The Measure of Reality
Quantification in Western Europe, 1250–1600

This 1997 book discusses the shift to quantitative perception which made modern science, technology, business practice and bureaucracy possible.

Alfred W. Crosby (Author)

9780521639903, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 December 1997

262 pages, 19 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.38 kg

'Western Europe did remake itself during that thousand years in a way that no other culture in the world did - or even attempted to do. And that is the transformation addressed in a very accessible and readable way by Crosby's stimulating, wide-ranging study of the intellectual development of the medieval West.' Richard Holt, The New York Times Book Review

Western Europeans were among the first, if not the first, to invent mechanical clocks, geometrically precise maps, double-entry bookkeeping, precise algebraic and musical notations, and perspective painting. By the sixteenth century more people were thinking quantitatively in western Europe than in any other part of the world. The Measure of Reality, first published in 1997, discusses the epochal shift from qualitative to quantitative perception in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. This shift made modern science, technology, business practice and bureaucracy possible.

Part I. Pantometria Achieved: 1. Pantometria, an introduction
2. The venerable model
3. Necessary, but insufficient
4. Time
5. Space
6. Mathematics
Part II. Striking the Match: Visualization: 7. Visualization, an introduction
8. Music
9. Painting
10. Bookkeeping
Part III. The New Model.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]