A magical world : superstition and science from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

Summary:

Spanning some of the most vibrant and fascinating eras in European history, Cambridge historian Derek Wilson reveals a society filled with an ardent desire for knowledge and astounding discoveries and the fantastic discoveries that flowered from it. There was the discovery of the movement of blood around the body; the movement of the earth around the sun; the velocity of falling objects (and why those objects fell).

Spanning some of the most vibrant and fascinating eras in European history, Wilson reveals a society filled with an ardent desire for knowledge and astounding discoveries and the fantastic discoveries that flowered from it. But often this knowledge was based on folk religions with a pagan past. Even the Catholic Church had it's own "magical" traditions, and astrologists believed human affairs were controlled by the heavenly bodies. Wilson shows how our pursuit of knowledge existed alongside deep-rooted fears and superstitions.

Record details

ISBN: 9781681776453
ISBN: 1681776456
Physical Description: x, 310 pages ; 24 cm
Edition: First Pegasus books hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : Pegasus Books, Ltd., [2018]
Copyright: ©2018

Content descriptions

General Note:	"February 2018"--Title page verso.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-297) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction : '42' -- New wine and old wineskins -- A magical world -- Re-evaluation -- Heavens above? -- Medicine men -- Seeing may be believing -- Confusion -- I think--so what? -- The religion of doctors -- Spreading the word -- Day star of the Enlightenment -- Avant le deluge.