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

by Frances Gies, Joseph Gies

In this account of Europe's rise to world leadership in technology, Frances and Joseph Gies make use of recent scholarship to destroy two time-honored myths. Myth that Europe's leap forward occurred suddenly in the "Renaissance," following centuries of medieval stagnation. Not so, say the 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. Myth that Europe achieved its primacy through "Western" superiority. On the contrary, the authors report, many of Europe's most important inventions - the horse harness, the stirrup, the magnetic compass, cotton and silk cultivation and manufacture, papermaking, firearms, "Arabic" numerals - had their origins outside Europe, in China, India, and Islam. The Gieses show how 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.
From the expansion of medieval man's capabilities, the voyage of Columbus with all its fateful consequences is seen as an inevitable product, while even the genius of Leonardo da Vinci emerges from the context of earlier and lesser-known dreamers and tinkerers.
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel is illustrated with more than 90 photographs and drawings. It is a Split Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Science, Technology, Medieval History, History Of Science

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Frances and and her husband Joseph Gies were historians and writers who collaborated on a number of books about the Middle Ages as well as wrote individual works.

Reviews

[G. Branden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly excellent.

My only real criticism of this title is that it should contain a glossary of technological and mechanical terms.

Since it does not, it may pay to either be a really well-read mechanical engineer or to have a reference close to hand.

For example, I know that an "adze" is a hand tool but I always forget what the head looks like, and what it's for. It's not an axe or a hammer, and when was the last time you went to a hardware store for an "adze"? Probably never if you're not a carpenter.

The devices and architectural innovations of the title are described, but sometimes in secondary terms that one may not remember. Recall what a "groin vault" is? How about a "millrace"? These can often be figured out from context, but I'd prefer to have real definitions to hand.

The descriptions of weaving technique were fairly diligent but could have used even more careful explication to modern eyes for whom clothing comes from hangers at a department store.

Another gripe is that the "trip hammer" is mentioned several times before its operation is actually explained.

All of that said, this is a deeply fascinating and enlightening title. While there may have been a Dark Age in European history after the celebrated "fall of Rome", it was over by the eighth century, for in less than one hundred years, Western Europe saw a tremendous agricultural revolution which permanently increased agricultural productivity and transformed land use.

The Gieses also collect quite a pile of evidence against the secularist prejudice (which I held) that the Christian Church of medieval Europe was primarily responsible for keeping the population ignorant and benighted. While this perspective is not completely punctured--witness, for instance, the potent ambivalence with which Church fathers regarded stonemasons--it seems inarguable that the Benedictine and Cistercian monastic orders in particular were responsible for making many technological innovations and dispersing even more throughout Christendom.

(At the same time, as the handling of ancient texts from the Greeks, Romans, and ancient Near East is out of scope for this title, the darker side of the Christian church's role in the preservation of knowledge is largely unexplored...yet references abound here to texts and technologies that had to be re-imported, mainly through contacts with the Muslim world.)

All in all, I regard this title as nearly essential reading for technological literacy and the history of Western Civilization.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair, I should preface this review by saying that this book has been my bathroom reading for the better part of a year.

Since I'm guessing that's not how this book was intended to be read, it probably had a somewhat deleterious effect on my perception of the book.

And now that I've over-shared to an alarming degree, on to the review.

This book was a little academic for my taste. A little dry. And the information density isn't quite what I'd hoped for either.

That said, the book does do a great job of showing how technology changed throughout the course of the middle ages. It talks about everything from farming, to ironwork, to masonry, to transportation and exploration.

It also refutes several commonly-held beliefs about the middle ages. Stuff that I learned in grade school and never questioned until now (Though it's obvious in retrospect that some of these things were nonsense.)

All in all, a good read. But it would probably be better if you didn't read it 2-3 pages at at time over the course of a year like I did...

[Петър Стойков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Тъмните векове май не са били чак толкова тъмни, колкото повечето хора си ги мислят, даже и по отношение на науката. Всъщност, през Средновековието в Европа хората развиват римското наследство в тая област (което не е твърде много), заимстват много от Китай и Арабския свят и като цяло поставят основите, върху които после се гради Индустриалната революция.

