocket Propulsion 338
The Internal Galaxies, Clusters,
Combustion Engine 254
t ALBERT EINSTEIN 304 and Superclusters 340

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 5
Codes and Ciphers 342 How Cloning Works 390

t ALAN TURING 344 Nanotechnologies 392

t THE STRUCTURE OF DNA 346

The Genetic code 348
Inside the Solar System 394
Space Probes and
Chaos Theory 350 Telescopes 396
The Structure of the Earth 352
THE Dark Universe 398
REFERENCE 420

t MOVING CONTINENTS 354 INFORMATION Grand Unified Theory 400 Measurement 422
Plate Tectonics 356 AGE String Theory 402 Astronomy 424
Active Earth 358 1970 ONWARD 374 Body Imaging 404 Earth Science 434
Agriculture 362 Biology 440
Introduction and Timeline 376 Modern Surgical
Lasers and Holograms 364 Procedures 406 Chemistry 454
The Internet 378
Microchip Technology 366 Disease Challenges 408
Artificial Intelligence Physics 462
Artificial Satellites 368 and Robotics 380 The Human Genome 410 Mathematics 470
t MOON LANDING 370 Subatomic Particles 382
t JAMES LOVELOCK 412 Who’s Who 476
Manned Space Travel 372
t DOROTHY HODGKIN
Gene Technology
384
386
Global Warming 414 Glossary 486

t IN VITRO
FERTILIZATION (IVF) 388
Renewable Energy

Tackling Climate Change

416
418
Index
Acknowledgments
494
510

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 Foreword
I
have always been fascinated by science, and for the last 15 years by
the history of science; so when I was asked to take part in the
preparation of this book I jumped at the chance.

And here it all is; this superbly illustrated book paints a broad picture of
the whole of science and its history. Arranged in chronological order,
according to when a scientific principle was first laid out or when a
process became technically possible, it begins with the ancient
Babylonians, Chinese, and Greeks, with the idea of the four elements,
and goes all the way through to string theory and space telescopes.

Science is not just a collection of answers, but an ongoing search for the
truth about how the Universe works; it is not merely about the facts, but
also about the struggle to discover them. One scientific idea often leads to
another, and then another. This was especially true of the vacuum:
theories and inventions followed one another rapidly in the mid-17th
century; steam engines were a natural consequence in the 18th, cathode-
ray tubes in the 19th, and today we have many more pieces of vacuum
technology. The book is divided into five chapters, from the dawn of
science through to the present day. Each chapter has its own timeline to
help you find the various threads that make up that particular period.

Scientific ideas often occur to more than one person at a time, which has
led to some disputes—over the invention of calculus, for example, or the
discovery of oxygen. All these events are included. Alongside the ideas
and theories in this book are the people who dreamed them up, from
Pythagoras and Aristotle to Einstein and Marie Curie. There are double-
page biographies of 19 major characters, and around 100 features on
other great pioneers, from Eratosthenes to Richter. At the end of the book
is a 54-page reference section, including brief biographies of all the major
scientists, past and present, plus a plethora of scientific facts.

Because of its sheer size and complexity, this is the toughest book I have
ever worked on, and it would never have been completed without a small
army of writers, editors, designers, artists, and picture researchers. I thank
them all, but particularly Janet Mohun and her team in the DK office.

Adam Hart-Davis

10

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 THE DAWN OF SCIENCE
1
PREHISTORY TO 1500
The ancient world saw the first breakthrough moments in science,
as the coming of age of great civilizations from Egypt to Babylon
proved a decisive spur to invention, people learned to write,
and scholars from Aristotle to Zeno had time and space to
think deeply about the world around them.

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 P R E H I STORY TO 1500

THE DAWN OF SCIENCE

PREHISTORY TO 1500
14000 BCE 3000 BCE 2000 BCE 1000 BCE
14000 BCE c.3000 BCE c.2000 BCE c.670 BCE
First pots created in Acupuncture needles First wheels with Hippocrates
Japan. first used in China. spokes made. Baked establishes medical
Babylonians create a bricks used for school on the Greek
number system based important public island of Cos.
on 60; it survives in buildings in c.600 BCE
the way hours and Mesopotamia. Oldest known world
minutes are map drawn by 

Map by Herodotus,
measured today. Babylonians. c.450 

Early acupuncture chart  Ziggurat of Ur, Iraq 



Ancient Egyptian
astronomical calendar



Egyptian figurine Pythagoras of Samos 

c.5500 BCE 
Jomon bowl c.2700 BCE 
16th-century abacus 1500 BCE 500 BCE
Copper smelting Abacus first appears Oldest known Babylonian
begins in the Balkans in Mesopotamia and astronomical calendar astronomers note an
and West Asia. becomes widely used created in Egypt. eclipse cycle known
c.3500–3200 BCE for calculations. as the Saros.
In Mesopotamia solid 495 BCE
wheels used for Pythagoras introduces
transportation. the concept of
mathematical
proof.


Mesopotamian chariot
on the Standard of Ur

c.1300 BCE c.400 BCE c.350 BCE

Vertical obelisks used Empedocles states Aristotle provides
as clocks and that all matter is scientific evidence
compasses in Egypt. composed of four that Earth is a sphere.
Egyptians making elements: fire, earth,
objects in faience water, and air.
c.3400 BCE (ceramics).
Ring of standing 

Early plank wheel
stones erected and
used as an
astronomical calendar 

Earth’s curved shadow
at Callanish, Scotland. 

Callanish stones cast on the Moon

c.2500 BCE c.1100 BCE 
Chinese bronze vessel

Chariots with solid Bronze cast in
wheels used in battle furnaces in China.
in Mesopotamia.

14

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 T H E DAW N O F SC I E N C E

As empires rose and fell, from Egypt to China, the practical demands of everything from accurate calendars to tax and land inheritance calculations
the first great cities and armies stimulated a wave of inventions—bronze prompted the first great stirrings of science. At the same time early
for making tools and weapons, wheels for moving loads and milling grain, stargazers such as Hipparchus were mapping the night sky with
gears for making machines, and the water and windmills to power those astonishing precision, and brilliant scholars such as Euclid and
machines. Meanwhile, the administrative needs of the new rulers for Al-Khwarizmi were laying the foundations of mathematics.

300 BCE 100 CE 700 CE 1000

c.300 BCE c.200 BCE c.100 c.700
The idea of longitude Hindu–Arabic Sculpture of Atlas The alembic for
put on a map by numerals and decimal shows the oldest distillation invented
Dicaearchus of system evolve into a known representation in Persia.
Messana. Euclid recognizable ancestor of the celestial globe.
establishes the basic of our modern
principles of geometry numerals.
in The Elements.



Woodcut depicting 
Chinese map of

Archimedes’ discovery the constellations



Diagram of eye from 1279

the Book of Optics Pierre de Maricourt
records the basic facts
c.1011–21 of magnetism.
Alhazen writes his
Book of Optics.
1000
Windmills with vertical
sails first used to drive
machinery.


Wooden post mills

c.240 BCE 132 

2nd-century sculpture 705

Archimedes discovers Zhang Heng invents of Atlas holding Map of the
the globe
how to measure the the first seismometer, constellations drawn
volume of irregular- which could not only in China.
shaped objects. detect a distant
Eratosthenes earthquake but also
formulates a system indicate in which
for finding prime direction it occurred.
numbers, known as
the sieve of
Eratosthenes.

World map by Ptolemy 
Early Chinese rocket

230 BCE c.160 BCE 1154

Earliest evidence of Hipparchus maps the Earliest known
geared mechanisms positions of about mechanical clock built
being used in China. 1,000 stars and in Damascus, Syria.
calculates how far 1202
Earth is from the Sun. Fibonacci publishes
Liber Abaci, proposing
calculations using
zero to nine and


Chinese chariot
place value.
with early gearing
mechanism Fibonacci 

150 c.800 c.900 1321

World map drawn by Gunpowder invented Abulcasis develops Mondino de Liuzzi
Ptolemy. He also in China. Hindu the ligature technique performs the world’s
divides the stars into symbol for zero in surgery. first public dissection.
48 constellations. adopted in the Middle c.1440
c.300 East. Persian Johannes Gutenberg
Mayans develop a mathematician creates the first
number system based Al-Khwarizmi invents Western European
on the numbers five algebra and the rules printing press.
and 20, with symbols for solving equations.
that include zero.

Gutenberg Bible

15

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 P R E H I S TO R Y TO 1 5 0 0

F ire is a chemical reaction between a

fuel, such as wood, coal, or oil, and
oxygen in the air; it usually gives off
and discolor are visible as flames and
smoke. A fire generally sustains itself
until it has exhausted the supply of
Making fire
Heat is needed to start
a fire. One common
energy in the form of heat and light. fuel or oxygen. method of creating
This can be harnessed and used to heat is by friction:
here, a stick is being
positive effect. The reaction starts Early humans and fire rotated fast on a piece
when the fuel is ignited, either Charcoal and burned bones from of wood until a
naturally or by human effort by several African sites suggest people glowing ember
another fire, a spark, or heat. Particles may have controlled and used fire as is created.
of burning materials and ash that glow early as 1.5 million years ago and
certainly by 400,000 years ago. For the
last 100,000 years fire has been in
common use. Control over fire brought
B EF O R E many benefits, including the ability to
live in colder regions and protection
against predators. People’s diet was
In certain circumstances fire occurs improved by eating cooked food, controlled burning to clear vegetation,
naturally. Humans in prehistory saw its roasted over a fire or baked in the facilitating hunting and the growth of
potential and learned to control its power. embers. Fire also provided a social useful plants.
focus. Some groups used torches
TECHNOLOGY or lit fires to stampede animals Fired clay
By 2.5 million years ago, when they began into places where they could be Using clay in domestic hearths
making stone tools, early humans had trapped and killed. led people to discover the
understood that they could alter the natural From the earliest times transformative power of fire on
world to their own advantage. By employing when open fires were lit, clay. This knowledge was used
tools they could extend their abilities. people began to develop to create figurines of baked clay.
hearths, often ringed by Later, the technology was
FIRE’S POTENTIAL stones. After 40,000 BCE developed further, to produce
When early humans encountered naturally more efficient hearths with pottery. Prepared clay was
occurring bush fires, they came to appreciate not clay surrounds and air- mixed with a temper, such as
only fire’s power to destroy the landscape and intake channels were
everything in it, but also its potential as a source invented to control and
of heat, light, and defense, and as a tool for increase heat. Simple lamps Dolni Vestonice Venus
The Palaeolithic inhabitants of the Czech site of
shaping the world. were made from stones with a
Dolni Vestonice produced many human and
natural hollow: in this animal fat animal figurines c.20,000 years ago, including this
was burned, using a plant-fiber example, modeled from a mixture of clay and
wick. Some groups began carbonized bone before being baked.

Fire Power
Fire is a terrifying and potentially devastating natural phenomenon. Early mastery of fire
offered many benefits to humankind including protection against wild animals, heat that
enabled them to spread into cooler regions, and the ability to cook food.

IN PRACTICE

FIRED BRICKS
Clay, as daub or sun-dried bricks, was an
important ancient building material. For
more durable and impressive structures, the
technology of ceramic production was used
to make baked bricks. Hand- or mold-
formed, the bricks were allowed to dry, then
fired in large stacks encased in fuel.
Fired-brick buildings and walls defended
people from enemies and the elements. In
the 3rd millennium BCE, the Harappans in
the Indus Valley used baked bricks to protect
against flooding, and for wells and bathroom
floors, while the Mesopotamians used them
for public buildings such as the ziggurat
(stepped temple-mound) of Ur, Iraq (right).

16

86BB)LUHLQGG 

 F I R E POWER

BREAKTHROUGH

FAIENCE AND GLASS

Before 4000 BCE people in western Eurasia
began producing faience objects, such as
this Egyptian figurine (c.1300 BCE). This
precursor to glass was made with silica, such
as quartz sand, mixed with a stabilizer (lime)
and an alkaline flux (often soda). The paste,
colored with copper oxide, was shaped,
Jomon pot then heated to about 1500–1800º F
The world’s first pots were created in Japan around (850–1000º C), causing the grains inside
14,000 BCE and soon developed into a well-made the paste to sinter (adhere) and the object’s
product, Jomon ware, of which this pedestaled bowl surface to fuse as a thin glaze.
is a late example. From c.1600 BCE, furnaces reaching higher
temperatures enabled a similar mixture to
be melted into a viscous liquid, true glass.
sand, to toughen it. After shaping, pots During the first millennium BCE in the Levant,
were left to dry and then were fired in glassblowing was invented, revolutionizing
a clamp (bonfire kiln). The pots were the production of glass.
stacked on and covered with a layer
of fuel, then sealed by a layer of clay.
Holes in the top and around the sides
allowed air to circulate so the fuel
would burn. More permanent kilns
“ When the earth was young…
appeared from c.6000 BCE in western
Asia. A fired vessel’s color depended
on the type of clay and the firing
human beings… did not know
conditions: circulating air produced
reddish hues, while the absence of air
yet how to enlist the aid of fire.”
turned the pottery black. LUCRETIUS (TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS), ROMAN PHILOSOPHER , C.100–C.55 BCE
The pyrotechnical skills needed to
control kiln temperature and air flow
and to achieve high temperatures, was cooked in an animal skin or
coupled with a growing knowledge skin-lined pit containing water by AF TER
of other natural materials, were the adding heated stones. The invention
prerequisites for the development of of pottery made boiling easier: fire
other transformational industries, could be applied directly to the vessel of Mastery of fire has enabled civilizations to
including metallurgy and glassmaking. food and water. Unleavened bread was transform the world, through technology
cooked on hot stones or pottery dishes and controlled destruction.
Cuisine over the fire. Clay ovens appeared
Fire made food easier to chew, more from the sixth millennium BCE, heated DIET
digestible and often more palatable, by lighting a fire inside. Over the last 2,000
and improved human health by killing Through time, people experimented years people have
bacteria and parasites. Heat enabled with different ways of cooking. Bread developed ever more
foodstuffs to be preserved for later use and cakes were leavened with yeast, elaborate ways of
by drying or smoking, and was used to which created CO2 , causing the preparing food and
remove or neutralize poisons present dough to rise; cooking hardened combining ingredients,
in foodstuffs. By 40,000 BCE some food the risen form. using heat in
increasingly
sophisticated ways. MEDIEVAL KITCHEN

◁ Controlling fire TRANSFORMING MATERIALS

Harnessing the power of fire was an Heat has been used to transform many
important part of the development of materials, including metal ores 18–19 ❯❯.
civilization and has influenced every Advances in ceramics include metallic glazes
part of human life. and kilns capable of achieving higher and better
controlled temperatures than before.

HARNESSING ENERGY
A broadening range of fuels, including coal and
Egyptian figure natural gas, have been used to create heat and
This figurine (c.2500 BCE) power. Applications include sophisticated ways
shows a servant girl of heating, such as Roman hypocausts
grinding grain into flour to (underfloor heating). Steam power brought
be baked in bread. about Europe’s Industrial Revolution.

SEE ALSO ❯❯
pp.18–19 E M  
pp.132–33 S P   S E  

17

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Early Metalworkers
Metallurgy started at different times across the globe, but by the 1st millennium BCE it was extensively
practiced. The use of metals proved revolutionary: unlike stone, metal could be worked into any
shape, and broken objects could easily be mended or recycled to make new things.

North American copper arrowheads

Around 3000–2500 BCE many American
communities made tools and ornaments by
N ative (naturally occurring pure)
copper, gold, silver, lead, and tin
were exploited first, to make small
For casting, smelted copper was melted
(at 1982º F/1083º C) and poured into
stone or fired clay molds or impressions
More elaborate objects could be made
by lost-wax casting: a wax model was
coated in clay, which was then fired,
cold-hammering pieces of the native copper
objects, including jewelry and daggers; in wet sand. At first, open molds were allowing the wax to run out, creating a
abundantly available around Lake Superior.
copper was also used for tools. Copper used, producing simple shapes, flat on mold. Metal was then poured into the
could be worked by cold hammering but one face. Later, two-piece molds mold, which was smashed to remove
was easier to shape if heated until soft. enabled objects to be cast in the round. the finished object.
B EF O R E Hammering made the metal brittle; its
Using alloys

At first metals were valued for their

toughness could be restored by annealing
(heating then cooling slowly), though
this reduced its hardness.
5500–5000
The time when copper smelting began in
BCE Copper is relatively soft, so is unsuitable
for heavy tools such as axes. Alloyed
attractive appearance, but their other useful the Balkans and western Asia. Iron was with certain other metals, however, it
properties were quickly appreciated. Smelting and casting not smelted until the 2nd millennium BCE. becomes harder. Early metallurgists often
Copper was also extracted from ore using
TOOL MANUFACTURE easily smelted copper oxide and
During early times and, in some areas, until carbonate ores (rock containing metal
recently, tools were shaped from stone, compounds mixed with other minerals).
wood, and other nonmetallic materials, Smelting involved heating crushed ore
by cutting or percussion (striking). and charcoal in a clay furnace. Air
pumped in through a clay pipe using
METALS AS EXOTIC STONES bellows helped raise the furnace
When metals were first encountered, in their temperature. Carbon displaced the
native (natural pure) form, they were treated as metal from its oxide or carbonate
attractive stones that, instead of fracturing, and escaped as carbon dioxide
changed shape when struck. (CO2), leaving mineral impurities
(as slag) and pure copper, which
PYROTECHNOLOGY was denser and collected in the
The development of pottery kilns created the crucible base. When these ores
pyrotechnical skills (achieving high temperatures; were unobtainable, sulphide ores
controlling firing conditions) required for were used: before smelting, these
smelting and melting metals. required roasting in an open
bonfire, to drive off the sulphur
as an oxide gas.

