interesante estudio referido a la tecnología desarrollada en la Edad Media, recibida muchas veces de Asia pero adaptada y desarrollada en Europa y que permitió el despegue del continente ( )

Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages Interesting (if somewhat outdated) book giving a very broad overview of technology in the middle-ages. Not very technical, which is a pity. ( )

I truly enjoyed reading Frances and Joseph Gies’ Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages. When I first picked the book up I was primarily interested in learning about the evolution of the workplace. That was one of many things I learned reading the book. The Gies’ explain that Rome’s gynaeceums (woman’s quarters?) were not just where woman congregated but were filled with looms and material for cloth making. They explain the ‘putting out’ system that developed and spread virtual factories across entire towns. They even illustrate an assembly line system developed in Venice to load ships. I would have been happy with those bits of knowledge but they also illustrated, vividly, the small steps that advanced technology throughout the Middle Ages. Incremental improvements like those that took the waterwheel from producing a mere fraction of one horsepower when it was first developed to yielding nearly sixty horsepower by the 1500s.

I also learned some amazing trivia. The barrel is the only pure European invention. Clothing sewn from pieces of cloth developed in Northern Europe where people were accustomed to piecing together clothing from hides. Leonardo DeVinci devised mitered edges for the Chinese style doors on canal locks that allowed them to better seal. There were many other little revelations but for me the biggest discovery was how historians learned these things. A sixth century Chinese scholar wrote that he dare not use the writings of the sages for toilet paper is proof that toilet paper was used in China at that time. Because written history has to a great extent focused on the rich and powerful learning about the common folk, the work they do, and the way they live is often difficult. Seeing how the authors pulled this information from paintings, statues, drawings, and writings on unrelated topics was truly educational. If your idea of history is memorizing names of kings, popes and generals this is not the book for you. If you are interested in how things work and how technology progresses I cannot recommend this book more highly. ( )

A pretty basic but comprehensive history of medieval technology, Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel is best used as an introduction for the interested layperson to other scholarship in the field. The Gies have produced a good overview of various kinds of technologies, but I would disagree quite a bit with the conclusions they draw and the contextualisation they provide. Though written in 1994, it feels curiously old-fashioned at points. To be honest, I'm still a little confused as to why it was assigned for a graduate level course in medieval history—is there nothing more up-to-date and less lightweight out there?—but I don't resent having read it. For what that's worth. :D ( )

Explains social effects of technological inventions. My husband thoroughly enjoyed this book. Makes clear the point that the middle ages weren't really 'dark.' There was a great deal of innovation going on. ( )