За успеха си в гражданското, строителното и военното дело римляните са разчитали на много висока степен на организация, а не на нововъведения. В образованието са давали преференции на хуманитарните дисциплини - история, философия, реторика и т.н., не на наука и инженерство, които практически не са развивали, а икономиката и финансовите им инструменти са на практически примитивно ниво. Дори галите и германите (варварите тоест) които завладяват римските земи имат по-добро ниво на техническо развитие (автоматични жътварки, сапун...) и съответно продължават усилено развитието на тия дисциплини, по-късно превеждайки гръцки технически и научни текстове (към които римляните не са имали никакъв интерес и даже не са превели).

Религията, противно на масовото мнение, като цяло не се противопоставя на такова развитие, а манастирите са сред първите, въвели автоматизирани и задвижвани от нежива сила (вода, вятър) съоръжения.

Няма да преразказвам книгата, като цяло е интересна.

[Mary Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

An incredibly important, valuable book that I could barely finish. Oy. Love these.

Gies has chosen what I think is an extremely important topic to research: Medieval technology. In popular understanding, Medieval Europe was a 'dark age' where much was lost of Classical knowledge and close to no new inventions were made until the Renaissance. Medieval historians have long been fighting this notion, which is popularized by Renaissance and Enlightenment historians, and as a Medievalist I thought it was my duty to read it.

The thing is, Gies describes technology largely without diagrams and either I'm just stupid or he doesn't do a good job at explaining all the technicalities of how a blast furnace or a boat rudder works. Describing different levers and how they move together can take paragraphs and paragraphs but it doesn't further my understanding of Medieval technological advancements as a whole. These passages are far too long and dense and would have been very much helped by diagrams. The book is also broken up into only a handful of chapters which means reading it is a chore when there aren't enough places to stop. I think Gies also lost out on the opportunity to have a final chapter summarizing and explaining more clearly the implications of Medieval technology, but the book ends rather abruptly at the end of a chapter on Leonardo with a couple paragraphs of summation.

So maybe my issue is that it's a good book written poorly, but honestly I skimmed most of the last chapter and avoided all of the long technological drivel sections. Would only recommend if you're seriously studying this period for a paper or something, not for any kind of passing interest readers.

[Jared Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What an explanatory and illuminating walk through the centuries of human technological advance. Any one of the advances and discoveries pointed out by the author could easily deserve a book on its own.

My favorite chapter covered the years 1200-1400. An amazing time in Europe and the world to be sure.

Overall, the discovery and innovation of long distance land and water transportation and the interaction with foreign peoples and cultures created demand for new and exciting commodities. The resultant trade routes led to an increasing mixing of cultures and shrinking of the world.

Because of these technologies our world has benefited from an increase of religious accountability, riches beyond the wildest dreams of those involved, and a slow but steady enlightening of attitudes and opportunities among the human race.

Unfortunately, we have also seen a dramatic increase in the effectiveness of war machines, the grip of tyrants, and, recently, the steady polarization of humanity.

It might be easy to focus on the bad instead of the good. I can say because of this book, I’m reminded to be grateful for what I have and to share with those who suffer or do not enjoy the same comforts of technology with which my life is so abundantly blessed.

We are better off now that at any point in our history.
5 stars! A thinker book.

Thanks for the recommendation, Tanner!

[Faranae · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to give this 2 stars, for being a bit sloppy and failing to ever actually go to any Chinese written sources. They don't go into enough detail on the technology they do cover, and I feel much of this is that as historians, they had no practical mechanical understanding. It wasn't in vogue for historians to be hands-on in the 90s, as far as I can tell. Also, for them, Asia appears to consist solely of China and India, with no mention of Japan at all and only a brief nod to Korea, and that's just of the Big Four. The Gies rely over-heavily on two particular historians, and their citations are insufficient to their claims throughout. I understand also that historians in the 90s (and honestly, today...) didn't like archeology, so not using that evidence unless it was convenient was a mere annoyance. But then I got to the final chapter, and the final 5 pages really settled the matter. It's downright offensive in its jingoistic praise for modern Western civilization, the triumph of Europe over China and the Americas and the apparent virtues of capitalism. They actually even manage to claim that China's printing culture was insignificant and stagnant, which simply asking any undergrad Chinese Literature major would have dispelled in less than five minutes at the time this book was written.

