A Companion to Byzantine Science ed. by Stavros Lazaris (review)

The volume under review aims to synthesize the main Byzantine scientific domains, from astrology to botany, and from medicine to zoology, in order to give an overview of the scientific knowledge in Byzantine culture and society. As clarified in the Introduction, there is a great difference between how the Byzantines considered science and how we consider it today, because the meaning of the term "science" has changed over time. For this reason, we can not say that Byzantine science was less scientific than present-day science, but that it was scientific in a different way. These methodological considerations can help to understand the sense of the volume, whose aim is also to give new perspectives on Byzantine science.

The first two chapters, like the Introduction, have a methodological structure and cover two points essential for understanding Byzantine scientific knowledge: its methods and its dissemination. Chapter 1, by Hervé Inglebert, focuses on the debate between faith and reason in Late Antiquity, with particular reference to the differing ways in which Christians and non-Christian "pagans" approached the visible universe and dealt differently with cosmological questions, such as how the world was created. Chapter 2, by Inmaculada Pérez Martín and Divna Manolova, deals instead with methods of learning and teaching science in Byzantium and analyzes the educational cycle (cursus studiorum), the pedagogical strategies and some of the leading figures who contributed to the development of scientific learning (Leo the Mathematician, Photios, Michael Psellos, etc.).

The next ten chapters cover different areas of Byzantine scientific knowledge with the aim of explaining their content. In Chapter 3, Fabio Acerbi discusses the most important manuscripts that transmit scientific encyclopedias and the disciplines of the traditional quadrivium (mathematical arts, music, etc.). At the same time, a certain relevance is given to the reception of ancient authors in Byzantine science (especially Plato and Aristotle), as Katerina Ierodiakonou notes in Chapter 4 about the theory of vision and Ioannis Telelis in Chapter 5 about meteorology and physics: both authors adopt a chronological approach in surveying the ancient background as well as the commentaries, paraphrases, and other works produced during the Byzantine period. Another ancient author who inspired the Byzantines was Ptolemy, especially in matters of astronomy and astrology, as Anne-Laurence Caudano explains in Chapter 6, but at the same time there came important influence from the Arabic, Jewish, and Persian cultures, especially when it comes to horoscopes, ephemerides, eclipses, lunar phases, planets and various astronomical and astrological questions.

In Chapter 7, Inmaculada Pérez Martín and Gonzalo Cruz Andreotti discuss another important discipline for Byzantine scientific knowledge, geography. In presenting how the Byzantines conceived the oikoumene, they explore studying different perspectives like the ones expressed in Kosmas Indikopleustes's Christian Topography or in Dionysius Periegetes's Description of the Known World. In Chapter 8, Arnaud Zucker challenges the commonly-held assumption that the Byzantine era was scientifically unproductive and gives an exhaustive overview of the zoological literature it produced (for example, Cassianus Bassus's Geoponica). In Chapter 9, devoted to botany, Alain Touwaide examines how the Byzantines availed themselves of ancient sources such as Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum and Dioscorides's De Materia Medica to arrive at their own insights into the natural world around them, especially when it came to making advances in agriculture and medicine. The medicinal use of plants is discussed also in Chapter 10, also by Touwaide, but here the focus is on the modern approach to Byzantine medicine, its history and practice, with particular reference to diseases and their psychological impact on patients. Chapter 11, by Stavros Laziris, turns to veterinary medicine. In addition to taking stock of the limited ancient Greek and Latin texts devoted to this subject, Laziris describes the scope of Byzantine veterinary science, the functions of the veterinarian, and the difficulties he faced in diagnosing animal diseases. In Chapter 12, Thomas Salmon covers the Byzantine approach to warfare. Exploring tactical treatises such as the...