midieval

Secret Knowledge: Medieval Scientific Development by Tyler Wood

A shift in the history of science narrative to an idea that secret knowledge had a much more dominant role to play is a positive shift in reasoning to better understand science in the medieval and early modern European history. Historians have overlooked the secret knowledge and passed it off as unimportant to the history that was to lead to modern science. Alchemy and mysticism, magic and even astrology are cultures that were overlooked at first by modern historians, and now rediscovered as major players in the history of science and technological development in our past, much like the 'secrets of nature' genre of books were. The way I define the statement 'secret knowledge' is this; The learned peoples secrets of the trade, such as, craftsman's secrets not being shared with the public for reasons of keeping demand for yourself high or scholars knowledge kept from the masses by way of keeping it written in Latin, so as to keep the illiterate from reading it and desecrating this traditional knowledge passed down through the generations. I will argue that science as secret knowledge is a justified narrative for the history of science based on its necessity of the 'secrets' books to have flourished in the age of the printing press causing a push for more practical science.

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