Tapping hole, plugged

during heating
Gas and smoke outlet

Casting channel

Crucible

Fire chamber with

charcoal fuel

Stoke-hole and
fueling pit

Bronze-casting furnace, China

Bronze was melted in a crucible, from
which it was poured into a mold. In
sophisticated furnaces, such as this
Chinese example (c.1000–800 BCE), the
metal was tapped directly from the
crucible along a channel into the mold.

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 E A R LY M E TA LW O R K E R S

Ancient Greek blacksmith IN PRACTICE

On this 6th-century BCE Greek vase,
a blacksmith is removing the bloom GOLDWORKING
from a shaft furnace in which iron ore has
been heated with charcoal. Gold generally occurs as a native metal,
often as electrum (gold-silver alloy,
stimulus to trade. While bronze was sometimes also containing copper).
widely employed for tools and weapons, In South America and Turkey, golden
other alloys were also used. For example, objects were made from electrum, using
adding lead lowered copper’s melting gold’s low reactivity: one method was
point and increased its fluidity, producing depletion gilding, where acids removed
an alloy suitable for casting complex baser metals from the surface. Gold’s
shapes where strength was not required malleability makes it easy to work, using
(such as ornaments). techniques such as punching (making holes
for decoration), filigree (twisted threads of
preferentially exploited copper ores Iron gold) and repoussé (creating a raised
pattern), wiremaking, and hammering.
naturally containing arsenic, to produce Ironworking developed late, since it
a strengthened copper alloy. Generally presented technological challenges. Iron GOLD HELMET, MESOPOTAMIA, C.2500 BCE
alloyed in the proportion 5–10 percent, melts at a high temperature, around
tin produced a superior metal, bronze, 2912º F (1535º C). In antiquity only the
but was rare: once tin–bronze was Chinese managed to achieve the
developed (around 3000 BCE in western temperature needed to produce cast of good refractory clay capable of (carbon-iron alloy), which is harder and
Asia) demand for tin became a major (melted) iron: they built blast furnaces withstanding high temperatures, and tougher than wrought iron. Hardness
created the necessary draft using was increased by quenching (plunging
water-driven piston bellows. the white-hot object into water to cool it
Elsewhere, only wrought iron could rapidly), although this also made it
be produced. Iron ore and charcoal were brittle. This was countered by tempering
heated in a furnace to around (reheating and cooling slowly), reducing
2000–2100º F (1100–1150º C). At this both the brittleness and the hardness.
temperature some of the impurities were Successful working required a balance
given off, but others between tempering
remained mixed with the and quenching.
iron in a spongy mass Once these
known as the bloom. technologies were
Iron was laboriously mastered, iron, which
extracted from the is far more common
bloom by repeated than copper and tin,
hammering and rapidly became the
heating to high main material for tools
temperatures. This and weapons.
process was also used
to shape the resulting
metal and to weld (join
Molten metal
together) pieces of iron. Metal was circulated in antiquity as
Heated in a charcoal ingots which could be melted. The
fire, the iron was molten metal was poured from the
converted into steel crucible into a mold.

AF TER

For millennia metals have been a dominant

material for manufacturing strong, durable
tools and weapons and attractive ornaments.

OTHER METALS
Since antiquity, a wider range of metals, such as
zinc, aluminium, and tungsten, have come into
use and new alloys, such as brass and pewter,
have been created.
BLAST FURNACE IN IRONBRIDGE, ENGLAND

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES NEW USES FOR METALS

From the 16th century onward the West also In recent centuries metals have been put to new
developed the technology to make cast iron. uses, for example, to construct buildings, ships,
Chinese bronze vessel A more efficient blast furnace, using coke as fuel, airlanes, and rockets; also, in microcircuitry.
A Western Zhou (1100–771 BCE) was devised by Abraham Darby in 1709. Other
bronze ritual vessel. The Chinese technological advances included stainless steel SEE ALSO gg
created elaborate bronzes in molds pp.178–79 T N  H
made of many interlocking pieces,
and tinned steel cans for preserving food.
which were disassembled after
casting, for repeated use.

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Development of the wheel 3000 BCE Metal strips or nails are added to c.1600 BCE Spoked wheels 800 –600 BCE The Celts invent
From their origins in ancient Mesopotamia, wheels to make hard rims; this protects the first appear on Egyptian pivoting front axles, as found in
rims so that wheels last longer, even if it chariots. These wheels also burial mounds on archaeological
wheels have come to be used all around
does nothing to improve the ride. seem to have developed sites. Such axles give vehicles much
the world, and are still being developed independently in Europe greater maneuverability than
and refined today. some 200 years later. traditional fixed axles.

3500 BCE 3000 BCE 2500 BCE 2000 BCE 1500 BCE 1000 BCE 1400 CE
3500–3200 BCE An 2600 BCE Thinner and c.1400–1500 CE Solid
unknown Mesopotamian lighter plank wheels iron bands are used to
innovator takes a solid (right) begin to become 1800 BCE The crossbar reinforce wheel rims on
potter’s wheel and turns it more popular than their wheel (right) appears, carts and wagons. These
through 90 degrees. Joining solid counterparts. although it is unclear if this bands are the first “tires.”
two solid wheels with an is a step toward the first
axle results in the first spoked wheel or a parallel
transportation wheel. innovation. The oldest known
one was found in Italy.

B EF O R E

Even before the wheel had been invented,

humans had devised various ways to move
Evolution of the Wheel
heavy objects around. Probably the most important mechanical invention of all time, the wheel has a long and varied history. For
5,500 years we have been thinking up ever more inventive ways of using wheels to improve our lives. From
BEASTS OF BURDEN
Humans first domesticated animals between watermills to jet planes, a whole range of things that we use routinely rely in some way on the wheel.
9000 and 7000 BCE, and people began using
oxen to draw ploughs around 4000 BCE.
Camels, elephants, horses, llamas, yaks, and
goats have all been used as beasts of burden.
B ased on diagrams found on clay
tablets, ancient Mesopotamian
potters were the first people, as far as
would be another 1,600 years before
the ancient Egyptians invented chariot
wheels with spokes.
In Europe, wheels evolved steadily
through the ages until the early 19th
century and the beginning of the
we know, to make use of wheels—for While the concept might seem simple Industrial Revolution, which saw rapid
ALL-TERRAIN SLEDGES spinning clay to fashion their wares— to us today, there must, however, be advances in their development.
Known from at least 7000 BCE, sledges were as long ago as 3500 BCE. Wheels did not something about the wheel that is
used by hunting and fishing communities in seem to catch on as a handy aid to conceptually difficult. Neither the $ Sumerian battle chariot
northern Europe. Whether pulled by people, transportation for another 300 years, Mayan, the Aztec, nor the Incan The artefact known as the Standard of Ur, dating from
dogs, or deer, their long, thin runners spread the when the Mesopotamians started to civilizations, all of which were highly c.2500 BCE, shows one of the oldest existing images of
a chariot. This war chariot, from Sumer in Mesopotamia
weight of a heavy load over almost any terrain, build chariots in 3200 BCE. Even with developed, used the wheel. In fact,
(now part of Iraq), is drawn by onagers (wild asses), and
including snow or ice, sliding freely like skis. this intellectual barrier breached, the there is no evidence that the Americas has solid wheels made from flat pieces of wood held
development of our most useful asset ever saw a wheel before it trundled together by pegs. The much lighter spoked wheels did
progressed at a very slow pace. It over with the Europeans. not appear on chariots until around 1600 BCE.

Weight of load Weight of load is spread

presses object across several rollers
against ground Direction of “Rolling friction” Direction of
movement of logs moving movement
against ground is Logs from rear
much easier to are moved to
“Sliding friction” overcome than front to extend
between load sliding friction rolling surface
and ground
impedes
movement

DRAGGING WITHOUT ROLLERS DRAGGING WITH ROLLERS

Wheeled transportation Load sits directly

Before wheels were used, one over axle, exerting
way to transport loads was by downward Body of vehicle
dragging them along the ground. pressure through supports load
However, the weight of the load, axle to ground and spreads Direction of
and the “sliding friction” from the weight over axle movement
ground surface, made this very Hub keeps
hard work. One advance, possibly wheel firmly
predating wheels, was to pull the joined to axle
load over log rollers, which
lessened the friction, but wheeled
vehicles are much more efficient. Spokes transfer
load downward Inward force from iron tire
and outward to counteracts outward force
lower rim passing along spokes

Ground surface provides just

Ground exerts upward force
enough traction to let
that supports vehicle and load
wheels grip and roll along it

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 EVOLUTION OF TH E WH EEL

1820s John Loudon 1846 The pneumatic tire, a 1901 Edgar Purnell Hooley 1967 The first alloy wheels
Macadam and Thomas hollow belt of inflated India patents tarmac, a tar and are made, for racing cars. Lighter AF TER
Telford build roads using rubber, is patented by Robert aggregate mix spread out than steel wheels, they improve
compacted broken stone William Thomson. It is and rolled to make a much steering and speed. Better heat
aggregate—the first reinvented in 1888 by tougher road surface than conductors, they allow heat to
macadamized roads. John Boyd Dunlop. just aggregate. dissipate from the brakes. Given the wheel’s central place in everyday
life, there is never likely to be a post-wheel
period in human history.
1800 1850 1900 1950
IMPROVING ROADS
1820s The artillery 2005 The Tweel, an Wheels work much better when they can roll
wheel (right), which has 1870 Improvements in experimental polyurethane across a smooth surface. Rudimentary roads
a metal hub, is invented. metalworking enable the tire-wheel hybrid, is invented by
creation of fine metal wheels Michelin. Flexible spokes
began to appear soon after the first chariots.
First used to move heavy
steam vehicles without with wire spokes (right), connect the hub to a thin, Even today, a great deal of money is still spent
the spokes snapping, invented by George Cayley in flexible rim and take on the on developing even better road surfaces.
it is soon adopted for the 1850s. This allows for shock-absorbing role of a
artillery pieces. lightweight, nimble bicycles. traditional tire’s sidewall.
HARNESSING ENERGY
Whether it is wind power, water power, or steam
power that turns the blades, wheels are at the
How wheels work the spinning wheel have all played heart of turbines, which play a vital part in
There are three reasons why wheels a significant part in shaping history. producing most of the electricity that we use
make moving a load over the ground Think also of the wheels on the around the world, in fact.
considerably easier than just dragging chariots that armies used to subjugate
or pushing it. Most importantly, they enemies, or the wheels on the tractors SPREADING THE LOAD
greatly reduce friction. While the small that enabled the agricultural revolution Narrow wheels sink into soft ground under the
part of a wheel that is in contact with to happen. One of the wheel’s most burden of a heavy load. To spread heavy loads,
the ground will not move, the rest of important forms is the cogwheel. With tractors have very wide wheels, while tanks and
the wheel can roll on over the top of it, a history dating back more than 3,000 other extremely heavy armoured vehicles have
carrying the whole structure forward years, to the first rudimentary gears caterpillar tracks over wide wheels.
or back. Second, wheels make it much made from wooden wheels with pegs
easier to change the direction of the driven into the rims, cogs have been SEE ALSO gg
pushing or pulling of the load. Third, central to the development of pp.40–41 S  M 
wheels raise the load, so reducing the transportation and timepieces. pp.42–43 H  G W 
pp.50–51 W   W  P 
angle at which the force required to
move the load must be applied. All Modern uses
three factors are evident when pushing Once you start to look closely at the
a loaded wheelbarrow, for example. modern world, you see that a host of
things that we take for granted depend %
Early spinning wheel
Importance of the wheel on wheels to function. Gas, diesel, and The first spinning wheels may have come from China,
like this example from the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE).
Wheels have had a huge influence on jet engines, disk drives, even the
They were large, rimless, hand-cranked wheels, which
the evolution of human society. The electric toothbrush—none of these were driven by a belt and turned a horizontally mounted
potter’s wheel—the first known type of everyday things could work without an spindle. Each revolution of the wheel produced several
wheel—the watermill’s turbine, and internal wheel to keep them moving. turns of the much smaller spindle.

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B EF O R E

In ancient times even mundane happenings

T he fundamental question of what
the Universe is made of has occupied
the minds of the greatest thinkers for
Anaximander
A student of Thales, Anaximander thought that
an invisible substance, apeiron, was the source
of all things. He is known to have conducted
were seen to be part of huge cosmic events, thousands of years. The ancient Greeks,
the first recorded scientific experiment.
far beyond human understanding. tireless and ingenious speculators about
the Universe, turned their attention to
To our ancient ancestors, the world was the structure of the materials composing be universal and free from
dominated by powerful gods, and Earth, the it. The Greek philosopher Thales of any specific characteristics.
stars, and the sky were full of mystery. They Miletus, who lived from about 625 Anaximander identified an
wondered at what was going on around them, to 546 BCE, is generally credited with invisible, all-purpose plasma,
and attributed the events of the natural world to being the first to speculate on the which he called apeiron, from
supernatural forces. The ancient Greeks brought nature of the elements. He suggested the Greek for “infinite.” This
organization, experimentation, and the search that the basic principle of the Universe mysterious substance could morph
for simple universal laws. They began to was water, and that all known natural into all the materials on Earth.
realize that to understand the world one needed substances were modifications of it. Anaximander’s own student,
to know its nature (physis, hence the modern Water surrounded the land, and Anaximenes, rejected apeiron.
word “physics”), and that natural phenomena trickled through the soil—clearly, life He believed that everything had to be
had logical explanations. This was a giant step
from the assumptions of the old world that the
supernatural determined almost everything.

Elements of Life
The Universe is made from a relatively small number of naturally occurring elements. Our
understanding of elements stemmed from what the ancient Greeks believed, and for over 2,000 years
it was thought that everything was made from just four elements: water, fire, air, and earth.
could not exist without it. He composed of something, and proposed to understand the true nature
described Earth itself as a flat that the missing “something” was air. of reality, and to explain
slab, floating on top of an Air could be experienced, and turned phenomena that most humans
infinite mass of water. into smoke and fire; when condensed, deemed terrifying, such as
it became mist and water. The debate thunder, lightning, and
Fundamental substances spread to Ephesus, which was home to earthquakes. The traditional
Thales’s view of a water-based Heraclites, who had a different theory. view attributed such events
universe attracted fierce For him, fire was the key element, to whims of the gods, but the
opposition. Anaximander, a since it was dynamic and caused Milesian School proposed
pupil of Thales, rejected this change in other materials. Xenophanes, natural explanations: lightning
theory and scoffed at the idea from neighboring Colophon, favored and thunder resulted from wind;
that Earth was like a floating log earth. Although Earth changes slowly rainbows were the result of the
resting on a vast sea. He believed over time and its shape may shift, its Sun’s rays falling on clouds; and
that Earth was curved, and that it fundamental essence stays the same. earthquakes were caused by the
dangled unsupported in space. cracking of the ground when it dried
Water could not be the main element The Milesian School out after being moistened by rain.
because it was not versatile enough. Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes
According to Anaximander, if a had much in common. They were all Not one element, but four
Thales of Miletus particular element in nature, such as from Miletus and, despite their fierce The Greek philosopher Empedocles
The earliest of the natural philosophers of ancient
Greece, Thales was a mathematician and astronomer. water, was the origin, a substance with disagreements, shared an intellectual adhered to the teachings of Pythagoras
His assertion that the world started from water was an opposite nature, such as fire, could approach. This later became known as (see pp.32–33). He, too, struggled with
the first to consider the elements of the Universe. not emerge or co-exist. The origin must the Milesian School. All three sought the problem of a fundamental substance,
but concluded that the Universe was
made of several elements: the water
S C I E N T I S T A N D P H I L O S O P H E R ( 4 9 0 – 4 3 0 BCE)
of Thales, the fire of Heraclites, the
EMPEDOCLES air of Anaximenes, and the earth of
Xenophanes. These essential four
Empedocles was a philosopher, physiologist, elements—fire, air, water, and earth—that accounted for all matter on Earth.
and religious teacher. A citizen of Acragas in were mixed and parted by the personified Empedocles also proposed that two
Sicily, he was given to wearing a gold girdle, cosmic forces of love and strife. He believed active principles united and divided the
a laurel wreath, and bronze sandals. He was in reincarnation, and insisted that he was elements: love and strife. Love was the
a famous healer and brilliant orator; Aristotle a divine being. According to legend, he uniting principle that kept the elements
described him as the inventor of rhetoric. perished when he threw himself into the together in different substances, and
Empedocles is best known for his belief flames of Mount Etna, in an attempt to strife was the principle that divided
that all matter was composed of four prove that he would return as a god. them. No one believed that an empty
space could exist, so love and strife were

“ For from these [elements] come all things also counted as elements, filling the void
between the other four. Empedocles

that are, or have been, or shall be…” called these substances rhizomata, the
“roots” of matter. It was only after
Aristotle, in the 4th century BCE, that
they became known as elements.

