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The medieval polymaths were a fascinating bunch! Hildegard of Bingen[1] was a contemporary of al-Jazari, and one of the most influential European women of the l
by michaelsbradley 12y ago
The medieval polymaths were a fascinating bunch! Hildegard of Bingen[1] was a contemporary of al-Jazari, and one of the most influential European women of the late Middles Ages.
In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church[2] – a title given by the Catholic Church to only 35 people over the past 2,000 years!
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen
[&] http://www.hildegard-society.org/p/academic-sources.html http://www.hildegard-society.org/p/academic-sources.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_the_Church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_the_Church
- acqq 12y agoBut I don't see that she did any engineering, which is why al-Jazari is potentially interesting. Regarding al-Jazari, the question is only how significant he really was, compared to the centuries older Greek engineers like those that produced, for example, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
- MisterBastahrd 12y agoImportance is a matter of influence, I suppose. I'm sure there have been repeat discoveries in the past which have been lost to the ages due to a variety of factors. The ones that remained a part of stable civilizations are the ones we remember.
- acqq 12y agoI am however suggesting that the Arabs and Turks haven't actually reinvented the art of engineering which was known in the antique times as they obviously invaded the exact places where that art was already present and that there must be some of them that found that art interesting who are the ones who preserved it in the times of religious fanaticism and destruction.