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Stefan's Florilegium

Med-Math-Sci-bib



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Med-Math-Sci-bib - 4/4/00

"Medieval Math and Science Bibliography" by Lord Midair MacCormaic
(Charles Cohen).

NOTE: See also the files: Art-of-Arith-art, medieval-tech-msg, timeline-art,
museums-msg, maps-msg, clocks-msg, tools-bib, bladesmithing-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that
I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some
messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with
seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes
extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were
removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I
make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the
individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these
messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this
time. If information is published from these messages, please give
credit to the orignator(s).

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: Lord Stefan li Rous
RSVE60@email.sps.mot.com stefan@florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 20:39:30 -0500 (EST)
From: "Charles J. Cohen" <charles@eecs.umich.edu>
To: mark_harris@risc.sps.mot.com
Subject: Re: Re- Medeival mathematics

References compiled by Lord Midair MacCormaic (Charles Cohen). Last
updated on 11 April 1997.

Mathematics References:

W. W. Rouse Ball, "A Short Account of the History of Mathematics."
Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 1960. ISBN 0-486-20630-0.
Unaltered reprint of the 1908 edition. This is one of the best math
history books out there, complete with simple examples and good
references.

Carl B. Boyer. "A History of Mathematics." Second Edition. Revised
by Uta C. Merzbach. John Wiley & Songs, New York, 1989. ISBN
0-471-09763-2 (0-471-54397-7 paperback), QA21.B767. This book may be
more complete that Ball's book, but it is also more convoluted and has
far fewer examples. Much of Boyer's book is based on Ball's book. I
find I refer more to Ball's book than Boyer's.

Lucas N. H. Bunt, Phillip S. Jones and Jack D. Bedient. "The
Historical Roots of Elementary Mathematics." Dover Publications, Inc.,
New York, 1988. ISBN 0-586-25563-8, QA21.B95. A fine book detailing
the mathematics of several ancient civilizations, good as a primer.

Eric Temple Bell, "Mathematics: Queen & Servant of Science." Tempus
Books of Microsoft Press. Redmond, Washington, 1989. ISBN
1-55615-173-X, QA21.B42. Originally published in 1951. This is an
interesting book which tries to take several mathematical subjects and
make them interesting. I like the presentation, but it is a bit light
on the history.


Robotics References:

L. Sprague de Camp. "The Ancient Engineers." Barnes & Noble, Inc,
USA, 1993. ISBN 0-88029-456-6. This is a fun book, which is
unfortunately more story that historical. I would consider it a
tertiary resource.

T. K. Derry and Trevor I. Williams, "A Short History of Technology:
From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900." Dover Publications, Inc. New
York, 1993. ISBN 0-486-27572-1, T15.D4. Originally published Oxford
University Press, 1961. This book serves as a fine overview of the
history of technology, and is not a bad read, either.

Marshall Clagett. "Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages." The
University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1959. ISBN
0-299-01900-4. This is also a good detailed book of medieval
mechanics. I liked it, but it is a very dry read.

John Cohen. "Human Robots in Myth and Science." A. S. Barnes and
Company, Inc, New York, 1967. Library of Congress Catalogue Card
Number: 67-13175. This is a very superficial overview of the history
of robotics, and is unfortunately the best that I can currently find.

Geoff Simons. "Robots: The Quest for Living Machines." Sterling
Publishing Co., Inc, New York. ISBN 0-304-34086-3 (paperback:
0-304-34414-1). Again, the history is very superficial and not well
documented. The later chapters which deal with modern robotics leave
out much of the robotic research that I feel is important, which makes
me question the earlier historical chapters.


General:

Isaac Asimov. "Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery." Harper
& Row, New York, 1989. ISBN 0-06-270114-2. Q125.A765. This delightful
book is a fun read and a great overview of the history of science.
However, I have found several entries that are just plain wrong, so be
careful when using it. I actually read this book from cover to cover
because it was so much fun to see the grand movement of 4000 years of
science at once.

Andre Goddu. "The Physics of William of Ockham." E. J. Brill,
Leiden, 1984. ISBN 90-04-06912-7. I have not read this yet, but it
looks as though it directly quotes much of Ockham's work, which would
make it a good primary source.

James Burke. "Connections." Little, Brown and Company, Boston,
1995. ISBN 0-316-11672-6. T15B76. Anyone who has seen Mr. Burke and
his Leisure Suite of Knowledge in his various television shows knows
that he presents scientific history in a fascinating light. This book
is equally interesting.

Colin A. Ronan. "Science: Its History and Development Among the
World's Cultures." Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1982. ISBN
0-87196-745-6. Q125.R7426. I have not read this book sufficiently to
critique it.

<the end>


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