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 $
The four elements &
Anaximenes
This illustration from a 1472 edition of Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura The Greek philosopher Anaximenes believed that air was
(“On the Nature of Things”) shows the four elements of Empedocles: the most basic element of the Universe. The last of the
air, fire, earth, and water. He explained the nature important philosophers of Miletus, Anaximenes helped
of the Universe by the interaction the transition from a mythological explanation
of love and strife on the of the world to a scientific one.
elements.

AF TER

The ancient Greek notion of four basic

elements dominated Western scientific
thought for more than 2,000 years.

ARISTOTLE’S FIFTH ELEMENT

Aristotle 36–37 gg
reasoned that the heavens
were composed of a fifth element, called ether
(from a Greek word meaning “to glow”), which
was perfect, eternal, and incorruptible. The
remaining four were confined to Earth, and
given the qualities of hot, cold, wet, or dry.

FIRE

Hot Dry THE WORKINGS OF THE UNIVERSE

ELEMENTS IN MODERN FORM

The ancient Arab alchemists believed all metals
AIR EARTH were composed of two elements, sulphur and
mercury. The Persians added salt. The

“ To the elements it came Wet Cold

16th-century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus
70–71 gg
combined the four Greek and three
Arab elements. In 1661 the Irish chemist Robert
from Everything will return. Boyle 98–99 gg
coined the first modern
definition of an element: a substance that can

Our bodies to earth, WATER

not be broken down into simpler substances.

SEE ALSO gg

Our blood to water…” Classical elements and their properties

This diagram shows two squares, one inside the other. The
corners of the larger square represent the classical elements,
pp.232–33 T P  T

MATTHEW ARNOLD, “EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA,” 1852 and the corners of the smaller square their properties.

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Early Medicine
and Surgery
The origins of medicine lie with the origins of civilization itself. People
in early civilizations across the world attempted to explain the reasons
for disease and create treatments. China has a strong tradition in using
herbs in medicine and many of the earliest ideas still resonate today.

B EF O R E
M edical customs used to be handed
down by word of mouth, but
organized medicine began properly
Prehistoric medicine, that is to say medicine with the written word. The earliest
before the written word, was probably known medical texts date from around
characterized by a combination of primitive 2000 BCE in China and Egypt.
first aid and a belief in supernatural spirits.
Origins of medicine and surgery Earliest acupuncture
TRIBAL MEDICINE Medicine had almost certainly been The first acupuncture needles date from 3000 BCE
Clues about the earliest medical practices established in China by the middle of in China. Charts such as this identified points of the
body where needles would bring maximum benefit.
come from anthropological observations of the 3rd millennium BCE, when the
indigenous peoples alive today and indicate that Yellow Emperor purportedly composed
prehistoric societies probably used the Neijnh Suwen or Basic Questions of physician—it suggests that a figure
herbs to treat simple ailments. Internal Medicine. This document (much called Urlugaledin practiced primitive
These would have been developed by expanded 3,000 years later) formed the surgery way back in 4000 BCE.
a tribal shaman or medicine man. basis of traditional Chinese medicine, The roots of the Ayurvedic (meaning
which became mainstream throughout “Life of Science”) system of medicine
FIRE AND METALWORKING much of Asia. Practitioners diagnosed are found in the Indus Valley even
Controlled fire that would have been and treated disorders based on the further back, possibly as early as
used for sterilization purposes and interplay between humans and their 9000 BCE. This forms the basis of
cooking food may also have been environment, using techniques such as traditional Indian medicine today.
used by early man for closing meditation and acupuncture. It advocated a healthy lifestyle that
wounds. In addition, mineral and In the same millennium, in c.2600 BCE prescribed herbalism, massage, and
metalworking tools ff 18–19 in ancient Egypt, Imhotep (a great yoga. Its written records, such as the
SURGICAL
would have been used in crude polymath and architect of the Sushruta-samhita text on surgery,
BLADE surgical procedures. Some blades pyramids) was revered as a god of appeared later, from c.500 BCE. This
were made out of obsidian, a glass medicine and healing. The Edwin Smith particular text refers to invasive
found in volcanic rock, and were remarkably Papyrus, from c.1700 BCE is arguably practices that took place, including
sharp. The earliest surgical procedures included based on Imhotep’s texts. The world’s plastic surgery, cataract surgery, and
skull trepanning, which consisted of holes oldest surgical document, it is even cesarean sections.
being bored into a person's skull in the hope remarkably lacking in magical thinking
of relieving headaches and epilepsy. Healed with reference to diagnosis, treatment, Ancient Greek medicine
skulls (see right) indicate that some individuals and prognosis of disease. In 700 BCE the first Greek
even survived this practice. Two centuries later in c.1500 BCE, medical school opened
a Babylonian text, the Diagnostic at Cnidus. Ancient medical terms, such as
Handbook refers, perhaps, to the earliest Greek medicine, “acute” for an illness
like that in Egypt that is sharp and
and India, placed brief, and “chronic”
BREAKTHROUGH
emphasis on control for one that builds up
HIPPOCRATIC OATH of diet, lifestyle, slowly over time.
and hygiene. The Hippocratic
It is tradition that all physicians take the Hippocratic Oath, It was 300 years School rejected
a guiding set of duties, which formed part of the later that Hippocrates supernatural causes in
Hippocratic Corpus, the texts from the Hippocratic School of established his own favor of seeking the
ancient Greece. It is generally thought that Hippocrates medical school on physical causes of
himself wrote the oath, but it is likely that many Kos. He described disease. The school
contributed to the text. In the original version (see right), many diseases for emphasized care
the oath swearer includes a debt of gratitude to their the first time and and prognosis, and
medical teacher, a promise that they will live a ”pure“ life introduced lasting encouraged thorough
and that they will preserve the confidentiality of the case studies, making
people in their care. Today the oath has been updated it the forerunner of
and modified in certain countries, for example, with the
Skull trepanning
Holes were bored into patients’ skulls clinical medicine.
omission of clauses that forbid pregnancy termination. in one of the earliest known surgical Hippocrates also
treatments dating back to 40,000 BCE. championed the idea of

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 E A R LY M E D I C I N E A N D S U R G E R Y

PHYSICIAN (980–1037 CE)

AVICENNA
Avicenna (also known as Ibn Seena)
was a prolific Persian scholar who made
important contributions in medicine,
chemistry, astronomy, mathematics,
psychology, and geology. His major work
The Canon of Medicine became a
standard text in European universities. He
pioneered many medical practices,
including quarantine to control the spread
of disease (see pp.242–43), and clinical
trials in the experimental use of drugs.

Medical pioneers
These three medical pioneers (who could never
have met) were masters of their craft: Galen of
ancient Rome, Avicenna from Persia, and
Hippocrates of ancient Greece.

AF TER

After the Middle Ages, the theory and

practice of medicine advanced rapidly, but
not always to the real benefit of the patient.

BLOODLETTING
This practice involved
withdrawing significant
amounts of blood for
therapeutic reasons. William
Harvey’s circulatory theory
discredited the practice in the
humorism, which stated that the body Flemish anatomist, Andreas Vesalius 17th century. Today blood
contained four basic humors (fluids): (see pp.72–73), disproved many of withdrawal is done chiefly for
black bile, phlegm, yellow bile, and Galen’s theories. blood analysis or transfusion.
blood. Moods and illnesses were
attributed to imbalances of the humors. The birth of scientific medicine REFINEMENT OF
Hippocrates’ student, the Greek In the 5th century CE, as Greek scholars SURGICAL TOOLS BLOODLETTING
physician Galen (129–c.216 CE), fled Byzantine persecution and settled As surgical techniques
reinforced this idea with the belief that in Persia, the Academy of Gundishapur were refined, tools evolved accordingly.
blood was continually made in the emerged as a center for medical study. During the Renaissance, saws for amputation
body and could stagnate. This It later became the first teaching hospital. were developed, but it was not until the
encouraged the dubious practice of The golden age of Islam (c.700 CE to discovery of stainless steel in the early 20th
bloodletting, which involved the 1200 CE) saw the very first pharmacies century that noncorrosive surgical tools were
withdrawal of a large volume of blood and free public hospitals in Baghdad. available for the first time.
in an effort to redress any imbalance in Medieval Islam also produced medical
the humors. It wasn’t until 1543 that a treatises from scholars such as Avicenna SEE ALSO gg
(see right). During this era, Islamic pp.70–71 R    M    S
pp.228–29 S S
Egyptian surgical instruments thinkers, including Avicenna, started to pp.312–13 T D     M 
Evidence suggests that bronze and copper instruments introduce experimental methods into pp.408–09 D   C 
such as these were used in surgical procedures in their study of medicine, which had
ancient Egypt, such as drainage of sites of inflammation. a lasting impact on the discipline.

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 P R E H I S TO R Y TO 1 5 0 0

The First Astronomers

To our ancestors, the sky and Earth, the humans and gods, and the animals and plants, were all parts of one,
interacting environment. The Sun, Moon, and stars provided heat and light, allowing living creatures to thrive.
Their regular patterns of movement and change meant they could be used as compasses, clocks, and calendars.

T he perceived “usefulness” of the

stars and planets varied from place
to place within the ancient world.
Middle East, were more influenced
by rain and river levels than by the
seasons. Around coastlines, however,
Astronomical calendar
Some of the Callanish
standing stones in
Scotland (c.1800 BCE)
People living by large rivers, such as temperature and daylight variations
seem to have been set up
the Euphrates and the Nile in the had a greater effect on human, animal, to record the Metonic
and plant life. The critical hunting and Cycle of 18.61 years
gathering seasons were ruled by a solar (see p.29).
B EF O R E calendar, since the Sun’s movement
was recognized as causing the spring,
summer, fall, and winter cycle. Its
In the prehistorical period the night sky was overwhelming importance led people shadows cast by
thought to shed meaning and significance on to believe that it needed to be observed objects such as a
human endeavor. Stories were weaved and worshipped. vertical stick or an
around the recognized constellations. obelisk—a tall thin
The importance of the Moon stone—point
EVIDENCE FROM CAVE PAINTINGS In Mesolithic times, around 10,000 toward the western
The fixed constellations were often years ago, many people lived close to horizon at sunrise
represented on cave walls. The Pleiades feature the water. In coastal areas, people and due north at
in the prehistoric cave drawings at Lascaux, noticed that tides were particularly noon. Every hour
France. People noticed that certain star groups high or low at certain times of the the sky is dependable. Observers would the shadow moves further around,
(such as Sirius and Orion’s Belt) always rose month and were connected with the soon realize the time between one acting as a sundial. Similarly, most stars
and set at the same places on the horizon, lunar phases. These tides are now midsummer and another was 365 days. travel across the sky. An imagined line
and always occurred at the same season of the known as spring and neap tides (see from northern stars to the celestial pole
year. This would lead to the first calendars and pp.108–109) and would have affected Using the Sun as a clock acts like the hands of a gigantic clock.
celebrations of the seasons. fishing, shell collecting, and even At midsummer the Sun reaches its Early astronomical advances took place
opportunities for transportation. maximum noontime elevation outside in Babylon and
The full Moon, acting as a “night the tropics. At midwinter, 183 days later, Greece in the 700
light,” would have affected how people the Sun is at its lowest in the noon sky. years BCE, spurred
lived, just as their daily tasks would The idea of using its movement as a clock on by
have been governed by the number began with observations of how the planetary gg
of hours of daylight. Their days were
delineated by sunrise, noon, and BREAKTHROUGH
sunset; and their activities determined
by both a solar and a lunar calendar. MARKING TIME

Finding patterns A vertical obelisk, like this 3,300-year-old

A long time ago people observing the granite monolith at Luxor in Egypt, was
phases of the Moon would have used as a clock. The movement of its
noticed a regular pattern occurred shadow tracks the hours of the day, and
every 15, 30, 44, 59, and 74 days. The the length of its shadow marks the
Egyptian calendar progress of the year. At noon the shadow
The world’s oldest known astronomical representation
interval between successive full moons
is cast due north, allowing the obelisk to
lies in the Tomb of Senenmut, in Deir el-Bahri, Egypt. —29.5 days—became well known,
act as a compass as well as a clock. The
It dates back to 1500 BCE and depicts the decanal stars, establishing the concept that would
which marked the ten-day Egyptian week.
four sides of the obelisk’s tapered stone
later become known as a “month.”
shaft are embellished with hieroglyphs,
Importantly, the positions of heavenly
Phases of the Moon typically praising Ra, the Sun god. The top
bodies are predictable; both the Sun
Every month (every 29.5 days) the Moon goes through tenth of the shaft was covered in gold to
a complete set of phases from a full Moon to a new and the Moon rise in the east at regular
reflect the Sun’s rays.
Moon (when it is dark). The shape appears to change times. Unlike both the vagaries of the
as different parts of the illuminated Moon face Earth. weather and human relationships,

WAXING CRESCENT FIRST QUARTER WAXING GIBBOUS FULL MOON WANING GIBBOUS THIRD QUARTER WANING CRESCENT

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 Pole star
A photograph exposed all night shows the stars
spinning around the pole of the sky. The elevation
of the center of the circle above the horizon is
equal to the latitude of the observing site.

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 P R E H I S TO R Y TO 1 5 0 0

ASTRONOM ER (190–120 BCE)

HIPPARCHUS
Hipparchus was a Greek astronomer who
accurately mapped the positions of around
1,000 stars and divided them into six
categories of importance. He measured the
year length to an accuracy of 6.5 minutes
and, by comparing his observations with
those made centuries before, realized that
the direction of the spin axis of the earth
was changing. This caused the position of
the Sun at the time of the equinox to move.
He knew the seasons (intervals between
solstices and equinoxes) were not of equal
length and so calculated that the earth was
not at the center of the Sun’s orbit.

astrology. It was believed that the of around 1,000 major stars. This led
gg
positions of the planets, the Sun, to the theory of spherical trigonometry,
Moon, and stars, and the times of their and the acceptance of the “degree”
risings and settings, influenced life on as a unit of angle.
Earth and foretold the future. By the 2nd century CE the Greek
Accurate observations of planetary astronomer Ptolemy had divided the
positions over long periods of time Mediterranean sky into 48 constellations
were recorded on Babylonian clay in his famous treatise, Almagest. He Ptolemy’s cosmos check. This was important because
tablets and used to predict the planets’ created drawings of such positional Ptolemy’s vision of the universe with the known planets many prayers had to be made at
future movement. In Greece, accuracy that now—some 2,000 years on spinning crystal spheres centered on Earth. Their specific times of the day. Religious
order was determined according to their speed, relative
Hipparchus (see above) wanted to later—they can still be used to detect observance also meant that the Moon
to the fixed stars on the outermost sphere. This view of
improve their accuracy, so he the movement of stars that were the universe was upheld for 1,400 years. and the Sun were closely observed.
measured the position and brilliance previously thought to be fixed. Angles Once the major religions were
that had previously been estimated established many societies used both a
using the extended hand were now believed that the Earth was spherical. lunar and a solar calendar to accurately
carefully measured with an In the 3rd century BCE Aristarchus set the dates of festivals. Even today,
adjustable cross staff or celestial asserted that the earth revolves around the Christian festival Easter is set on
compass. the Sun, but this theory was not the first Sunday after the first full
widely accepted at the time. He also Moon after the spring equinox.
Movements of used careful eclipse timings to calculate
the planets that the Moon was about 60 Earth Measuring the year
The future movements radii away (within 1 percent of today’s The length of the tropical year—the
of the planets were value). Around the same time, time interval between successive
predicted using Eratosthenes accurately measured the equinoxes—was estimated using the
complicated earth- earth’s radius and the tilt of the spin daily lengths of noontime shadows.
centered models in axis (see pp.38–39). The year length could also be found by
which the planets
moved at constant Marking time
velocities around a Time was measured during the
series of theoretical day using the Sun’s shadow, and
circles. In the 6th sundials became commonplace.
century BCE the During the night people relied on
Greek the use of stellar positions, and
astronomer primitive water, sand glass, and
Pythagoras candle clocks were used to keep

Chinese constellations
This North Polar sky map was found in Dunhuang,
China, and is thought to date from c.705 CE. The
constellation of Ursa Major can clearly be seen at
the bottom.