Frankly, I'd feel absolutely no guilt if I was pressed to use this book as toilet paper or kindling.

[Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrow.

Not as essential as their "Life in a ..." series but still relatively enjoyable and absolutely convincing in its argument. It can, however, get a bit tiring as you start realize it's mostly just a listing of innovations and adaptations with no real narrarive tying it together.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a non-fiction book about a subject that I would expect to be very dry, namely medieval technology, but I found it to be compelling reading. The authors make a thesis that the "Dark Ages" were not, in fact, as dark as popularly believed. They show the ways that technology was invented, borrowed, and advanced all through the years from 500 - 1500 A.D. That resulted in steady technology advances beyond what the Greek Golden Age and the Roman Empire.

For some reason when I read books like this I find myself constantly thinking, if I were to land back in in time in some century between 500-1300, would I understand enough about the way things work to help technology advance at a significantly faster rate than it did? I don't know if other people think like this, but I found myself studying the escapement mechanisms in mechanical clocks so that I could understand them well enough to teach some 12th century silversmith how to make one. I suppose that kind of thinking was inspired by my reading of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" years ago.

I read a physical copy of this book, and I believe that this is a book that I wouldn't have gotten as much out of in audio format. There were quite a few unfamiliar words, which for me are always easier to recognize and look up when I see them rather than only hear them.
There are also diagrams spread throughout the book that added to my understanding and enjoyment.

[Warren Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Middle Ages are often considered a time of stagnation in human cultural and scientific development. In Cathedral, Forge & Waterwheel: Technology & Invention in the Middle Ages, author Frances Gies proposes that quite to the contrary, the period of history between 500 AD and 1500 AD led to the development of several key technologies that subsequently allowed the scientific and industrial revolutions to occur.

The development of the pointed and segmented arch permitted wider bridges to be spanned; the waterwheel allowed grain to be ground more efficiently, feeding more people and lowering the cost of food; and the invention of the escapement allowed for the creation of accurate timekeeping and a sweeping change in the way that society divided the day between work and leisure.

Written in a entertaining and interesting fashion, the book is far from "textbooky" and easy to read. Topics that could be dry and boring are presented in a way that lend them life and spirit and make for an interesting read.

Highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in the history of science and invention.

[Edoardo Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The received wisdom, derived largely from Renaissance propagandists and their amplifiers during the Enlightenment, was that Europe, after the end of the Western Roman Empire, entered a period of savagery and civilisational decline arrested only by the Renaissance that enabled Europe to cast off the superstitious shackles of the Church and emerge into a new world.

The truth is almost exactly the opposite. In fact, the period labelled the 'Dark Ages' saw some of the most profound and enduring developments in culture and civilisation since the Agricultural Revolution enabled the first sedentary civilisations. The 'Dark Ages' saw the end of slavery, the development of political and economic structures that have endured for two thousand years and a host of technological achievements that improved the lot of ordinary people in unimaginable ways. All slave-based empires have no incentive to find more efficient ways of doing things for, among the small number of hyper rich that dominate slave empires, the ability to employ slaves is a marker of their status. When Christianity made it impossible for Christians to keep slaves, there became a real incentive to find other ways of doing things. Among these innovations, the waterwheel, the forge, a new, heavier plough, all enabled ordinary people to lead significantly better lives than the poor of the Roman Empire: something confirmed by the analysis of remains from comparable cemeteries in Roman and Early Medieval times. It turns out, for all the bread and circuses, you would have been far better off, far better nourished, and significantly better protected under law, as a serf in medieval Europe than as a plebeian under Rome.

