Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel

“A mine of information” on the surprising technological advances made in the Middle Ages, from the authors of Life in a Medieval City ( Kirkus Reviews ). “In their latest medieval study, the Gieses explode the myth that the Middle Ages were unconcerned with the empirical and demonstrate that the Renaissance itself was the outcome of gradual progress made over the previous thousand years . . . They describe the above-ground reduction furnace that was feeding iron to local forges where smiths shap