“ Astronomy compels the soul

Farnese Atlas
This 2nd-century CE sculpture of the
kneeling god Atlas includes the
to look up upward and leads
oldest known representation of
the celestial globe. The sphere us from this world to another.”
depicts 41 of the 48 classical Greek
constellations described by Ptolemy. PLATO, GREEK PHILOSOPHER, C.400 BCE

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 TH E F I R ST ASTRONOM ER S

Astrolabe
This astrolabe, used to measure time and position, was
produced by Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Zarqali in c.1015 CE.
If the latitude was known, the altitudes of the Sun or
certain stars could be set to give the time. If the time
was known, the Sun and star positions could be set to Rete
establish the latitude. The rete is a cut-out plate that sits
on top of the latitude tympan and
Mater rotates over it. This enables the user
The base plate is called to line up the star pointers (on the
a mater. Its outer rim is rete) with the night sky for the
marked with a degree scale. particular latitude shown on the
tympan beneath it.
Tympan
A rotating plate, or tympan,
sits on top of the mater. Ecliptic ring
The celestial sphere for one The ecliptic ring is part of the
particular latitude is rete. It shows the annual path
mapped onto this plate. of the Sun across the sky.

Ulugh Beg’s mural sextant at Samarkand

This gigantic 15th-century astronomical device has a-
118 ft- (36 m) long meridian arc, which runs along the
north–south plane. Stairs were carved out either side, to
give Beg and his assistants access for measuring the
altitude of celestial bodies as they crossed the meridian.

AF TER

Astronomical measurements of planetary

years and orbit sizes spurred on physicists
in their investigations of forces, leading to
the discovery of gravitation.

HELIOCENTRIC VIEW
The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473–1543) started modern astronomy by
proposing a heliocentric system 74–75 gg,
where the planets revolved around the Sun.

INCAN EQUINOXES
The mysterious Intihuatana stone at Machu
Picchu, dating from the 1400s, might have been
a seat for a priest-astronomer, who observed
the rising or setting of the Sun in certain valleys,
with the timing of such events shaping the
planting season and the harvest.

measuring the time year has 365.25 days.

taken for the Earth to Chinese knowledge of
orbit the Sun using fixed astronomy had developed since
stars to measure the movement. the 12th century BCE but along INCAN INTIHUATANA
The dawn rising of stars such as Sirius independent lines. Chinese maps of the
or star groups such as Pleiades were The Julian calendar was introduced constellations (left) show a detailed THE TELESCOPE
used to do this. A breakthrough came by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar in knowledge of the night sky. In 1609 Galileo turned a telescope to the sky,
when the Greek astronomer Meton 45 BCE. The year was taken to be 365.25 and began to study the planets and the Moon
(born c.460 BCE) discovered that 19 days long, and a leap year was added The astrolabe in greater detail. Astonishing new discoveries
solar years was nearly equivalent in every four years. The inaccuracy was The latitudes of places on Earth could followed at an amazing rate.
length to 235 lunar months. This became only one day in every 128 years, and be measured using the elevation of the
known as the Metonic Cycle, and it was this was corrected by Pope Gregory XIII Sun. This was important in Islam for SEE ALSO gg
used for setting the dates of religious in 1582 CE. The lunar calendar—with determining the direction of Mecca, pp.74–75 T S -  U  
pp.76–79 P  M 
festivals, and for predicting the times its month of 29.5 days—does not fit and led to the development of the
of solar and lunar eclipses. well with the solar calendar—whose astrolabe (above).

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 P R E H I S TO R Y TO 1 5 0 0

Ancient Number Systems

From the time of the earliest civilizations various signs and symbols have been used to represent numbers.
As recording and calculating became ever more complex, several numerical systems developed, eventually
leading to the numerals and decimal number system we use today.

T he first way of recording numbers

was probably making crude tally
marks on stones or sticks, or, simply,
base 12. However, for most purposes,
calculations now are usually done in a
decimal system (that is, to base 10).
In central America, between the 3rd
and 9th century CE, the Mayans
developed a sophisticated system based
piles of pebbles. Various numerical on 5 and 20, with symbols that included
systems slowly evolved in the Cuneiform and hieroglyphs zero—a concept that did not appear in
different cultures of the ancient The decimal system was not other cultures until many centuries
world. Some proved inadequate universal in ancient cultures. The later. The ancient Egyptians, working to
for complex calculation, but Babylonians, in around 3000 BCE, base 10, assigned separate hieroglyphs
others formed the basis of worked to base 60, and the for the numbers one, ten, a hundred, a
the system we are familiar legacy of this system can still be thousand, ten thousand and a million.
with today. seen in the way we measure time Over time these were simplified into
One of the first ideas in hours and minutes, and simple brushstrokes known as hieratics.
to emerge was the angles in degrees. The The ancient Chinese also worked in a
concept of counting in Babylonians inscribed decimal system, with characters
groups—what modern numbers on clay tablets representing the numbers one to ten,
mathematicians call with the end of a pointed and multiples of ten, a hundred, and so
systems to a base. For stick, which left behind on. As well as this system of writing
example, eggs are still Ancient Egyptian scribe a wedge-shaped numerals, they used a set of small
often counted in In ancient Egypt scribes had detailed (cuneiform) mark. These sticks called counting rods arranged on
dozens, which can be knowledge of writing and mathematics cuneiform symbols were a board that was divided into rows and
seen as counting to using hieroglyphs and, later, hieratics. the first true numerals. columns for performing calculations.

B EF O R E

The most ancient methods of representing

numbers probably involved counting out
small objects, such as stones, making
marks—tally marks—on sticks or clay, or
using counting rods.

TALLY MARKS
A simple way of recording numbers, tally
marks were used, for instance, in counting the
number of days that
elapse or the number of
animals in a herd. These
were sometimes
scratched on stones or
sticks or impressed on
clay tablets (a precursor
of the Babylonian
cuneiform numerals).

ISHANGO TALLY BONE,

AFRICA

COUNTING RODS
The system of using an object, such as a pebble,
bone, or stick to represent each unit evolved
into counting rods, which were used in ancient
China. In the counting rod system, digits are
represented by the number of rods. This system
also enabled fractions and positive and
negative numbers to be represented.

ff
SEE ALSO Algorist and abacist

pp.26–29 T F  A   This woodprint is an allegorical representation of the fierce competition in
medieval Europe between rival groups of mathematicians. Abacists (right)
used a traditional abacus for calculation, while algorists (left) did their
calculations on paper using the new numerals in a positional system.

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 ANCI ENT N U M B ER SYSTEM S

NUMBER SYMBOLS BREAKTHROUGH

Each of the ancient civilizations developed its own system of numeric notation. Some ZERO
notation systems, such as the Mayan, had little or no influence on the evolution of
modern numerals, and others, as in the case of Roman numerals, even hindered The adoption of a symbol to represent
progress toward a universal positional notation system. zero was a major turning point in the
Babylonian Ancient Ancient Ancient Ancient Mayan Modern positional notation system. Previously in
Egyptian Greek Roman Chinese Hindu–Arabic calculations a gap was left as a
spaceholder in the appropriate column,
I 1 but this led to ambiguity: out of context,
it was practically impossible to distinguish
II 2 between numbers such as 10, 20, 30,
and 400 and simple 1, 2, 3, and 4. The

III 3 gap representing zero was at first

replaced with a small dot by Indian

IV 4 mathematicians, but this then evolved

into the “0” symbol of Hindu–Arabic
numerals. This symbol is still used today,
V 5 although since the advent of computers,
the symbol Ø is sometimes used for zero
VI 6 to distinguish it from the capital letter “O.”

VII 7
VIII 8
IX 9
X 10
Ancient Greek and Roman and a decimal system in positional century, that a symbol for zero was
numerals notation. This system had its roots adopted, rather than a gap left as a
With the rise of Greek civilization in the numerals of the Indus placeholder, making the positional
and its interest in mathematics Valley civilization contemporary notation system complete.
came the practice of using with the Babylonians, which Translations of Islamic texts in the
letters of the alphabet as evolved into a recognizable 12th century brought the Hindu–
numerals. The alphabet ancestor of our modern Arabic system (often referred to simply
was also used by the numerals by the 3rd as “Arabic numbers”) to Europe, where
Romans. In their system I century BCE. It was further it gradually replaced Roman numerals.
represented one, and was refined by Indian The ease with which the Hindu–Arabic
simply repeated for two (II) mathematicians, such as system enabled calculations to be done,
and three (III); other letters Brahmagupta (600 BCE), and and the fact that it allowed numbers to
were used for five (V), ten spread to Persia and the be written down unambiguously,
Roman numerals
(X), fifty (L), one hundred Even today Roman numerals are still Middle East, where it was ensured its status as the universal
(C), five hundred (D) and used in some contexts, such as adopted by Islamic mathematical language that has been
one thousand (M). copyright dates and on the dials of scholars. It was at around used, with minor additions and
Numbers in between some clocks and watches. this time, in the 9th modifications, to the present day.
were expressed by
repeating these symbols, as in XXX for
thirty, and simply adding progressively AF TER
smaller numerals, for example CCLXVII
for 267. If a numeral preceded a larger
one, however, this indicated that it The replacing of Roman numerals with typographical symbols such as ! (factorial), e
should be subtracted from it, so that IV Hindu–Arabic numbers in Europe made (infinity), and { (approximation) became part of a
was four (five minus one). calculation simpler and helped accelerate universally understood shorthand.
progress in mathematics.
Hindu–Arabic numeral system EXPONENTIAL NOTATION
The Roman system was difficult to use MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS One drawback of the positional notation system is
for calculation but still persisted in From medieval times onward, various symbols that very large and very small numbers are difficult
Europe until medieval times and the were introduced as abbreviations for verbal to read, especially when they include a long series
arrival of the Hindu–Arabic numerals instructions in mathematical problems. The of zeroes. This problem is overcome by the use of
first to appear were symbols for operations such exponential notation, in which large numbers are
as + (plus) and - (minus), and the = (equals) expressed as a x 10b (a times ten to the power of
Mayan calendar signs, which were followed by conventions such b); for example, 100 is 1 x 10 2.
The Mayans used dots and bars to represent numbers, as the superscript 2 for squares and – for roots.
as can be seen on this calendar from the early-13th
Letters of the Greek alphabet were also used as SEE ALSO gg
century Dresden Codex. The Mayan number system
was based on the numbers 20 and 5 and included a symbols, for example Q for pi, and later pp.48–49 A
symbol for zero—commonly represented by a shell
—which enabled them to write very large numbers.

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 P R E H I S TO R Y TO 1 5 0 0

M AT H E M AT I C I A N A N D P H I LO SO P H E R Bo r n c.5 6 9 BCE D ied c.4 9 5 BCE

Pythagoras
“ Number is the ruler of
forms and ideas.”
PYTHAGORAS, FROM “THE LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS”
BY IAMBLICHUS OF CHALCIS, c.300 CE

P ythagoras, the most famous

mathematician of the ancient world,
is remembered now for Pythagoras’s
mathematical,
partly religious, and
in part mystical. The
Theorem. The Babylonians and others mathematicians of
were familiar with its principles about the school regarded
a thousand years earlier, but Pythagoras their life as a kind of
proved it to be true; indeed, he exile, believing that the
introduced the concept of proof, now soul could leave the
fundamental to mathematics. body, and that they would
be reincarnated.
Unclear beginnings The school attracted
Pythagoras was such a towering about 2,600 young men,
figure that all sorts of stories and probably women,
were made up about him, who divided into two
and there is no way of groups: an inner
proving which of them circle consisting of
are true. He is known to The Tetractys mathematicians, and
have been born on the This triangular arrangement, their listeners. The
Greek island of Samos known as the Tetractys, was a mathematicians lived by
some time around 569 BCE. secret symbol of worship for a set of curious rules, were
the Pythagorean school.
He may have traveled to strict vegetarians, wore
Miletos; he may have been taught by distinctive clothes, and went around
Thales. It seems likely that he visited barefoot. They also had a secret sign,
Egypt and Babylon, where priests may the pentagram, which is a five-
have taught the geometrical principles pointed star within a pentagon.
that underlie his theorem. The school members lived their
lives by mathematics, for Pythagoras
Pythagoras’s school thought that numbers were the
Returning in about 520 BCE, Pythagoras essence of being. Odd numbers were
journeyed in 518 BCE to Croton, in thought to be male; even, female.
present-day Calabria, Italy, where he For their arithmetical investigations
founded a school that was partly they probably used pebbles in the

The school of Pythagoras

In southern Italy Pythagoras founded a mystical
brotherhood, where “All is number.” The mathematicians
lived permanently in this unusual establishment, while
listeners were permitted to attend during the day.

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 PY THAGOR AS

a2 + b2 = c2 Pythagoras believed that everything

could be described in whole numbers,
TIMELINE

O c.569 BCE Pythagoras is born in Samos, on the

but in a right-angled triangle whose island of Samos; his father was Mnesarchos, his
short sides are both one unit long, the mother Pythais. The town has since been
length of the hypotenuse is given by renamed Pythagorion in his honor.
the square root of two. Hippasus, one
of the mathematicians in the school,
managed to prove geometrically that
the square root of two is an irrational
number; it cannot be represented by a
ratio, or fraction, of the form p/q,
where p and q are whole numbers.
Some say that Hippasus was thrown
c b overboard and drowned; others that
Pythagoras was so upset that he

a committed suicide. Whatever the truth

of that, the square root of two is indeed
irrational: written as a decimal it starts
1.4142135623730950488… but then
goes on for ever, without any pattern.
#
Pythagoras’s theorem
In any triangle that contains a
right angle, the square on the
Pythagoras’s legacy
hypotenuse (c, the long side) is In his work on whole, triangle, and
equal to the sum of the squares square numbers, Pythagoras founded
on the other two sides (a and b). number theory, a current branch of
mathematics that deals with whole
numbers. Of more immediate
sand; in this way they learned about school called the tetractys (see opposite). influence, he introduced the concept STATUE OF PYTHAGORAS AT PYTHAGORION,
triangle numbers and square numbers. The school held the tetractys to have of proof. Euclid’s Elements, written in SAMOS, GREECE
Especially important was the triangle many meanings: for example, its rows 300 BCE, is entirely about the subject of
with four pebbles on each side—the of one, two, three, and four points proof and became the most influential O c.550 BCE Goes to Miletos and is taught by
triangular number 10, which the were held to represent dimensions, mathematical text in the world. Thales, one of the earliest of the Greek
from zero to three respectively. philosophers, an astronomer who seems to have
predicted an eclipse of the Sun in 585 BCE, and
Harmony of the spheres
Pythagoras’s theorem Pythagoras believed that the
his pupil Anaximander, who was interested in
When he found a proof for the theorem cosmology and geometry.
relationship between the planets
that bears his name, Pythagoras is said in some way reflected his O c.535 BCE On Thales’s advice he goes to Egypt,
to have sacrificed an ox at the school to musical scale. Robert Fludd where there is already a sizeable community of
celebrate. The theorem states that in (1574–1637) produced this people from Samos; they even have their own
any right-angled triangle the square on interpretation of Pythagoras’s temple in Naucratis. Pythagoras studies
“harmony of the spheres.”
the hypotenuse (the long side) is equal astronomy and geometry.
to the sum of the squares on the other O c.525 BCE Reputedly taken prisoner by
two sides (see above). In other words, Cambyses II, the King of Persia, and taken to
if the sides of a right-angled triangle Babylon, where he studies arithmetic, music, and
are of lengths a, b, and c, and c is the other disciplines with the scholars.
longest side, then a2 + b2 = c2. There is O c.520 BCE Returns to Samos, where, after a visit
an infinite number of integral solutions to Crete to study its legal system, he forms a
to this equation—values for a, b, and school. He is not treated well by the Samians,
c, which are all whole numbers. however, and travels on to mainland Greece, and
The simplest examples of these from there to southern Italy.
“Pythagorean triples” are O c.518 BCE Settles in Croton, a Greek seaport in
(3, 4, 5) and (5, 12, 13). southern Italy, where he founds a school or
brotherhood devoted to the study of
Music and astronomy mathematics, but also including a medical
Mathematics of music Pythagoras enjoyed music. school. The Pythagoreans are sworn to silence
According to legend, Pythagoras experimented with The story goes that he was and secrecy and are bound by a set of curious
simple instruments and invented the musical scale, walking past a rules. In particular they are not allowed to eat
based on mathematical principles. blacksmith’s shop and was meat, fish, or beans, nor to drink wine. They are
intrigued by the notes as not allowed to wear woollen clothes, because
various hammers rang on wool comes from animals. This may be
the anvil. He investigated connected with the fact that Pythagoras believes
the notes made by plucking in reincarnation, and is worried about being
stretched strings, and so reincarnated as an animal.
%
Pythagoras of Samos
The most famous mathematician of mathematically invented the O c.510 BCE The unusual brotherhood attracts
the ancient world, Pythagoras was musical scale. While this story is hostility and distrust and is threatened with
one of the first to establish the improbable, as he almost certainly violence; Pythagoras escapes to Metapontion,
notion that Earth is a sphere. He another Greek city in southern Italy.
studied music in Egypt, he may have
founded a curious school or
brotherhood for whom the experimented with stretched strings .O c.495 BCE Dies in Metapontion.
study of mathematics was and gone on to formalize the musical
tantamount to a religion. scale mathematically.