The husband and wife writing team do an excellent job of tracing the main technological innovations in Europe during this time, looking at where the inventions came from and the evidence of how they spread. There's not so much about the social and cultural transformation but a good grasp of the the technological innovations will give the inquiring reader a grounding in the reasons why the Dark Ages were not so dark after all but the foundations for everything that followed: achievements and understandings that would always have been impossible for the Romans.

[Nick Carraway LLC · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) ''From the long Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age came the tools and techniques that separated humankind forever from the animal world: language, fire making, hunting weapons and methods, domestication of animals. From the short Neolithic (New Stone) Age, beginning about 8000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, came agriculture and its tools---plow, sickle, ax, and mortar and pestle or stone grain crusher. The wheel and axle appeared in Mesopotamia between 3000 and 4000 B.C. The arts of cloth making were invented: felting, matting fibers together by boiling and beating to produce a nonwoven fabric; spinning, drawing out fibers of flax or wool and twisting them into a continuous strand, usually by means of a spindle; weaving, interlacing threads with the aid of a loom; fulling, soaking and beating cloth to remove grease; and dyeing. Raw hides were converted into leather by scraping and soaking with tannin, derived from oak bark. The important art of pottery making first modeled clay with fingers and thumb, then coiled strands of clay, and finally shaped its work with the potter's wheel, invented about 3000 B.C.''

2) ''The undershot wheel typically achieved an efficiency of 15 to 30 percent, adequate for milling. For more demanding tasks, a superior design was the overshot wheel. In this arrangement the stream was channelled by a millrace or chute to the top of the wheel, bringing the full weight of the water to bear, with a resulting efficiency of 50 to 70 percent. Because it required dam, millrace, sluice gates, and tailrace as well as gearing, the overshot wheel had a high initial cost. Consequently, large landowners and even the Roman state were reluctant to build it.''

3) ''The Khaifeng clock of 1090 was the creation of Su Sung, who first built a wooden pilot model, then cast his working parts in bronze. The water that supplied power was contained in a reservoir, refilled periodically by manually operated norias. Water passed by siphon from the reservoir to a constant-level tank and thence to the scoops of the waterwheel. An endless-chain drive slowly turned a celestial globe and an armillary sphere one revolution per day. The same waterwheel turned a series of shafts, gears, and wheels working the bells and drums that announced the time (like nearly all early mechanical clocks, Su Sung's had no face). The escapement that was the 'soul of the timekeeping machine' and that kept its movement at an even pace was a complex arrangement of balances, counterweights, and locks that divided the flow of the water into equal parts by repeated weighing, automatically dividing the revolution of the wheel into equal interval.''

4) ''A unique document from thirteenth-century Douai gives an intimate picture of the putting-out system at work. The record of a legal proceeding in 1285-86 against the estate of Sire Jehan Boinebroke, cloth merchant and notorious skinflint, by forty-five clothworkers and other claimants illuminates the human as well as the economic aspect of the system. Boinebroke contracted through his agents to buy wool from Cistercian monasteries in England, making a down payment of about 3 percent. When the wool arrived, he sold it to the weaver, who took it home to sort, card, spin, and weave, with the help of his wife and children. The weaver then sold the unfinished cloth back to Boinebroke, who sold it to a fuller for cleaning and treating, after which he bought the finished cloth back and either sold it to a dyer or sent it to his own dye shop behind his house. Finally, he sold the fulled and dyed cloth to his agents, who took it to sell at either the Douai cloth market or the Flemish or Champagne fairs. Thus Boinebroke bought and sold the wool four times.''

5) ''Of all the medieval cities, those most clearly foreshadowing the future were the great cloth towns of Flanders and Italy, where in place of the many specialized crafts of the smaller cities the dominant textile industry created harsh class differences. The houses of the rich drapers like Jehan Boinebroke clustered in Europe's first beau quartier residential districts, while the warrens of tenements that housed the families of the weavers formed the first proletarian slums.''

6) ''An illustration from a Zurich manuscript of the mid-fourteenth century shows what seems to be the longitudinal suspension of a carriage body from leather straps, but such carriages did not arrive in numbers in western Europe until the following century. Their origin was Hungary, where the town of Kocs (hence 'coach,' coche, Kutsche) became famous for its lightweight, one-horse, leather-suspended passenger vehicles.''

