SCIENCE IN THE DARK AGE 



Middle AJJCS, when the interest in classical literature 

 sank to so low an ebb in the West. Such collections 

 of references and quotations as the Greek Anthology 

 and the famous anthologies of Stobaeus and Athana- 

 sius and Eusebius give us glimpses of a host of writers 

 more than seven hundred are quoted by Stobaeus 

 a very large proportion of whom are quite unknown 

 except through these brief excerpts from their lost 

 works. 



Quite naturally the scientific works suffered at least 

 as largely as any others in an age given over to ec- 

 clesiastical dreamings. Yet in some regards there 

 is matter for surprise as to the works preserved. 

 Thus, as we have seen, the very extensive works of 

 Aristotle on natural history, and the equally ex- 

 tensive natural history of Pliny, which were preserved 

 throughout this period, and are still extant, make up 

 relatively bulky volumes. These works seem to have 

 interested the monks of the Middle Ages, while many 

 much more important scientific books were allowed 

 to perish. A considerable bulk of scientific literature 

 was also preserved through the curious channels of 

 Arabic and Armenian translations. Reference has 

 already been made to the Almagest of Ptolemy, which, 

 as we have seen, was translated into Arabic, and which 

 was at a later day brought by the Arabs into western 

 Europe and (at the instance of Frederick II of 

 Sicily) translated out of their language into mediaeval 

 Latin. 



It remains to inquire, however, through what 

 channels the Greek works reached the Arabs them- 

 selves. To gain an answer to this question we must 



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