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B EF O R E
The five regular polyhedrons
Also called Platonic solids, the five
Mathematics before the ancient Greeks was convex regular polyhedrons were
largely unsystematized and emphasized
first defined by Pythagoras. They
practical applications.
are the only three-dimensional
shapes whose faces are
EARLY MATHEMATICS
regular polygons and meet
Mathematics in ancient Egypt was focused on
practical issues, such as counting ff30–31,
at equal angles.
calendrical calculations to help predict the
flooding of the Nile, and simple geometry for Regular tetrahedron Cube
dividing up land and building large structures The regular tetrahedron is composed of The cube is composed of squares.
equilateral triangles. It has four triangular It has six square faces, 12 edges,
such as the pyramids. Ancient Chinese
faces, six edges, and four vertices. and eight vertices.
mathematics, which developed independently,
was concerned with many of the same subjects,
and similarly emphasized practicality.

PYRAMIDS AT GIZA, EGYPT

ff
SEE ALSO
Regular octahedron Regular dodecahedron Regular icosahedron
pp.30–31 A   N  S 
The regular octahedron is composed of The regular dodecahedron is composed of The regular icosahedron is composed of
equilateral triangles. It has eight triangular regular pentagons. It has 12 pentagonal equilateral triangles. It has 20 triangular
faces, 12 edges, and six vertices. faces, 30 edges, and 20 vertices. faces, 30 edges, and 12 vertices.

Greek Mathematics
M AT H E M AT I C I A N ( C . 3 2 5 – 2 6 5 B C E )

EUCLID
One of the foremost ancient Greek
mathematicians, Euclid may have studied
at Plato’s Academy and certainly taught at
the Library of Alexandria during the reign
of Ptolemy I. Although little else is known
about his life, his work was widely
translated and is well known, especially
and Geometry
his major treatise, The Elements. As well The mathematical thinking of the ancient Greeks marked a turning point in the development of the
as establishing basic principles of
subject. Building on the empirical discoveries of the Babylonians and Egyptians, Greek mathematicians
geometry with his axioms, Euclid wrote
about number theory, and also on the instigated a more scientific approach that is still the basis of mathematics today.
subjects of optics, mechanics, and music.

EUCLID’S FIVE AXIOMS

T he big innovation that distinguished
ancient Greek from previous
to Greece. Geometry—at that time, the
study of lengths, areas, and volumes—
mathematics was the development of
deductive logic, and with it the concept
of proof. Where the Egyptians were
1 Any two points can be connected by
one and only one straight line.
therefore became the foundation for
subsequent Greek mathematics.
Thales found new applications for
content to accept that, for example,
certain dimensions produced a right-
angled triangle, early Greek
2 Any line segment is contained in a
full, infinitely long line.
his geometry: he calculated the height
of a pyramid by measuring the length
of its shadow and comparing this with
mathematicians sought to understand
the underlying laws of these discoveries,
and applied logic to prove their theories.
3 Given a point and a line segment
starting at that point, there is a circle
that has the point as its center and
the ratio of the length of his own
shadow (measured at the same time)
to his height. Theories attributed to
the line segment as a radius. him confirm his analytical as well as
Early Greek mathematics practical appreciation of geometry,
The earliest known of these Greek
mathematicians was Thales of Miletus,
who probably acquired much of his
4 All right angles are equal to one
another.
and also established the principle of
deductive proof in mathematics.
It is thought that Thales taught
practical knowledge from his travels
to Egypt. Because he was an engineer,
most of his studies were in geometry,
5 Given a line and a point that is not
on the line, there is only one line
through the point that never meets
Anaximander, the philosopher who
first asserted a scientific rather than
supernatural order to the Universe and
which he is credited with introducing the first line. whose students included Pythagoras

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 G R E E K M AT H E M AT I C S A N D G E O M E T R Y

(see pp.32–33). From his school in

IN PRACTICE
Croton, Pythagoras taught that
everything could be explained by NAVIGATION
mathematics, an idea that influenced
later thinkers including Plato and The advances made by the ancient
Aristotle (see pp.36–37). Using Thales’s Greeks in geometry and mathematics
notion of deductive logic, Pythagoras were particularly useful for navigation,
(or members of his school, the especially when combined with
Pythagoreans) provided proofs for a astronomical observations. By applying
number of theorems. These included the principles of trigonometry (the study
Pythagoras’s famous theorem for of triangles) to their observations, sailors
right-angled triangles—that the square were able to navigate by the stars with
of the hypotenuse (long side) of a greater accuracy than before. For
right-angled triangle equals the sum example, by measuring the angle
of the squares of the other two sides. between a celestial object, such as a
Pythagoras’s disciples included star, and the horizon using a sextant,
latitude can be determined.
Hippasus, who discovered that the
square root of 2 was what he called
an “irrational” number—one that
cannot be written as a simple fraction
—and among later followers of his Irrational numbers degree of accuracy. Diophantus of AF TER
ideas was Hippocrates of Chios, writer Applying Pythagoras's theorem to a Alexandria took Euclid’s ideas to the
of the first geometry textbooks to state right-angled triangle with sides of next stage in his work on equations,
one unit, Hippasus found that the
Pythagorean theorems and proofs. pioneering algebra (see pp.48–49). A Works of the Greek mathematicians were
hypotenuse (long side) was equal
Mathematicians of this period were to the square root of two, which particular subject of interest was conic translated by Indian and Islamic scholars,
fascinated by how many geometric was what he termed an sections, the shapes made by slicing influencing subsequent developments.
problems could be solved using only irrational number— through a cone, such as parabolas and
a straight edge and compasses. They a number that •2 ellipses. Foremost in this field was CLASSICAL INDIAN MATHEMATICS
cannot be written 1
found solutions for bisecting an angle, Apollonius of Perga, who used conic From around 400 CE the era of classical Indian
as a simple
drawing parallel lines, and more. But sections to explain the apparent motion mathematics followed on from both the Greek
fraction.
three problems remained unsolved: of the planets. and Chinese traditions. Mathematicians such as
trisecting an angle, doubling a cube, Aryabhata and Varahamihira built on their
and squaring a circle (making a square Mathematics and astronomy discoveries, introducing innovations including
with the same area as a given circle). Astronomy dominated the last period a symbol for zero and decimal numbers.
of ancient Greek mathematics. Rather
1
Euclid’s influence than simply mapping celestial objects, ISLAMIC MATHEMATICS
Following the death of Alexander the ancient Greek astronomers used As the Islamic empire spread from about 700 CE
Great in 323 BCE, the Greek empire influential mathematics textbook ever geometric principles to understand scholars translated the works of ancient Greek
seemed to be on the wane, but Greek written, Euclid laid down five axioms their motions. The first comprehensive mathematicians. Islamic mathematicians
mathematics flourished. The first, and (see opposite) and proceeded from explanation of the motions of the developed their work to make further
perhaps greatest, mathematician of them to provide proofs for his planets was made by Ptolemy in the discoveries in geometry, and in the emerging
this period was Euclid (see opposite). mathematical theorems. 2nd century CE. He devised a model fields of algebra 48–49 gg
and number theory.
His contribution was enormous, but Building on Euclid’s foundations, that mapped their movements as seen
at its heart was the notion of axioms, Archimedes proved that the area of a from Earth. His treatise the Almagest (or MATHEMATICS IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
self-evident truths from which circle is pi (π) times the square of its “Great Compilation”) was as influential From about the 12th century contact with Islamic
deductions could be made. In his radius, and managed to calculate π to astronomy (see pp.28–29) as Euclid’s scholars stimulated interest in mathematics in
treatise The Elements, probably the most (approximately 3.14) to a remarkable Elements had been to geometry. Europe, but there were no major discoveries
until Fibonacci 62 –63gg
in the 13th century.
INVENTION

SIEVE OF ERATOSTHENES
The sieve of Eratosthenes is a Circled numbers are primes Crossed-out numbers are non-primes
technique for finding prime numbers—
whole numbers divisible only by
themselves and by 1 (which, by
definition, is not a prime). It consists of
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
filtering out non-primes from a list of
all numbers from 2 up to any top limit.
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
For example, to find all primes to 50:
1. List all numbers from 2 to 50.
2. Circle 2 then cross out all multiples 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
of 2 (4, 6, 8, etc.). MEDIEVAL GEOMETRY LESSON
3. Circle the next number that is not
crossed out then cross out all multiples 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
of that number. SEE ALSO gg
4. Repeat step 3 until the end of the pp.48–49 A
list is reached. The primes are the 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 pp.62–63 E  M W 
pp.136–37 N   O
numbers circled.

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P H I LO SO P H E R A N D SC I E N T I ST Born 3 8 4   D ied 3 2 2  

Aristotle
“ The whole is more than the
sum of its parts.”
ARISTOTLE, FROM “METAPHYSICS,” 335–323 BCE

O ne of the greatest of the Greek

philosophers, Aristotle laid the
foundations for scientific thought in
the academy, becoming one of a line of
great Greek philosophers: Socrates had
been Plato’s mentor, and now Aristotle
the Islamic and Christian worlds. His was an obvious choice as Plato’s
studies of various subjects, including successor as head of the Academy.
physics, mathematics, logic, and biology,
have influenced many disciplines. After Plato’s Academy
Aristotle was born in Stageira, Denied the job for political reasons,
Macedon, the son of a doctor, Aristotle left the Academy for Assos
Nicomachus. Appointed personal in Asia Minor (modern Turkey),
physician to the King of Macedon, where Hermias of Atarneus had
Nicomachus probably took young assembled some philosophers.
Aristotle with him, beginning a close While at Assos, Aristotle explored
association with the royal family. the wildlife of nearby Lesbos,
Aristotle was orphaned at the age of returning to the study of biology
10 and brought up by his uncle, who and zoology he had started
complemented his early medical with his father and beginning
education with lessons in rhetoric and work on a systematic
poetry. At the age of 17 he went to classification of living
Athens to become a student at Plato’s things. Assos was then
Academy. Aristotle spent 20 years at invaded by the Persians;

&
Aristotle
This bronze statue of Aristotle, created in 1915
by Cipri Adolf Bermann (1862–1942), is placed
opposite one of Homer, also by Bermann,
outside an entrance of the University of
Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany.

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 A R I S TOT L E

Aristotle tutoring Alexander TIMELINE

Aristotle fled, first to Lesbos, and then
Aristotle taught at the Macedonian
to Macedon at the invitation of King court before setting up the Lyceum in
O 384 BCE Aristotle is born in Stageira, Macedon,
Philip. One of his pupils at the Athens. Among his pupils there was on the Chalcidic peninsula of northern Greece.
Macedonian court was Philip’s son King Philip’s 13-year-old son Alexander, Shortly after the birth, his father, Nicomachus, is
Alexander, who, after he succeeded later Alexander the Great, in whom he appointed personal physician to Amyntas III,
the throne, wanted to send Aristotle inspired a great love of learning. King of Macedon.
to Athens in an ambassadorial role. O 374 BCE Nicomachus dies, and Aristotle is
again became fiercely brought up by his uncle, Proxenus of Atarneus.
The Lyceum and the “Peripatetics” anti-Macedonian, and O 366 BCE Moves to Athens to study at Plato’s
When Aristotle did not receive the Aristotle’s connection with Academy, staying for the next 20 years. After
headship of the Academy in Athens, the deceased king made Plato’s death, he leaves, with others including
Alexander encouraged him to set up his position untenable. At Xenocrates and Theophrastus, amid academic
his own establishment in the same time he was disagreements and anti-Macedonian feeling.
competition: the Lyceum. This denounced for refusing to O 348 BCE Philip of Macedon expands his territory
offered a broader range of accept royalty as divine and annexes Chalcidice.
disciplines than the and was forced to leave O 346 BCE Travels with Xenocrates to the court of
Academy, with an Athens once more. Hermias of Atarneus in Assos, Asia Minor, and
emphasis on the study becomes leader of a group of philosophers. He
of nature as well as works. In particular, he developed his Aristotle’s legacy visits Lesbos, where he studies the plant and
traditional philosophy, “analytics,” the system of deductive Aristotle died of natural causes shortly animal life of the island with Theophrastus.
politics, and rhetoric. logic that underpins Western logic and after leaving the Lyceum. The works he
O 343 BCE Assos is invaded by the Persians;
The Lyceum attracted the scientific method today. His had published during his lifetime are Hermias is captured and later executed, and
students who were teaching on the subjects of “natural now lost, but much of his teaching was Aristotle flees to Lesbos.
called the “Peripatetics” philosophy” (physics), mathematics, passed down by his students and a
O 342 BCE Is invited by Philip of Macedon to
after the colonnades and zoology showed that he regarded collection of writings was published
Macedonia, and is appointed as tutor to students
(peripatoi) of the school; these just as highly as the philosophical posthumously. Translations into Arabic
at the royal court, including the young Alexander
the name may also derive subjects such as metaphysics, ethics, were later made by Islamic scholars, and the Great and Ptolemy I.
from Aristotle’s habit of and politics covered by his treatises. subsequently into Latin by medieval
O 340 BCE Aristotle marries Hermias’s niece and
walking while lecturing. Aristotle’s heyday at the Lyceum was European translators, preserving his
adopted daughter Pythias. They have a daughter,
Aristotle prepared his lecture sadly cut short by political wrangling extraordinary breadth of knowledge and
also called Pythias.
notes in the form of treatises, and these after Alexander died. Athens once clarity of intellect for posterity.
survived to become his most important O 339 BCE After an unsuccessful bid to become

$
The School of Athens

“All men by nature desire head of the Academy (a post given to his friend
and colleague Xenocrates), he loses the support
of Philip and moves back to Stageira (now part
Raphael’s fresco The School of Athens, painted in the
Vatican, Rome, depicts many of the philosophers and
scientists of ancient Greece. Deep in discussion at its
knowledge.” of Macedon), but is still nominally employed by
the Macedonian court.
center are Plato and his pupil, the young Aristotle.
ARISTOTLE, FROM “METAPHYSICS,” 335–323 BCE O 336 BCE Philip of Macedon dies and is
succeeded by his son Alexander. Aristotle is sent
to Athens to set up a rival to the Academy.
O 335 BCE Establishes his own school in Athens,
known as the Lyceum. Writes treatises, some in
dialogue form, on the soul, physics,
metaphysics, ethics, politics, and
poetics during the next 12 years.
O 330 BCE His wife Pythias dies. He
later has a relationship with
Herpyllis of Stageira, with
whom he has a son,
Nicomachus.
O 323 BCE Alexander
the Great dies, and
anti-Macedonian
feeling flares up again
in Athens. Aristotle is
denounced for seeing
kings as merely mortal
and flees Athens to his
mother’s estate in Chalcis
on the island of Euboea:
Socrates had died for
just such views.
O 322 BCE Dies of a
stomach complaint in
Chalcis, at 62, and
requests in his will
that he be buried
alongside his wife.
STATUE OF ARISTOTLE AT
STAGEIRA