7) ''Adelard of Bath's translation of al-Khwarizmi had expounded the Hindu notation but only to a very limited circle even among the mathematically literate. Leonardo [Fibonacci] perceived its enormous potential value and in 1202 undertook its wider diffusion by writing what proved to be a seminal book in the history of mathematics and science, the Liber abaci (Book of the abacus). The book began: 'The nine Indian figures are 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. With these nine figures and the sign 0, any number may be written, as demonstrated below.'''

8) '''Technology,' says Melvin Kranzberg, founder of the Society for the History of Technology, 'is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.' It is what each age and each society make of it. The Middle Ages used it sometimes wisely, sometimes recklessly, often for dubious purposes, seldom with a thought for the future, and with only a dim awareness of the scientific and mathematical laws governing it. But operating on instinct, insight, trial and error, and perseverance, the craftsmen and craftswomen, the entrepreneurs, the working monks and the clerical intellectuals, and the artist-engineers all transformed the world, on balance very much to the world's advantage.''

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Societal change is driven by technology. Marx understood this. Yet few historians pay much attention to technological triggers, and the great man narrative continues to dominate. CFW, therefore, addresses a yawning gap; and it could have been a great read. But there are many weaknesses:

* The book is far too short in relation to the period it sets out to cover.
* Even the simplest technology has its own breakdown into a dozen or so parts and it's corresponding vocabulary. CFW either ignores this, or presents it as if it were already familiar. Wikipedia can help quite a lot, but still falls short. I would have appreciated many more diagrams and explanations. That, plus a full day's visit to a museum.
* CFW treats the connection between technology and societal change as an afterthought. Admittedly, society is not the focus of the book. But I would have at least expected a timeline comparison.

[April Munday · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful introduction to medieval technology.

[VR O'Mahony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful discussion of a generally ignored topic: the actual result of "the fall of the Roman Empire" was an explosion of steadily advancing technology across northern Europe. The Romans, and Greeks, had ignored new technologies (the horizontal loom in place of the clumsy vertical loom, the Chinese blast furnance to make steel, the Indian spinning wheel in place of the "woman's work" of spinning on a distaff, etc., etc., etc.) because they based their economies on slaves and had so no value in improving efficiency.

A book necessary to any understanding of either the Ancient Mediterranean or European history.

[Cordell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far less interesting than I though it would be and I think the authors had some odd thoughs. For example they seem to think its necessary to defend the idea that a lot of great advancements were made during the dark ages. OK some advances were made. Man didnt move backwards, but it clearly took hundreds of years to move a very small distance speaking of technology and what was invented took hundreds of years to become common place. The book even bares this out, but the authors seem like its important the we celebrate each little thing. The book was a bit dull.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Filled with interesting anecdotes but presented in a rambling, repetitive style.

The nominal scope is Europe in the middle ages, but they only stick to that topic for about a quarter of the book.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was somewhat disappointed with this book. The authors cover a lot of high level details, but never get detailed enough.

[Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good history read, discussing the technological innovations of the Middle Ages which led to the technological revolution later.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages by Frances & Joseph Gies for a couple of reasons. First of all, for research. My fantasy novels take place in a pre-industrial world with limited technology. I often find bits of history and ancient technology I can adapt and reimagine. This book was a good choice for that kind of information. I also enjoy reading history and learning how, where, when, and why things came about. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel offer up plenty of that too. If I were rating the book solely on the content, I would give it four stars, but if I were rating based on the organization of information, I might give it a three.

The book is quite informative. It reveals the origins of technologies from ancient Greece, Egypt, and China and follows the evolution of these technologies into the Middle Ages. From there, it shows how these innovative ideas spread and morphed into something more sophisticated.

