THE FIRST ENGLISH SCIENTIST & MORE
Morris Dancing, Matthew Syed, On This Day, and Complaisant.
BOC#028
4 MINUTE MUNCH
ADELARD OF BATH, WHO IS CONSIDERED THE FIRST ENGLISH SCIENTIST…
was a pioneer of Arab teaching during a time when the primary European concern with the Muslim world came in the form of the Crusades. Born in 1080, the young English scholar travelled to the Arab world to pursue what he called Studia Arabum, learning from a variety of Arab teachers before exporting this newly acquired knowledge back to Europe. By his own admission, he was disheartened by the state of European learning, writing:
“When I examine the famous writings of the ancients—not all of them, but most—and compare their talents with the knowledge of the moderns, I judge the ancients eloquent, and call the moderns dumb…” - Conversations with his Nephews, On the Same, and the Different.
With all available Greek texts having been translated into Arabic, the Arabic language had, over the course of 150 years, become the new language of learning. Adelard’s frustrations would go on to fuel his impending exploits in the Arab world.
According to Bath Abby:
He was disenchanted with the poor understanding in Europe of the natural world. Aware of more enlightened thinking in the Arab world. - Bathabby.org
It was in this context that he turned his curiosity to the east, becoming one of the pioneers of European enlightenment. In the House of Wisdom, Jim Al-Khalili* adds:
The arrival of Arab science and philosophy, the legacy of the pioneering Adelard and of those who hurried to follow his example, transmuted the backward West into a scientific and technological superpower.
Adelard learned Arabic, which he later mastered during his time in and around the crusader states. While in pursuit of Studia Arabum, he learned Euclidian geometry (which was one of the earliest books translated from Greek to Arabic under the Caliph Al-Mansur).
Having translated it into Latin in 1126, he sunk his teeth into astronomy, learned how to use an astrolabe, and acquired local methods of dying leather, tinting glass, and producing green pigment. Medieval polymath Roger Bacon referenced Adelard on the topic of experimentation, logic, and the theory of knowledge. Adelard popularised Arab geometry in Europe such that its theory was harnessed by European masons in the building of many great cathedrals.
The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution writes:
He was one of the great Minds of the Middle Ages, a Renaissance Man 300 years ahead of his time; primarily a Mathematician and Astronomer but also a Philosopher, Scientist, Astrologer, Alchemist, Medic, Musician and Government official; a Polymath who could aspire to know everything, a type impossible in the modern age. - Source
Having returned to Bath, he spent his days translating Arabic works into Latin, and wrote a few books of his own. He is considered the first English scientist, and ought to be a household name.
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DID YOU KNOW…
The English tradition of the Morris folk dance is a derivative of Moorish dancing, a tradition that harkens back to a time when Arab minstrels entertained the nobility of Muslim Spain?
PASSAGE FROM BLACK BOX THINKING BY MATTHEW SYED:
On the advantages of being willing to receive criticism with humility:
“No one can possibly give us more service than by showing us what is wrong with what we think or do; and the bigger the fault, the bigger the improvement made possible by its revelation.”
ON THIS DAY: 14TH JULY
On this day in 1933 the Nazi party banned the formation of any other political organisation in Germany, making the Nazis the only legal political party in the country.
The original Mario Bros game was released by Nintendo today in 1983.
Today marks the storming of the Bastille, a key moment in the unfolding of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a fortress that stood between 1300 and 1789, and had been used as a state prison.
WORDS: COMPLACENT VS COMPLAISANT
To be complacent is to be self-satisfied, and content. If you are complaisant, however, you wish to please others. Both words originate from the Latin word ‘complacere’ (to please).
POLITICAL QUOTE:
“An ambassador is a good man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country” - Henry Wotton.
MISSED LAST WEEK?: The Lancashire Cotton Famine, The Spanish Empire, and Hemingway.
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Wow, how had I not heard of such a fascinating polymath? Great spotlight!