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B EF O R E

Clues to what people’s ideas about the

world may have been over 3,000 years ago
come from examination of a small number
Ancient Ideas of the World
of ancient texts and maps.
Over the course of several centuries BCE a succession of philosophers, mathematicians, and early geographers
sought to understand the basic shape and size of our planet, as well as defining concepts such as latitude and
EARLY LOCAL MAPPING
Long before they had any idea of the overall climate zones. The conclusions that they reached demonstrated a high level of sophistication and accuracy.
shape of the earth or the distribution of its
landmasses, people were making primitive
maps of their local areas. The oldest known
local map, which was discovered in Mezhirich,
G reek and Roman scholars, including around 550 BCE, was that Earth is a
the first geographers, developed
new concepts about the world, some of
sphere. Pythagoras reasoned that this
shape is the most harmonious geometric
Ukraine in 1966, is thought to date from which are now known to be solid and therefore the
approximately 10,000 BCE. Inscribed on a correct. Remarkably, some shape the gods would
mammoth tusk, it shows several dwellings of them appear to have have chosen for the
along the banks of a river. been based purely on world when they
philosophical or created it. Accepting
FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH aesthetic grounds the possibility of a
A common ancient theme was that the earth rather than scientific spherical Earth, around
was flat and that it took the form of a circle observation. Until 360 BCE the philosopher
or square, which was thought to be surmounted around 2,500 years ago, Plato suggested that
by a hemispherical sky. In ancient Egypt, which the prevailing belief in there was likely to be Evidence for a spherical earth
One of Aristotle’s arguments for a
prevailed for nearly 3,000 years BCE, the sky was the Mediterranean another landmass
spherical earth was that its shadow, seen
believed to be like a tent canopy, which stretched region and in nearby directly on the opposite here cast on the Moon during a lunar
between great mountains that stood at the four Mesopotamia was that side from the lands of the eclipse, has a curved edge.
corners of the earth. these lands occupied Mediterranean, which he
the upper flat surface of called the antipodes. This
a drum- or coin-shaped idea, however, was based
disk. Earth’s surface at this purely on a Greek belief
M AT H E M AT I C I A N ( 2 7 6 – 1 9 4 BCE) time was thought to in symmetry.
consist mainly of land, Babylonian map Aristotle (c.384–322 BCE)
ERATOSTHENES with a sea (the Part of this clay tablet (c.600 BCE) was the first scholar to
Mediterranean) at its shows inhabited lands encircled put forward scientific
The Greek scholar Eratosthenes was by an ocean. It is considered to be
center, and an ocean evidence that Earth is
born in Cyrene, in North Africa. As a the oldest known world map.
surrounding the land, a sphere. He argued
young man he studied in Athens and
extending to the edges of the disk. that travelers to southern lands
Alexandria, becoming an expert in many
could see stars in the night sky,
different fields, including mathematics
and astronomy. At the age of 40 he was
A spherical Earth which were hidden below the
appointed chief librarian at the library of
Over a period of more than two horizon for those living
Alexandria, the greatest center of learning centuries (c.550–300 BCE), Greek further north, and this could
in the ancient world. In addition to his scholars made some key advances in only be explained if Earth’s
first accurate determination of Earth’s understanding the world. The most surface was curved. In
circumference (see right), Eratosthenes important of these ideas, first advocated addition, he pointed out
drew important early world maps, by the mathematician Pythagoras that during lunar eclipses
calculated the distance from Earth to the shadow of Earth on the
the Sun, and made a key contribution Moon has a curved edge.
Sun’s rays
to the mathematical theory of prime Aristotle’s arguments were
numbers. He also coined the term convincing and, by
“geography” and was, arguably, the first Tower in c.330 BCE, most educated
Alexandria
geographer. Tragically, toward the end people in the classical
of his life he became blind and world had accepted that
subsequently starved himself to death. Height of 5,000 stadia Earth was a sphere and
tower from Alexandria not flat.
to Syene

Length of
Earth’s circumference
shadow The next challenge was
Well in determining how big this sphere
Syene was—the circumference of the Earth.
Scholars realized they should be
able to figure out the Earth’s
circumference. First they should
Angle at Earth’s center find two places on a north–
is equal to angle at
Center of top of tower
the earth
Measuring Earth’s circumference
By examining how the Sun’s rays reached the earth
at Alexandria and Syene, Eratosthenes figured out
the difference in their latitudes (7° 12’), divided this
into 360° (50), and multiplied it by the north–south
distance between them (5,000 stadia) to give him the
circumference of the Earth (250,000 stadia).

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 ANCIENT IDEAS OF THE WORLD

BREAKTHROUGH

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

One of the most important advances of all time (reconstructed below), and drew a
time for the mapping of the world was the line of latitude through it. The fact that the
development of the concepts of latitude line accurately corresponded to what is
(distance north or south from the equator) now called 36⁰ N shows that Dicaearchus
and longitude (distance east or west from must have fully understood the idea
a meridian line drawn from top to bottom of latitude. Perpendicular to this line of
of Earth). Around 300 BCE Greek polymath latitude, and intersecting it in the vicinity
Dicaearchus of Messana compiled a map of the island of Rhodes, Greece, he drew
of the world, as far as was known at the a single line of longitude.
south line and measure the difference World map by Ptolemy
in latitude between them (in This 15th-century map is based on what was
known about the extent of the world in Alexandria, PE
degrees). Then they had to divide this RO
Egypt, in about 120 CE, as written down by the Roman EU
difference into 360 degrees (the geographer and astronomer Ptolemy.
“difference” around the whole
sphere). Finally, they needed to
multiply this by the distance between should be the circumference of the
them on the ground, and the result earth. In c.240 BCE, Greek mathematician Line of latitude
Eratosthenes estimated the earth’s Rhodes
circumference to be 250,000 stadia (see
AF ASIA

Line of longitude
left). The size of stadion he used in his RI
calculation is uncertain, but if it was the CA
Egyptian stadion, his measurement
works out as 24,662 miles (39,690
km). This is an error of less
than 1 percent from the
STADION Originally used to describe an
ancient foot race, “stadion” was later used
as a measure of length, equivalent to the AF TER
distance over which the race was run.
Slightly different versions were used in
Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt.
Ideas first proposed by the ancient
true value of the Earth’s circumference Greeks continued to be developed in
around the poles. the Mediterranean world, Asia, and
eventually medieval Europe.
Climate zones
Scholars of the ancient world also CALCULATIONS OF ARYABHATA
sought to understand Earth’s climate. The Indian mathematician and astronomer
In the 4th century BCE Aristotle had Aryabhata (476–550 CE) recalculated Earth’s
suggested that there were two cold circumference to an accuracy of 99.8 per ent.
climate zones near the earth’s poles and He claimed that Earth rotates and determined
a warmer region in the middle. Greek the time for one rotation, relative to the stars,
geographer Strabo proposed five with astonishing accuracy, which was shown later
zones—two frigid ones near the poles, a to have an error of less than one in a billion.
tropical or torrid zone near the equator,
and two temperate zones either side of COLUMBUS’S MISTAKE
the tropical zone. He also suggested In the 15th century Christopher Columbus
that there must be other unknown utilized a flawed ancient calculation of
continents. Roman geographer Earth’s circumference when planning his
Pomponius Mela wrote in c.43 CE that expedition in search of the Indies. This seems
he believed that the torrid zone was so to have led him to believe that Asia is only
hot that people could not possibly cross about 3,100 miles (5,000 km) west of Europe.
it to reach the southern hemisphere, But some authorities think his “mistake” may
where there lived beings of whom have been intentional, in order to help him
nothing was known. get funding for the expedition.

1507 The year one of the first

maps showing the New
World was published—the Universalis
“ the shapes which the Moon itself Cosmographia. This was also the first
known reference to name America.
Map by Herodotus
This map by the historian Herodotus
each month shows are of every
shows the extent of the world, as
understood by the ancient Greeks, around
kind…but in eclipses the outline SEE ALSO gg
pp.78–79 P  M 
pp.190–91 D   E
the 5th century BCE. At this time the Greeks
knew little about lands situated more than is always curved.” pp.352–53 T S   E
600 miles (1,000 km) from the
Mediterranean Sea. ARISTOTLE, ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHER (384–322 BCE)

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B EF O R E

Archeologists have found many simple

machines used by people who lived in the
Stone Age, at least 5,000 years ago.
Simple Machines
The first pieces of technology invented by primitive humans were simple machines that helped them
PREHISTORIC TOOLS solve physical problems. The simplest and most effective—the wedge, the lever, and the pulley—
The earliest tools may have been hand axes,
made from a single lump of flint by “knapping”— could multiply and change the direction of force. They are still in daily use in the 21st century.
creating a sharp edge by knocking
pieces off the flint using
another stone. P eople have always wanted to do
things that needed more than
normal human strength—move heavy A wood screw is a
bites its way into the wood
and the thread pulls the
whole screw forward.
stones, cut wood, or kill animals for wedge wrapped
food or in self-defense—so they around a shaft The empowering lever
invented machines to increase the The thin end A lever is a rigid bar pivoted on
FLINT HAND AXE force they could exert. The simplest of the wedge a fulcrum (support point or
machines for multiplying force are the is easily driven pivot) which can be used to exert
PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS wedge, the lever, and the pulley. The into the solid a force or effort on a load. Levers
Transporting and erecting monumental stones wheel (see pp.20–21) was also helpful are generally used either to
weighing several tons each probably required for moving things over smooth ground. multiply the force or to apply it in a
the use of rollers, hand axes, wedges, and different place. People use levers all
levers—as well as a large workforce. The penetrating wedge the time: a bottle opener is a lever; so
A wedge is a piece of wood, metal, or are pairs of scissors, and some types of
stone that tapers to a thin edge so that Simple and complex wedges door and faucet handles.
it can be driven into or between objects A wedge has one sharp (or at least thin) edge which can The first person to describe levers in
to separate them. Because it gets be pushed or hammered into a solid to pry it mathematical terms was probably
apart—such as a knife into cheese, or an axe into wood.
gradually thicker, the wedge separates The effort is applied to the opposite end of the wedge.
Archimedes, the ancient Greek. There
the material as it is pushed farther in. are three types or classes of lever, and
Knives, spears, axes, and arrowheads Archimedes pointed out that to get
are all types of wedge: they use sharp as the spades and trowels we use for maximum mechanical advantage
edges to cut, penetrate, and kill. digging, and the axes and chisels used (multiplication of force) it is best to use
When building the pyramids, the in woodworking. In each case the thin a lever of class 1 or class 2, and one
ancient Egyptians almost certainly used edge of the wedge is pushed into a
CALLANISH STONES ON THE ISLE OF LEWIS, wedges in the form of earth ramps, to resistant material to separate it.

“Give me a
OUTER HEBRIDES, SCOTLAND pull and lift heavy stones. We still use Nails are types of wedges; they have
the wedge in many forms today, such sharp points that allow them to be
ff
SEE ALSO hammered into wood. The woodscrew
pp.20–21 E    W
Lever types
is a more complex type of wedge: the
metal is twisted into a helix around
lever long
There are only three different
types of lever. They look
similar but have quite
the main shaft to form a thread. As the
screw is twisted clockwise into wood enough…
with a screwdriver, the sharp wedge
IN PRACTICE

ARCHIMEDES SCREW
different characteristics.
All are used to extend the
…and I shall
Effort

This clever pump is said to have been

use of the muscles,
especially the hands. Effort move the
invented by Archimedes during the 3rd
century BCE. It has certainly been used for
thousands of years for irrigation, and is
world.”
still used today for pumping sewage and ARCHIMEDES, MATHEMATICIAN, C.250 BCE
similar sludge. It is a simple helix—like
a wood screw but of constant diameter—
inside a close-fitting tube. As the handle is
Fulcrum Load Effort
turned the liquid is pulled up the tube,
each bucketful trapped in a compartment Load
Fulcrum
that seems to move steadily upward.
Load Fulcrum
Helix spiral Water is released
inside tube at ground level SCISSORS NUTCRACKERS TWEEZERS

Water trapped
in separate Movement Movement Movement
compartments

Load Effort Load Load

Fulcrum Fulcrum Effort Fulcrum Effort

Class 1 lever Class 2 lever Class 3 lever

Water is scooped from The most familiar kind of lever has the fulcrum (the With the fulcrum at one end and the effort at the Effort is exerted in the center of Class 3 levers,
lower water reservoir pivot) between the effort and load. The closer the other, Class 2 levers are immensely powerful if which are designed not for power but for precise
fulcrum to the load, the less the effort required. the load is close to the fulcrum. action at a distance.

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 #
The power of the lever
that is as long as possible, with the load The pulling machine The tension or pulling force is the same
Archimedes was the first person to explain the power
as near as possible to the fulcrum or Levers generally exert pushing forces all along the rope; one pulley effectively of levers mathematically. He is said to have claimed that
pivot of the lever. and are most effective over short pulls a load by two ropes of equal levers were so powerful they could be used to raise
In class 1 levers, the fulcrum is distances. Pulleys, on the other hand, tension—so the force required to move Earth itself. This illustration assumes he would choose a
positioned between the effort (exerted exert only pulling forces, but can do so the load is halved. If there are Class 1 type of lever (see below) for the task, and would
by a hand, for instance) and the load. over long distances. A pulley consists of effectively three ropes (using two carefully position Earth as close as possible to the
Examples include scissors and door a grooved wheel mounted on a fixed pulleys), the force required is only one fulcrum, while standing far away from it himself,
to gain maximum mechanical advantage.
handles. In class 2 levers, the load sits axle; the groove allows the pulley to third of the load, and so on.
between the effort and the fulcrum, as carry a length of rope. An early use of a simple pulley with
in nutcrackers and wheelbarrows. Class Pulleys are more advanced than one wheel and a length of rope was to AF TER
3 levers require the effort to be exerted wedges and levers, since they depend raise a bucket of water from a well.
between the load and the fulcrum, as on the existence of the wheel, which is This allows the user to pull on the rope
in tweezers and fire tongs. itself an enormously useful machine. horizontally, rather than vertically. All these simple machines are still in use
today, although many have developed more
complex mechanized variants.
Simple and complex pulleys
A simple pulley with one wheel can halve the load. More complex pulleys with two, three, or
GEARING SYSTEMS
more wheels reduce the load even more. Pulleys also have the great advantage of allowing
Gears 42–43
gg different size interlocking
you to vary the angle of pull on the rope. cogged wheels—are a direct development from
pulleys, with additional advantages: they can
exert pushing forces, and can be designed to
multiply force or increase speed.
Effort 50 N Effort 331⁄2 N Effort 25 N
PULLEYS AT TRAFALGAR
Pulleys have always been used in cranes and
Fixed rope with hoists on building sites, and on sailing boats
50N tension and ships. Admiral Nelson’s flagship at the Battle
of Trafalgar in 1805, Victory, had around 900
handmade wooden pulley blocks. These were
Pulley wheel essential for her crew to raise and lower her 37
large and immensely heavy canvas sails up and
down the ship’s tall masts in the shortest
possible time—especially in the heat of battle.
Load 100 N Load 100 N Load 100 N
(equivalent to (equivalent to (equivalent to SEE ALSO gg
Movement Movement Movement
mass of 10 kg) mass of 10 kg) mass of 10 kg) pp.42–43 H  G W 
pp.50–51 W   W  P 
Pulley system with one wheel Pulley system with two wheels Pulley system with three wheels pp.130–31 T N  E  
Using one wheel, an effort of 50 newtons (N) is needed A two-wheel pulley effectively uses three ropes to raise a With three wheels (four ropes) lifting the load, the
to raise a load of 100 N; the tension in the rope is 50 N load of 100 N; so the tension in each rope has to be only tension in each, and therefore the effort, is reduced
and there are in effect two ropes raising the load. one third of this—331/3 N; this is the effort needed. to a quarter of the load: 25 N.

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How Gears Work Rack Rack and pinion gears

Rotary motion is changed into
straight line motion or vice versa.