In my opinion, the book got off to a slow start. The first chapter looks at a variety of worldviews regarding the definition of the Dark Ages. It discusses what years encompass the Medieval Ages (since differing world views don't agree on this), along with a brief but general mention of technology from those times and whether or not they were considered good or bad based on the various world views. While this approach may be interesting to some people, I felt it started things off on a sluggish footing. Chapter 2 kindled my interest as the author delved into technologies of ancient Egypt and how they influenced Rome and Greece and how they, in turn, often improved on those technologies coming up with upgraded or modified versions of the same inventions. What they accomplished is quite remarkable, and the book goes on to show that much of today's technology finds its roots in this history. The third chapter looks into waterwheel technology and explains how it changed economics, politics, and more.

The book covers an array of technologies before and after the Middle Ages. The insights are fascinating. However, the organization of the information is not conducive to finding something read in a previous chapter. For instance, if I wanted to revisit the section on bridges and the Crusaders, I would have to remember to look in the chapter on the Technology of the Commercial Revolution 900-1200. I would prefer it organized by "technology and inventions."
I recommend this book to people researching these topics or history buffs wanting to know more about the origins of technologies. However, if you find something of interest you might want to come back to, make sure to bookmark the page or highlight the text, or you might spend quite a bit of time hunting for it.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars seems low, and a more fair rating would probably be 3 1/2, but the fact is that I was disappointed by this entry in the Gies' series on medieval life. One issue with the book was structure. The title led me to believe that the book would centre on these three main examples of medieval technology, using them to illustrate other advancements and innovations along the way (much as the Gies' other books use a single person, castle, town, etc. to serve as a representative microcosm of larger trends). However, they are not positioned as central threads to the book, but simply crop up here and there among many other technologies. Another issue with the book was focus. The book proceeds chronologically, which means that a huge amount of territory, both literal and technological, is covered in each chapter. I appreciated the amount of space devoted to China and Asia in this book, as well as the illuminating examples of how new technological advances made their way, through a kind of telephone, across the globe, as well as those showing how similar inventions were arrived at independently and the important differences between them (sometimes differences which moved entire societies forward or backward in time with lasting consequences). However, looking back on the book, my picture of the flow of ideas and technology through time and space is muddled, because each chapter attempts to include everything from a period of years, rather than focusing on one technology, region, etc. And finally, I simply found the book drier than I'm used to with books by Frances and Joseph Gies. They do not write dumbed-down histories, but they don't write academic tomes, either -- yet this book felt much more academic in tone, and less easily readable, than their other books. (A side note -- academic, and yet seemingly over-reliant on one particular author and source, which made the whole book feel a bit like a book report.) The sheer amount of detail and the unwieldy, all-encompassing reach of the book made it a slog to get through, especially near the end as it reached the end of the middle ages and started entering the Renaissance. I'm not anti-Renaissance by any means, but when a book promises "cathedrals, forges, and waterwheels," I am not very interested in reading about Christopher Columbus or Galileo, or even Da Vinci, whose inventions are somehow not placed easily in conversation with those of the true middle ages discussed earlier in the book. Overall, a very informative book, but not very fun.

[Tanner Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It won’t surprise anyone who knows me, but I’m a bit of a medieval history nerd. While I can’t cite inane facts about battles and rulers like I can about World War 2 (another period of history that I unabashedly love to study), I lap up books about the Middle Ages like a parched desert traveler who happens upon a puddle. I’ve read the Gies’ other works, so the chance to learn about medieval technology was too good to pass up. Plus, cathedrals, forges, and waterwheels and just objectively cool (for a nerd).

The odds were stacked in favor of “Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel.” Despite delivering exactly the kind of information I was looking for, I would classify it alongside good magazine articles or TV documentaries. It’s good, often interesting, but not stellar. I may re-read “Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel” in the future. If I do, though, it’ll be resource material more than a fun read.

On paper this read seems fantastic. It’s interesting, educational, and well-researched. I even learned something while reading it that I had never before considered. Did you know that the arrival of the Europeans in the Americas introduced to them the wheel? The wheel had never been invented in the Americas! That fact blew my mind. Despite this, “Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel” just wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped.

