On discoveries
"Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness on sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size."
- John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, 1159
Yesterday, I made the experience that not only the predecessors in historic matters can be considered as such giants, assisting the contemporary historian in his searches, but also chemists or biologists. I don’t understand the slightest bit when a knowing person writes about the 14C procedure, but I’m very thankful for the interesting discoveries of dendrochronology, if they make known the right age of a ship wreck. In the same way, my eyes start spinning when I read a text about the chemical analysis of ancient money, but I’m fascinated when these results permit to localise the mine from which the metal for the coins was coming, and even more so when they open the way to new thoughts and perceptions of medieval communication. It is a very fascinating idea that, in the 10th century, Arabic coins could have been used by the money factory of the German (or better Holy Roman) Emperor to make coins showing him and his wife, because their own silver mines weren’t sufficient productive.
Thank you natural scientists for your great work!
Love,
The curious historians standing on your shoulders
- John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, 1159
Yesterday, I made the experience that not only the predecessors in historic matters can be considered as such giants, assisting the contemporary historian in his searches, but also chemists or biologists. I don’t understand the slightest bit when a knowing person writes about the 14C procedure, but I’m very thankful for the interesting discoveries of dendrochronology, if they make known the right age of a ship wreck. In the same way, my eyes start spinning when I read a text about the chemical analysis of ancient money, but I’m fascinated when these results permit to localise the mine from which the metal for the coins was coming, and even more so when they open the way to new thoughts and perceptions of medieval communication. It is a very fascinating idea that, in the 10th century, Arabic coins could have been used by the money factory of the German (or better Holy Roman) Emperor to make coins showing him and his wife, because their own silver mines weren’t sufficient productive.
Thank you natural scientists for your great work!
Love,
The curious historians standing on your shoulders