The first gears were a natural development from the invention of the wheel. In
early types of rotating machinery, the capacity of gears to shift and increase power Pinion
from one rotating component to another made them a favorite device from the 3rd
century BCE onward, and led to a multitude of practical applications. Direction
of motion

M ost gears consist of cogs (rotating

wheels or cylinders bearing
“teeth”) that mesh with other cogs.
Direction
of motion

They help movement to be transmitted

from an input source—such as flowing Worm gears
water—to an output device, such as a Here the screw thread on the worm
Bevel gears gear meshes with a toothed wheel to
pump, mill, or the hands of a clock. The These change the
position of the gears’ teeth can vary, alter the direction, speed, and force
axis of rotation.
of motion. The worm gear can turn
depending on the type of gear (see
the toothed wheel, but the toothed
wheel cannot turn the worm gear.

Large wooden gears

Types of gears
Gears made of wood were commonly used in early
Gears come in many different shapes and
water- or wind-driven mills, especially for changing the
sizes, and their teeth may be straight,
axis of rotation. As the gear teeth wore out from time to
curved, or inclined. However, there are only
time, they could be replaced individually.
four basic types of gear pairing, as shown
Direction here. Each changes the direction of motion
of motion in some way, and most also alter the speed
right). Sometimes the teeth
and force of motion.
are arranged along a linear rack or form
a spiral along a shaft instead of being
borne on a cog.
Antikythera mechanism Spur gears
Made by the ancient Greeks in around 100 BCE, the These gears intermesh in the
Antikythera mechanism contained more than 30 cogs. Advantages of gears same plane, rotate in opposite
It was a mechanical “computer” that was used to predict The earliest gears were probably made directions, and may change the
the celestial positions of the Moon and planets. from wood with cylindrical pegs for speed or force of motion. The
teeth. Various arrangements were used, smaller gear turns faster.
depending on which of the gearing
B EF O R E advantages was required. Direction of Direction of motion
Firstly, the direction of power can be motion
changed from the input to the output
INVENTION
Evidence of geared technology before gear. For instance, where a horse was
200 BCE comes from ancient manuscripts used to pull a horizontal wheel, a gear MECHANICAL CLOCKS
and a few archeological artefacts. arrangement could be used to transmit
the power to another wheel that then Mechanical clocks differ from earlier
CHINESE DIFFERENTIAL GEARS raised water vertically from a river. or water-powered wheels was often too clocks—such as those driven by water
Records indicate that a differential gear may Secondly, gears can be used to change slow for grinding grain or hammering flow—in containing some type of
have been developed in China as long ago as a slow input speed into a fast output metals, so gears were used to increase oscillating mechanism. Gears are used
800 BCE, for use in a device called speed. The rotational speed of horse- the speed to a usable level. in these clocks essentially as chains of
a “south-pointing chariot.” This Finally, gear sets can be used to counting devices, adding up the
was a two-wheeled device Higher torque change a small input torque (rotational regular-timed pulses generated by the
carrying a figure that always force) into a larger output torque, oscillator to mark the units of time.
Lower torque The final gears in the chain are attached
pointed in the same effectively creating leverage. This is
direction, acting as useful for purposes such as lifting heavy to, and move, the hands of the clock.
a mechanical loads. The property of gears that allows Mechanical clocks first appeared in
compass. the output torque and rotational speed Europe during the 13th century.
to be different from the input is called
ANCIENT the mechanical advantage. It is equal to
RATCHET SOUTH-POINTING the gear ratio: the ratio of the number
CHARIOT
MECHANISM of teeth in the driven gear to the
The oldest archeological artefact showing number of teeth in the driving gear.
evidence of a geared mechanism also comes
Higher
from China, and dates from approximately
rotation
Gears in ancient Greece and China
230 BCE. It consists of a bronze ratchet wheel Lower rotation speed speed The earliest reliable accounts of the
with 40 teeth; its purpose is not yet known. use of gears come from the classical
Improving performance world and early Imperial China. In
ff
SEE ALSO In any pair of gears, the larger one slowly rotates with
more torque (force), while the smaller one moves Greece, Archimedes (c.287–212 BCE)
pp.20–21 E    W is thought to have used gears in a
pp.40–41 S  M  faster but with less torque. For this reason gears can
be used to increase either the output torque or the number of constructions, including a
output speed of a mechanism, but not both. milometer. Philon of Byzantium (died

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Exploring the Variety of Random
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Title: Cronaca di Fra Salimbene parmigiano vol. I

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRONACA DI FRA

SALIMBENE PARMIGIANO VOL. I ***
 CRONACA
DI
FRA SALIMBENE
VOLUME I
 CRONACA
DI
FRA SALIMBENE PARMIGIANO
DELL'ORDINE DEI MINORI

VOLGARIZZATA DA
CARLO CANTARELLI

SULL'EDIZIONE UNICA DEL 1857

CORREDATA DI NOTE E DI UN AMPIO
INDICE PER MATERIE

PARMA
LUIGI BATTEI EDITORE
1882
Parma, Tip. Adorni Michele.
INDICE
 AL
NOBILLIMO

MAGISTRATO E CONSIGLIO MUNICIPALE

DI PARMA
CHE PER INCITAMENTO ED ESEMPIO
AI FIGLI ED AI NEPOTI
VEGLIA CUSTODE E VINDICE
DELLE GLORIE DEGLI AVI
QUESTO VOLGARIZZAMENTO

DELLA CRONACA DI FRA SALIMBENE

NARRATORE PRIMO E STUPENDO
DELLE VALOROSE GESTA
ONDE I PARMIGIANI DEL SECOLO DECIMOTERZO
FRANCARONO L'ITALIA
DALLA SIGNORIA DI FEDERICO SECONDO
CARLO CANTARELLI
A PICCOLO SEGNO DI MASSIMA RIVERENZA
DEVOTAMENTE DEDICA CONSACRA
 DI FRA SALIMBENE E DELLA SUA CRONACA

DISCORSO
DI ANTONIO BERTANI VICE-BIBLIOTECARIO
DI PARMA

PREMESSO ALLA EDIZIONE DEL TESTO ORIGINALE

Il decimoterzo secolo che, ricco in Italia del retaggio di S. Tommaso,

di S. Bonaventura e di altri sommi maestri, dava Dante al mondo
intero, era secolo di grande intellettuale entusiasmo fra noi, sì che
ognuno, il quale si avesse da natura sortito fervido lume di mente,
era vago di rovistare nel tesoro trasmessogli da' maggiori e di
tramandare a' futuri tutto quanto ne ritraeva, insieme co' frutti suoi
proprii, a tale che tu, leggendo le scritture di que' dì, ne diresti gli
autori presi da una smania, da una febbre di apprendere e
d'insegnare. Fra questi ardenti spiriti è certo da noverarsi il frate, di
cui pubblichiamo quì l'unico lavoro a nostra certa conoscenza
venuto. Nato egli in Parma, surto appena il quinto lustro di quel
secolo, da padre che fu crociato, ebbe svegliatissimo ingegno,
congiunto ad alto cuore e ribollente animo; basti a darne un sentore
la vigoria con cui, giovinetto ancora, tenne fermo contro
l'opposizione, che ben può dirsi, più che tenace, soldatesca, del
padre alla risoluzione sua di cingere il cordone di S. Francesco. Così
deliberato, il narra ei medesimo, nel suo decimoquinto anno vestì,
per intercessione di Fra Gherardo Boccabadati, l'abito religioso in
Fano all'insaputa di Guido padre suo; venutone questi a conoscenza,
dolente che la famiglia sua, detta di Adamo, perdesse così ogni
speranza di perpetuazione, giacchè l'altro, maggiore dei due soli
maschi avuti, erasi già reso frate, corse all'Imperatore, ed implorò ed
ottenne ch'ei s'interponesse presso frate Elia Generale dell'Ordine
che fossegli restituito il figlio. Elia rispose che il renderebbe, ove
questi aderisse di ritornare al secolo. Volò Guido a Salimbene, lo
pregò, scongiurollo, fecegli ampie promesse; invano; vinto dall'ira e
quasi fatto demente dal dolore, il maledisse; il giovinetto piegò la
fronte pregando Iddio, e stette saldo. Partì il meschino genitore; e
Salimbene poi nelle sacre ed umane lettere, nella gentile arte del
canto andò liberamente educando e mente ed animo, onde poi salito
in alta stima ebbe agio d'intrattenersi con assaissimi de' personaggi
più cospicui in lettere, scienze ed armi, gradito sino a' Pontefici ed
all'Imperadore medesimo. Giovanil talento indotto avealo a
vagheggiar le dottrine di Gioachino; e veramente quella sua fantasia,
che il sollevava a straordinarie visioni, parea creata a simili
speculazioni; ma più robusto fatto il pensiero, abbandonolle, e ne
rise: amante del nuovo e del grazioso, ai fiori della nascente poesia
italiana volger volle l'ingegno, e dettò versi in copia, ora perduti. Non
pochi paesi viaggiò, notando tutto quel che lesse, vide, udì, e a tutto
aggiugnendo le proprie considerazioni; e moltissimo appunto e lesse
e vide e udì, vissuto essendo dalla fine del 1221 sin oltre il 1287, e
fors'anche fin dopo il 1290: però da questo solo ben potrebbe ognun
farsi una sufficiente idea della importanza della presente sua
Cronaca, nella quale sono appunto registrate pressochè tutte le
impressioni in que' varii modi ricevute ne' suoi più belli anni. Di
questa mio primo pensiero era stato di porre qui una specie di rapido
compendio; ma poi due considerazioni me ne distolsero: l'una, la
qualità del suo latino, che (sebben barbaro, ma pur di elegante
barbarie) tanto fluidamente scorre da rendersi di facilissima
intelligenza anche a men pratici della favella del Lazio, sì che da
quest'ultimo lato ben può paragonarsi al divin libro di quel Tommaso
da Kempis, che per ciò appunto non trovò traduttore nell'aureo
secolo di nostra favella; l'altra, la persuasione che male avrei potuto
rendere l'evidenza del suo dire, la quale dalla mia insufficienza
attenuata, n'avrebbe avuti dilavati quei vivi colori con che ne pinge i
più importanti avvenimenti, ne porge i tanti ritratti de' suoi
contemporanei, cui ti sembra vedere nella sua favella risorgere
d'innanzi a te animo e persona.
Ond'è ch'io mi restringo all'accennare per brevità gli altri più
eminenti pregi del suo lavoro, e ciò solo m'induco a fare per eccitar
desiderio di leggerlo tutto tutto in chi fosse ignaro della importanza
sua, e credesse doversi questa Cronaca mettere a paro delle tante
fredde e noiose pei più, le quali furon opera di volgari intelletti. Della
efficacia del suo ritrarre e avvenimenti e uomini ho detto testè; ma
ciò che in questo pure è più maraviglioso aggiungo ora: nella
dipintura de' primi in ciò si distingue egli dagli altri cronisti, che,
mentre questi mai non ravvivano di qualche scintilla il loro racconto,
esso al contrario, oltre al calor generale che intero avviva il suo
lavoro, ti balza fuori all'uopo con uno slancio dell'anima, come là
dove, a cagion d'esempio, dopo aver noverate le irruzioni de' barbari
in Italia, giunto all'ultima, ripiglia: utinam ultima! Quanto a' ritratti
poi è impareggiato; imparziale dispensa e lode e biasimo, senza
macchiarsi della vergogna dell'ire di parte ond'era dilacerata questa
misera nostra terra: frate, s'ei ti ragiona del secondo Federico di
Svevia, il compiange e l'ammira; tutte ne annovera le accuse dei
contemporanei, ma del proprio ne fa sfolgorare le doti grandiose:
frate, applaude alla virtù del guelfo, ma gli rinfaccia ad un tempo e
vizi e colpe, inesorabile sì e solenne, che alla tua immaginazione si
presenta quasi una scena del supremo giudizio. Guai a colui che
merita biasimo, e sia pur anche l'uomo il cui nome sta scritto sulla
bandiera della fazione.
Nè la sua Cronaca si limita a rinserrar soltanto notizie italiane; da'
suoi confrati, che avean visitate altre terre, avidamente suggeva le
novelle, e notava: onde qui trovi sin dovizia per le storie d'Oriente;
ed egli stesso de' suoi viaggi in Francia, ove fu ben affetto, tiene
ricordi minuti in modo da porti sott'occhi e le ricchezze de' vigneti e
le costumanze de' baroni, nell'ora istessa in cui ti descrive la
partenza dalla piaggia natale di Lodovico volto al riscatto del gran
Sepolcro, in maniera talmente esatta, che inutilmente cerchi l'eguale
negli annalisti contemporanei di quella nazione.
Chi tenga dietro allo svolgimento dell'idea filosofico-religiosa, nelle
varie età, troverà qui ampia messe; la dottrina delle vaghe
speculazioni profetiche, tanto fervente a que' giorni, occupa qui
appunto un luogo principale fra esse; nè minori ne coglierà chi vada
in traccia di ricordi letterarii; e talora avrà cagione di fare a sè stesso
strani quesiti, come quando legga il brano ove Salimbene racconta di
quel bizzarro ingegno di Primasso, di cui reca versi non pochi, e cui
si contendono parecchi paesi. Egli il dichiara vivente del 1238 circa:
come potrassi por questa data in armonia colla attribuzione che gli si
fa da altri, e dotti assai, di poesie, che rivelansi di per sè nate ai dì
del Barbarossa? e come poi ciò stesso colla novella del Boccaccio
(ripetitor gioioso delle tradizioni ancor troppo recenti perch'ei fosse
indotto in errore), la quale ne fa conoscere come Primasso appunto
capitasse a Cluny al tempo che il famoso monastero era retto da un
abate largo e splendido? questo abate altri non poteva essere che
Guglielmo di Pontoise reggente appunto la cluniacense famiglia dal
1244 o 1245 al 1257 o 1258; e ciò darebbe la causa vinta al mio
Salimbene; ma dopo quello che intorno a Primasso ha detto l'illustre
Iacopo Grimm, come potrei io osare di sostener le ragioni del mio
compaesano con sì minime forze e sì lieve addentellato?
Giunto al fine di quanto m'ero prefisso, ripeto la manifestazione del
desiderio, che ho vivissimo, che questo mio povero ed inculto dire
metta pungente brama in chi lesse di tutto ponderare il volume,
perchè ho ferma fede che di gran giovamento debbano riuscire lo
studio principalmente alla tutt'ora desiderata storia generale d'Italia.
A. BERTANI
 AVVERTIMENTO

Parecchi anni passati venuto il Duca di Sermoneta in divisamento di

publicare una continuazione agli Scriptores Rerum Italicarum si volse
al celebre Monsignor Gaetano Marini per ottenere suggerimenti non
solo, ma trascrizioni pur anche de' preziosi codici storici chiusi nella
Vaticana, i quali potessero formar parte di simile nuova collezione.
Aderì di buon grado il Marini, e senza più diedesi a far trascrivere
dall'Abate Amati, siccome importantissima, la Cronaca che noi ora
quì publichiamo, e, compiutane la copia, questa consegnò all'egregio
storiofilo. Gli avvenimenti che gran parte d'Europa posero a
soqquadro alla fine del passato ed al principio del presente secolo,
impedirono a quest'esso di mandare ad effetto il proprio disegno:
venuto egli a morte, fu la sua importante biblioteca venduta a
pubblica auzione, e con questa la copia della Cronaca Salimbeniana
e di altre. Buon per noi che l'acquirente di tale copia fosse un
personaggio dedito all'incremento de' migliori studii: era egli il
Commendatore Gian-Francesco De-Rossi, di onoranda memoria, il
quale, saputo come il mio ottimo ed amatissimo zio Commendatore
Pezzana nutrisse gran desiderio di averne pur copia per collocarla,
siccome patrio monumento, nella Parmense, cortesissimamente
volonteroso gliela concedette.
E questa ultima è quella che ha servito, insieme con alcuni estratti
lasciatici dall'Affò, alla presente edizione, curata per la massima
parte, essendo io da troppe altre occupazioni distratto, dal
valentissimo mio buon amico Cav. Amadio Ronchini insieme
all'egregio Ab. Luigi Barbieri, ai quali m'allieto nel porger quì publico
segno di viva riconoscenza. Ma mentre con ciò dichiarare do
sicurezza a' lettori della fedeltà scrupolosa della edizion medesima,
m'è pur d'uopo avvertirli del come io sia dolente del doverla
presentare con non poche lacune, colpa del manoscritto del Marini:
partendo egli da' principii degli storiografi de' tempi suoi, reputò
inutili, e però da non trascriversi, cose che oggi terrebbersi in gran
pregio a seconda dei meglio vantaggiati metodi dello studiare le fonti
storiche. Tali sarebbero, fra quelle appunto ommesse da lui, alcuni
trattatelli, de' quali la Cronaca ne porge intitolazione, valevoli, a
suscitare i nostri e desiderii e lamenti, parecchie canzoni popolari e
satire, ed altro: il che tutto avrebbe valso almeno a vieppiù
dichiarare lo spirito dei tempi intorno a cui la Cronaca stessa si
aggira. Ciò nulla meno, la Dio mercè, tanto ne rimane da renderla
uno stupendo monumento.
A. Bertani
 Ai Lettori

