Professor Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute)
Western Scientific Manuscripts
Half day - from 2.00pm
Venue: Room NG14, Senate House - North Block

This course will examine manuscripts of texts on arithmetic, geometry, astrology, astronomy, divination and medicine (using facsimiles), showing how scribes dealt with the representation of numbers and the setting out of tables and diagrams. Also to be explored is the didactic use of illustrations (e.g. in surgery), and the adaptation of the manuscript book, parchment and paper to practical exigencies (e.g. the use of paper dials, medical and astrological vade mecums, and scraps of writing paper for sketching horoscopes). More generally, the role of the book in medieval science will be discussed.