Introduction to the History of Science

Abstract

THE first volume of Dr. Sarton's “Introduction to the History of Science”, already reviewed in NATURE, was universally and deservedly acclaimed as a major contribution to our knowledge of the growth of civilisation. The second volume, which follows after a brief interval of four years, covers the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—or, as Dr. Sarton puts it, the period from Rabbi ben Ezra, “one of the greatest Biblical commentators of the Middle Ages” to Roger Bacon, the Doctor Mirabilis. There is probably no single scholar competent to subject the book to a thorough and authoritative critical analysis, but the general verdict can scarcely be other than that the author has fully maintained, and, indeed, in several notable respects, surpassed, the high and exacting standard he set himself in the first part of the work. One finds it difficult to decide whether Dr. Sarton is more to be praised for his courage in attempting so stupendous a task, or for his unflagging determination in carrying it to so successful a conclusion it is at least certain that no future historian of science, of learning as a whole, or of civilisation itself, will consider his library adequately equipped unless a copy of Sarton is within arm's reach.

Introduction to the History of Science.

By George Sarton. Vol. 2: From Rabbi ben Ezra to Roger Bacon. (Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 376.) Part 1. Pp. xxxvi + 480. Part 2. Pp. xvi + 481–1251. (Baltimore, Md.: The Williams and Wilkins Co., 1931.) 12 dollars.