[split] Relying on external imagery

[Mark Knowles]

About your inventions, to be honest I was thinking about inventing as in "making up images or text without reference to existing material". But your examples do illustrate my point.

1) Clocks: timekeeping devices existed before the Middle Ages, were improved upon outside of Europe and perfected only after the Middle Ages.
2) Glasses: here's a fine section from the Wiki that perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about:

.......

Same pattern: start in Ancient times, transmission through Arab world, picked up and improved in Middle Ages, perfected and more widespread in Renaissance.

3) Wind mills: also reached Europe through the Middle East, time of invention uncertain.

4) Castles: evolution of fortifications. You don't invent castles...

5) Compass: First sentence of the Wiki on "history of the compass": The compass was invented more than 2,000 years ago.

6) Developments in weaponry are not completely novel inventions.

7) Building techniques

8) "Overall many refinements/technical improvements to technology adopted from the classical world or arab world or the east" Yes! Exactly. But in those cases, it is important to know what came before.

So in summary, either not Medieval European inventions at all, or improvement of existing things.


Look, I've been arguing for over a year already that the clothing of the Zodiac figures can be reliably dated to within three decades (1400-1430). So I know things did change. But they did not appear out of thin air, and never in isolation. Medieval documents and art is always connected to earlier and contemporary examples, and it is our task to see which ones are most informative for the VM.

Of course, nothing in history appears out of thin air and every invention it could be argued has a precursor. Such as the computer which has a precursor in Charles Babbage's analytic engineer and earlier still the Antikythera mechanism; and the computer is the first modern technology that occurred to me. The modern airplane can be traced by to the Wright Brothers and inventions like the jet engine, but earlier still to gliders, air balloons, kites and so on. Da Vinci, I believe, had ideas about flying machines. The airplane was the second modern technology that occurred to me. I would say that each advance and improvement can be considered an invention in it's own right.

In the medieval period many enhancements and refinements were make to existing development. So for example, when I talk about spectacles, I am not claiming that glass was invented in the medieval period.

If you wish to get precise about clocks one could say that the mechanical clock using weights rather than water power was invented in medieval Europe. I am not suggested the notion of time was invented in medieval Europe. Of course simple water clocks/timers and sundials could be considered clocks and they greatly pre-date this, but that is something different.

Horizontal-axis wind mill, otherwise called vertical mills were invented in medieval europe. There were also advances in water mills.

In the 15th the Guttenberg printing press was invented. Now it is true that you can say that movable type printing was invented in China, but is not quite the same thing. Do you also think that there were no inventions in the 15th century?

Your other points can be addressed similarly.

As far as making up images or text. Think of writers like Dante. In terms of art you can think of the romanesque style or gothic style.