Don’t let this dissuade you from reading it if it sounds interesting. It’s a good read, not not great.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a survey of technological change and innovation in Europe during the Middle Ages. It was written by Frances and Joseph Gies, who were apparently two of the best selling historians of the Middle Ages prior to their deaths. The book starts from a questionable premise - that there was not much innovation or technological change between the fall of Rome and the advent of the Renaissance and modernity.

This is put forward as a straw man position and the book proceeds to show how the Middle Ages were a time of considerable technological change, both in terms of innovation and in terms of borrowing technology from China or the Arabs. Good thing too! The stereotypical view of medieval times is hard to maintain. The result is a very rich survey of technology and innovation that communicates very well just how practical and adaptive people were after 1000 or earlier.

What I especially liked about the book was how the Gies showed how changes came inn groups with several sets of changes arising in close proximity to each other. This is especially good in the chapters on architecture and weaponry, where the point is clearly made about how innovation arises to solve the critical problems facing the innovators.

The book is well written and easy to read. The citations seem fine, although in some cases there is subsequent work to consider.

I just got back from travelling in Britain and France and wish I could have read this prior to going.

[SlowRain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very succinct look at human technical ingenuity, from the 6th to 16th centuries. For readers who have read their previous Life in a Medieval... series, there is some overlap. However, this book covers those topics in only passing detail. I'd still recommend those other books for more detailed information on cities, castles, and villages.

I found the information on all of the technology that came from China and India quite fascinating, as well as similar technology that was developed independently of each other's. There is also some interesting discussion as to what allowed China to take an initial technological lead, but why Europe eventually surpassed it.

If I have one gripe, it's that there weren't enough pictures to back up the items and descriptions of what they were talking about. That would've made the book longer, and potentially more expensive, but it would've helped. In 2018 it's not a huge problem because of the internet, but it would've been more of an issue back in 1994 when it was originally published.

Still, it's an informative read and probably the best of their books that I've read. I highly recommend it, along with their others.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This far reaching work encompasses much of the important technological advances in the middle ages. Far from our impression of the Dark Age, technology actually marched on with important inventions, discoveries, and incremental improvements. This is the kind of work that will take a while to read, but greatly expand your world view. Touching on many subjects: economics, warfare, water power, man power, tools, and other subjects, the work is enlightening and probably should be read more than once.

[Philip Van Vleck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been using this book as a reference source for the past dozen years. I'm a professor of medieval history at North Carolina State U. It has been a lecture source and also a source for extra-credit assignments of students. Gies' research is outstanding and the text is well-written and accessible for my students. It opens a window into medieval technological innovations that few people are aware of, highlighting the ingenuity of medieval folks and, happily, disproving the foolish term 'dark ages'.
Dr P Van Vleck

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a laundry list at times, but a lot of interesting stuff here. Borrowings from east to west and back described, myths debunked. Great stuff on clocks and the devices that preceded them. Conveys everyday ways of doing things, as well as large projects. Illustrations are good - could have used even more of them, to explain mechanisms for those of us who are spatially or otherwise challenged.

[Geoff Sebesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took two years reading this book and it was worth it. This is definitely a book to read very, very slowly, to stop and to think and research at every point. I have a much greater love and understanding of mechanics now that I've read this.

If you like insightful historical trivia, you can't do much better than this book.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of really interesting information about the development of technology starting in the Middle Ages, maybe 500 to 1500. A thousand years that set the stage for the Industrial Revolution and our Internet society. It is truly amazing at what was achieved during that time - read the book and find out for yourself.

[Leandro Almeida · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very detailed book about technological improvement in Europe, including tracking where technology came from (mostly from China). The only interpretation that I did not agree with is that Romans did not improve technology because they are a slave society but the authors forgot about roman aqueducts and how the urbanization of roman cities was very advanced.

[Elle Fellman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book digs into the technology of the Middle Ages. It points out the invention/reinvention of some major machines that you would not have thought as a precursor to modern life. The waterwheel? Printing and movable type plus fonts? Coins? Looms? It is an easy read and fascinating how the authors make connections to ancient past, Middle Ages and modern eras.