SUPERSTITION AND SCIENCE

A dazzling chronicle a bracing challenge to modernity s smug assumptions Bryce Christensen Booklist O what a world of profit and delight Of power of honour and omnipotence Is promised to the studious artisan Christopher Marlowe Dr Faustus Between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment Europe changed out of all recognition Particularly transformative was the ardent quest for knowledge and the astounding discoveries and inventions which resulted from it The movement of blood round the body the movement of the earth round the sun the velocity of falling objects and indeed why objects fall these and numerous other mysteries had been solved by scholars in earnest pursuit of scientia This fascinating account of the profound changes undergone by Europe between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment will cover ground including folk religion and its pagan past Catholicism and its saintly dogma alchemy astrology and natural philosophy Islamic and Jewish traditions and the discovery of new countries and cultures By the mid seventeenth century science mania had set in the quest for knowledge had become a pursuit of cultured gentlemen In 1663 The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge received its charter Three years later the F