God's Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time

Clocks became common in late medieval Europe and the measurement of time began to rule everyday life. God's Clockmaker is a biography of England's greatest medieval scientist, a man who solved major practical and theoretical problems to build an extraordinary and pioneering astronomical and astrological clock. Richard of Wallingford (1292-1336), the son of a blacksmith, was a brilliant mathematician with a genius for the practical solution of technical problems. Trained at Oxford, he became a monk and then abbot of the great abbey of St Albans, where he built his clock. Although as abbot he held great power, he was also a tragic figure, becoming a leper. His achievement, nevertheless, is a striking example of the sophistication of medieval science, based on knowledge handed down from the Greeks via the Arabs.

Author: John David North
Publisher: Continnuum-3PL
Published: 06/01/2005
Pages: 462
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.60w x 1.55d
ISBN13: 9781852854515
ISBN10: 1852854510
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Science & Technology
- Science | Time
- Science | History

About the Author

John North is Professor Emeritus of History of Philosophy and the Exact Sciences, University of Groningen, the Netherlands and the author of numerous books including Stonehenge: A New Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos and The Ambassadors' Secret.

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