La Cronaca di Fra Salimbene, monumento storico tanto celebrato,

quanto lettura per secoli invano desiderata, perchè sepolto prima
nelle librerie dei frati, poscia nella biblioteca del Vaticano, ove si
otteneva il permesso di leggerlo, ma non di copiarlo, fu finalmente
pubblicato in Parma nel 1857, prima, e, finora, unica edizione di non
molti esemplari, e già esaurita. Ma se questa pubblicazione bastò al
vivo desiderio di pochi eruditi, che intendono il latino medioevale del
testo Salimbeniano, era ben lungi dal contentare que' molti, che pur
intendendo il latino classico, non avevano famigliarità colla lingua
latina scritta nei tempi di mezzo, e tutti quegli altri, cui pungeva la
nobil brama di conoscere almeno i più cospicui documenti della
storia patria, ma alla coltura anche non poca che possedevano,
mancava la conoscenza del latino di qualunque fosse tempo. Ora poi
che le crescenti generazioni trovano una larghissima messe di coltura
generale nelle Scuole tecniche, negli Istituti tecnici, militari, di
marina, e nelle Scuole di tanti altri insegnamenti speciali, ne' cui
programmi allo studio delle lingue classiche è sostituito lo studio
delle lingue oggidì parlate in Europa, colla cresciuta coltura generale
è diventato per una parte più vivo il desiderio e il bisogno di cercare
la storia patria nelle scritture di coloro che videro co' propri occhi le
cose narrate, e per l'altra si è notabilmente moltiplicato il numero di
quelli, a cui manca il mezzo d'intenderle. Io perciò ho creduto fare
cosa non inutile traducendo questa celebratissima Cronaca, in cui
quel vivissimo ingegno del Salimbene s'impone ai lettori non tanto
come narratore veridico e critico giudizioso, quanto come scrittore
che avviva sempre il suo racconto e talora lo rende scintillante, e ti
balza fuori collo slancio di un'anima che trascina. Quanto a' ritratti
poi è impareggiato, dice l'editore parmense, Cav. Antonio Bertani
Vice-bibliotecario: imparziale, dispensa lode e biasimo senza
macchiarsi della vergogna delle ire di parte, ond'era dilacerata
questa nostra misera terra: Frate, s'ei ti ragiona del secondo
Federico di Svevia, il compiange e l'ammira; tutte ne annovera le
accuse de' suoi contemporanei, ma del proprio ne fa sfolgorare le
doti grandiose; Frate, applaude alle virtù del guelfo, ma gli rinfaccia
ad un tempo e vizi e colpe, inesorabile sì e solenne, che alla tua
immaginazione si presenta quasi una scena del supremo giudizio.
Guai a colui che merita biasimo, e sia pur anche l'uomo, il cui nome
sta scritto sulla bandiera della fazione. Nè ho pretesa di aver fatto
lavoro letterario, che non ho arroganza d'allinearmi co' letterati, nè
d'aver elaborato un'opera di critica, nè di illustrazione, chè,
foss'anche ne avessi avuto intelletto, me ne sarebbero mancati
assolutamente e tempo e mezzi; ma ho semplicemente e
dimessamente posto cura a volgarizzare e ridurre a lezione popolare
un documento preziosissimo per la nostra storia nazionale. E se
mancherà pregio al volgarizzamento, s'imporrà e s'aprirà la via da sè
il racconto: e nutro fiducia che a me non si defraudi il merito del
buon volere.
Carlo Cantarelli
 CRONACA
DI FRA SALIMBENE DI ADAMO
PARMIGIANO
DELL'ORDINE DE' MINORI

D'or innanzi [1] noi ci incontreremo in un linguaggio incolto, rude,

grossolano ed esuberante, che in molte parti non conosce leggi di
grammatica; ma che segue però la storia con ordine appropriato. E
perciò sarà necessario che per opera vostra ora si assesti, si migliori,
si aggiunga, si tolga, e, a seconda del bisogno, si riduca alle corrette
leggi della lingua; come anche sup.... questa stessa cronaca
manifestamente.... è che noi abbiam fatto in molti luoghi ove
abbiamo trovato molte cose false, e molte dette rozzamente, delle
quali alcune sono state introdotte da copisti.... che falsificano molte
cose; altre poi furono inserite dai primi compilatori. Chi poi dopo loro
fece qualche giunta, seguì i primi in buona fede, senza star a
pensare se avevano detto bene, o male; sia che il facesse a scanso
di fatica, sia per ignoranza della storia. E veramente fu meglio assai
che scrivessero qualche cosa, quantunque..... di quello che nulla
facessero. Perchè almeno sappiamo da loro in che anno sono
avvenute le cose di cui parlano; e abbiamo notizia d'alcun che di
vero intorno a geste d'uomini, e intorno ad avvenimenti; notizie che
forse non avremmo, se Dio non ce le avesse volute rivelare come le
rivelò a Mosè, ad Esdra, a Giovanni nell'Apocalisse, a Metodio martire
quand'era chiuso in prigione, e a molti altri, a cui furono predette le
cose future e aperti i secreti del cielo. Perciò il beato Giovanni dice
che al tabernacolo del Signore ciascuno fa l'offerta che può: chi
porta oro, argento, pietre preziose; chi bisso, porpora, cocco,
giacinto. Per noi sarà già gran che, se potremo offrire pelliccie e lana
di capra. Ma l'Apostolo dà più pregio alle nostre umili oblazioni. Onde
tutto quel gran miracolo di bellezza del tabernacolo, che per mezzo
di appropriati simboli è figura della chiesa presente e della futura, è
velato di pelli e di cilizii. Sono le cose più vili quelle che servono a
riparare dagli ardori del sole e dalla molestia delle pioggie. Simile
cosa abbiamo fatto noi in molte altre cronache da noi scritte, edite
ed emendate.
 a. 1212

Or dunque l'anno sussegnato (1212) il Re di Francia col conte di

Monforte si ascrisse a' crociati, e, per movere alla guerra insieme agli
altri crociati, preparò quello stesso esercito che s'era battuto in
Ispagna quando l'Imperatore de' Saraceni, che aveva seco cinquanta
Re, fu sconfitto presso Muradal [2] da tre Re di Spagna; quel di
Castiglia, quel di Navarra, e quello di Aragona, aiutati dai Portoghesi,
de' quali undicimila caddero nella prima battaglia. Nel medesimo
anno 1212, entusiasmata dal racconto di tre ragazzi di circa dodici
anni, i quali dicevano d'aver veduto in sogno.... assumer.... il segno
della croce.... dalle parti di Colonia.... una moltitudine innumerevole
di poveri d'ambo i sessi e di ragazzi crociati, che pellegrinavano in
Italia.... partì dicendo che avrebbero passato il mare a piedi asciutti,
e col braccio di Dio redenta Terra Santa e Gerusalemme. Ma la finì
che scomparvero quasi tutti. Lo stesso anno infierì una fame sì
grande, specialmente in Puglia e nella Sicilia, che le madri facevano
sin pasto de' loro ragazzi.
 a. 1213

L'anno 1213 il giorno santo di Pasqua di Pentecoste, che cadde nella

festa dei santi martiri Marcellino e Pietro cioè ai due di giugno, i
Cremonesi, col solo aiuto di trecento militi Bresciani, accorsero
unanimi col loro carroccio in soccorso dei Pavesi, molti de' quali
erano stati fatti prigionieri dai Milanesi, presso Castelleone [3] come
s'è detto più addietro, quando il Re da Pavia passò a Cremona. Ed
ecco improvviso sorgere un gran rumore, ed erano i Milanesi, che col
loro carroccio venivano volando come saette, e come folgori
irrompevano. E in loro aiuto erano accorsi militi Piacentini, arcieri
Lodigiani, Cremonesi fanti e cavalli, cavalleria Novarese e Comasca,
e de' Bresciani altrettanti o più di quelli che abbiam già detto essere
andati a soccorso de' Cremonesi. Tutta questa gente con unanime
furore e clamore, con coraggio ed impeto, compatta come un sol
uomo, urtarono, respinsero, fugarono, imprigionarono ed
annientarono i Cremonesi e la milizia dei fuorusciti. Ma i Cremonesi
riportarono in fine vittoria sui Milanesi ed alleati loro, e ne trassero il
carroccio per m.... con gran trionfo ed esultanza nella città di
Cremona. Lo stesso anno, a' 13 di Giugno, il Comune di Bologna
promise giurando di far guerra ai Modenesi a favore e servigio del
Comune di Reggio, nè di far mai pace coi Modenesi senza il
consentimento dei Reggiani.
 a. 1214

L'anno 1214 i militi di Reggio in servigio dei Cremonesi e dei

Parmigiani si recarono sulla diocesi di Piacenza per devastare le
possessioni dei Piacentini, e posero gli alloggiamenti presso
Colomba, [4] che è un monastero dell'ordine de' Cisterciensi.
 a. 1215

L'anno 1215 Papa Innocenzo III celebrò un solenne concilio a S.

Giovanni in Laterano. Egli.... corresse ed ordinò l'ufficio ecclesiastico
im.... e vi aggiunse di suo, e tolse di quel che altri vi aveva intruso;
ma non è ancora bene ordinato secondo il desiderio di alcuni, nè
eziandio secondo la natura della cosa. Perocchè vi sono molte cose
superflue, che inducono più noia che divozione in quelli che le
ascoltano come in quelli, che le recitano. Tale sarebbe la ora prima
della domenica, al momento che i sacerdoti dovrebbero dire le loro
messe, e il popolo le aspetta; ma non vi ha chi dica messa, perchè i
sacerdoti sono occupati nella recitazione della prima ora. Così il
recitare diciotto salmi nell'ufficio notturno e della domenica prima di
arrivare al Te Deum laudamus, d'estate, quando le pulci molestano,
e le notti son brevi, e il caldo è intenso, e d'inverno per freddo, non
fa che annoiare. Vi sono ancora molte cose da mutare in meglio
nell'ufficio ecclesiastico; e sarebbe bene il farlo, perchè è zeppo di
grossolanità, quantunque non riconosciute da tutti.
 a. 1216

L'anno 1216 morì Papa Innocenzo III presso Perugia in Luglio, ed è

sepolto nella chiesa episcopale. Al suo tempo fiorì rigogliosa la
Chiesa, e tenne supremazia sull'Impero romano, e sopra i Re ed i
Principi di tutta la terra. Ma l'Imperatore Federico, da lui esaltato e
chiamato figlio della Chiesa, fu uomo pestifero, maledetto,
scismatico, eretico, epicureo, coruttore di tutto il mondo, perchè
seminò nelle città italiane tanto seme di divisione e di discordia, che
dura tuttora; sicchè i figli, riguardo a' padri loro, possono ripetere il
lamento profetico di Ezechiele 18.º: I padri hanno mangiato
l'agresto, ed i denti de' figliuoli ne sono allegati. E parimente
Geremia nell'ultimo de' treni: I nostri padri hanno peccato, e non
sono più: noi abbiam portate le loro iniquità. Quindi pare verificata in
Federico la profezia dell'abbate Gioacchino [5] all'Imperatore Enrico
padre di lui, che si lamentava di suo figlio quand'era ancor
giovinetto: Il figlio tuo sarà perverso, gli disse: iniquo sarà il figlio
tuo ed erede, o principe. Perocchè, diventato padrone, metterà
sossopra il mondo, e calpesterà i santi dell'altissimo. Perciò si attaglia
benissimo a Federico ciò che il signore per bocca di Isaia 10.º disse
di Assur, ossia di Senacheribbo: Penserà nel cuor suo di distruggere
e di sterminare genti non poche. Tutte queste cose si avverarono in
Federico, come abbiamo veduto noi cogli occhi nostri, noi, che, ora
che scriviamo, siamo nel giorno che è vigilia della Maddalena del
1283. Tuttavia si può scusare Papa Innocenzo di aver deposto
Ottone ed esaltato Federico, perchè lo fece con buona intenzione,
secondo il detto del salmo: l'uno umilia, l'altro esalta. E nota che
Innocenzo.... fu uomo generoso e mag.... dis. Perocchè una volta
accostò a sè stesso stesa pel lungo la tunica inconsutile del signore
per misurarla coll'altezza della propria persona, e gli parve che Gesù
Cristo fosse di piccola statura; ma poi vestitosene, si trovò più
piccolo di lui. E perciò gli entrò nell'animo una reverenza, che lo
mosse a venerarla come era conveniente. Così quando predicava al
popolo soleva tenersi sempre dinanzi il libro aperto. E quando i
cappellani gli domandavano come mai un uomo, quale egli era,
sapiente e letterato facesse tal cosa, rispondeva: Lo faccio per voi,
per dare esempio a voi, che siete ignoranti e avete rossore di
studiare. Ad Innocenzo successe Onorio III.
L'anno 1216, millesimo già sunnotato, milizie e arcieri andarono in
aiuto de' Bolognesi attorno a S. Arcangelo [6] contro quei di Rimini, e
posero assedio a quel castello, e vi stettero lungo tempo, tanto che
fu poi fatta la pace; e tutti quelli di Cesena, che erano nelle carceri di
quei di Rimini, ed erano settecento, furono prosciolti. Cadde
quell'inverno grandissima quantità di neve, e fece freddo intenso,
sicchè ne furono distrutte le vigne, e il Po gelò e su quel ghiaccio le
donne menavano le danze; e i cavalieri facevano correndo loro
torneamenti; e i campagnuoli passavano il Po co' loro carri, barocci e
treggie. Così durò due mesi. E allora lo staio del frumento si vendeva
nove di quegli imperiali che erano in corso e lo staio della spelta
quattro imperiali. E la Regina, moglie di Federico Imperatore, figlio
del fu Imperatore Enrico, passò per Reggio di ritorno dalle Puglie, e
in viaggio per raggiungere suo marito in Germania. E il Comune di
Reggio le fece le spese per tutto il tempo della sua sosta in città.
 a. 1217

L'anno 1217 fu fatto Papa Onorio III, il quale convocò un concilio, in

cui decretò che per virtù di quel solo decreto incorressero la
scomunica tutti quelli che facessero una legge qualunque restrittiva
della libertà della chiesa; e che nessun sacerdote o prelato studiasse
giurisprudenza, nè vi fosse insegnamento di leggi a Parigi; depose
un Vescovo, che non aveva letto il Donato [7]; e ordinò che stesse
sempre acceso un lume davanti all'ostia consacrata, e che il
sacerdote nel portarla agli infermi la tenesse sempre davanti al
petto.
 a. 1218

L'anno 1218 in Giugno i Reggiani andarono col loro esercito in aiuto

de' Cremonesi e Parmigiani a Zibello [8] contro i Milanesi e loro
alleati; e fu gran combattimento tra loro il giovedì tra le tempora; e
molti d'ambe le parti ne morirono, e molti furono i prigionieri; e fu
giurata un'alleanza tra Reggio e Parma. Guido da Reggio era allora
Podestà di Parma. L'anno stesso i pellegrini cristiani cinsero d'assedio
Damiata.
 a. 1220

L'anno 1220 Federico figlio dell'Imperatore Enrico fu incoronato nella

chiesa di S. Pietro in Roma da Papa Onorio III il dì di S. Cecilia
vergine e martire; e sua moglie la Regina Costanza fu coronata
Imperatrice con buona pace de' Romani; il che quasi mai s'è udito di
altro Imperatore. Ed imperò trent'anni ed undici giorni; e morì il
giorno compleanno della sua incoronazione in una piccola città della
Puglia, che si chiama Fiorentino [9] presso Nocera [10] de' Saraceni.
Nel millesimo suddetto da' Reggiani, Parmigiani e Cremonesi fu
posto assedio a Gonzaga [11], che era occupata da' Mantovani e dal
conte Alberto di Casaloddi della diocesi di Brescia. E l'anno stesso si
fece il cavo Tagliata, o Incisa, e vi si immise il Po [12]; fu preso il
castello di Bondeno [13] un martedì 16 di Giugno da' Mantovani,
Veronesi, Ferraresi e Modenesi; e il 10 d'Agosto, giorno di S.
Lorenzo, i Mantovani furono sconfitti, messi in fuga e fatti prigionieri
da quei di Bedullo, che erano venuti da Fabbrico e da Campagnola
per depredare e incendiare Bedullo [14] stesso.