The Clock and the Camshaft

And Other Medieval Inventions We Still Can't Live Without

By: John W. Farrell

Narrated by: Celeste Oliva

This history of medieval inventions, focusing on the 11th to the 14th centuries, vividly portrays a thriving era of human ingenuity, and the results are still being felt to this day.

From the mechanical clock to the first eyeglasses, both of which revolutionized society, many of the commonplace devices we now take for granted had their origin in the Middle Ages. Divided into 10 thematic chapters, the accessible audiobook allows the listener to sample areas of interest or listen to the book from beginning to end for a complete historical overview. A chapter on the paper revolution shows that innovations in mill power enabled the mass production of cheap paper, which was instrumental in the later success of the printing press as a means of disseminating affordable books to more people. Another chapter examines the importance of Islamic civilization in preserving ancient Greek texts and the role of translation teams in Sicily and Spain in making those texts available in Latin for a European readership. A chapter on instruments of discovery describes the impact of the astrolabe, which was imported from Islamic lands, and the compass, originally invented in China; these tools plus innovations in ship building spurred on the expansion of European trade and the later age of discovery at the time of Columbus.

This guided tour through a distant era reveals how medieval farmers, craftsmen, women artisans, and clerical scholars laid the foundations of the modern world.

©2020 John W. Farrell (P)2022 John W. Farrell

I wish it were longer!

I was expecting a simple discussion of simple devices and how they changed life in medieval Europe, but it’s so much more.

The basic devices get covered and their historical origins along with variations among different locations. It makes you see a proto-Industrial Revolution occurring with water and wind power a thousand years before the age of steam.

Not only are devices covered, but how IDEAS moved around. The section on the translation movement of ancient texts, and the following section on the rise of universities are fantastic. The sections on the astrolabe, compasses and ships are also important for understanding the coming Age of Sail.

I’ve read specialized books on many of these topics, but few try to tie these different ideas together (it’s a tough job). I wish this book were 2-3 times longer! I was afraid that a shorter book like this wouldn’t cover much in the way of specifics, instead it left me wanting more.

The change from the ashes of the Roman collapse to the familiar modernity of the Renaissance deserves more study. It’s a rich period of Europe reintegrating ancient thought with Arab improvements and how these connections led to our modern world.