The medieval machine
the industrial revolution of the Middle Ages
by Jean Gimpel · first published 1975
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4HN commenters
2008–2025first – last mentioned
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You have no idea. One of my favourite 70's quotes is from the quite brilliant book "The Medieval Machine" by the Anglo-French historian Jean Gimpel, published in 1976 (which really is a very good history of Medieval technology): "The economic depression that struck Europe in the fourteenth century was followed…
on “Watching the sixties and seventies through 2001 and Alien” ↗For a shorter read I recommend The Medieval Machine by Jean Gimpel. It's a bit old now but tells an interesting story, turns out there was a lot more industrial machinery in the 13th century than we tend to think.
on “Human-powered cranes and lifting devices (2010)” ↗…as the other way around). In the Middle Ages, technology developed more-or-less independently of science, often with quite astonishing results. An excellent book on the subject if Jean Gimpel's "The Medieval Machine", although the solemn declaration of the end of Western technological power makes the preface pretty hilarious reading, 35 years on: http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Machine-Industrial-Revolution...
on “Why did science make little real progress in Europe in the Middle Ages?” ↗…is no secret. For those interested in comparable technical developments in Europe around the same time, for the middle ages were not as dark as usually portrayed, I recommend reading Jean Gimpel's The Medieval Machine (whom Ken Follett relied on extensively for "The Pillars of the Earth") and David Landes' A Revolution in Time.
on “Manuscript of Ismail al-Jazarī's Ingenious Mechanical Devices (ca. 17th century)” ↗…century was followed ultimately by economic and technological recovery. But the depression we have moved into will have no end. We can anticipate centuries of decline and exhaustion." - Jean Gimpel, The Medieval Machine, 1975
on “Civilization's golden era is teetering on collapse, yet we ignore meltdown” ↗