Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages - Softcover

Joseph Gies; Frances Gies

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060925817 ISBN 13: 9780060925819

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1995

Synopsis

From bestselling historians Joseph and Frances Gies, whose books have been used by George R.R. Martin as source material for Game of Thrones, comes a classic book on innovation and technological change in medieval Europe

In this account of Europe’s rise to world leadership in technology, Frances and Joseph Gies show how early modern technology and experimental science were direct outgrowths of the decisive innovations of medieval Europe, in the tools and techniques of agriculture, craft industry, metallurgy, building construction, navigation, and war. The Gieses report that many of Europe’s most important inventions—the horse harness, the stirrup, the magnetic compass, cotton and silk cultivation and manufacture, papermaking, firearms, and “Arabic” numerals—had their origins outside Europe, in China, India, and the Middle East. Europe synthesized its own innovations—the three-field system, water power in industry, the full-rigged ship, the putting-out system—into a powerful new combination of technology, economics, and politics.

About this title

About the Author

Frances (1915–2013) and Joseph (1916–2006) Gies were the world’s bestselling historians of medieval Europe. Together and separately, they wrote more than twenty books, which col-lectively have sold more than a million copies. They lived in Michigan.

From the Back Cover

An illuminating look at the monumental inventions of the Middle Ages, by the authors of Life in a Medieval Castle.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060925817
• ISBN 13: 9780060925819
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 357