Log in or Sign up
Coin Talk
Home
Forums
>
Coin Forums
>
Ancient Coins
>
Byzantine’s contribution to science (and some coins)
>
Reply to Thread
Message:
<p>[QUOTE="Herberto, post: 3004661, member: 74222"]As the title suggests I will list a couple of Byzantine’s contribution to science. It might be somehow dry for someone, so in case you want just to see the coins I suggest just to scroll down to post number two.</p><p><br /></p><p>I will provide a couple of things related to science which were invented, re-invented or improved in the realm of the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps it might be interesting for some of you.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here they are:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>PENDENTIVE ARCHITECTURE:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744096[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Pendentive architecture is actually a late-Roman invention, at least in theory. But it was during Byzantine Empire that it was fully incorporated into practical matter where a tiny part of corners could support a heavy and large dome. The result is of course stunning.</p><p><br /></p><p>Source: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/pendentive" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/pendentive" rel="nofollow">https://www.britannica.com/technology/pendentive</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>JOHN PHILOPONUS’S CRITICISM OF ARISTOTOTLE’S PHYSICS:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744097[/ATTACH]</p><p>A popular misconception is that nobody questioned Aristotle’s physics before Galileo’s time. The reality is that many did that. And the first one who did it, was John Philoponus who was a byzantine philosopher/scientist. He was the first to criticize Aristotle’s theory of the free fall. Aristotle stated that heavier item will fall faster than a lighter item. So basically, if you have a 10kg iron ball and a 1kg iron ball, and you throw them from the Eiffel tower then the 10kg-ball will hit the earth first according to Aristotle’s teaching. But Philoponus refuted it and argued that since a 10kg and 1kg iron would have the same density they will fall at the same time.</p><p><br /></p><p>During the Scientific Revolution, which spanned from Galileo’s time until Newton’s time (ca. 1600-1750), Philoponus’s criticism of Aristotelian physics was critical for Galileo as he cited and mentioned Philoponus in his works when Galileo argued why Aristotelian physics was wrong.</p><p><br /></p><p>Source: <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/" rel="nofollow">https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744098[/ATTACH]</p><p>Prior Justinian’s reign the law of the Romans was confusing as there were many contradictions between the law and the edicts of various emperors. Justinian’s code solved it, and the jurisprudence of the Western world has its roots from Byzantine law.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>SHIP MILL:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744099[/ATTACH]</p><p>The theory behind the ship mill is from Vitruvius(a Roman engineer during Julius Caesar’s time) – The Byzantines knew Vitruvius’s ideas, and it was Byzantines who transformed his theory into practice by introducing ship mills to mill grain. Ship mills were often used close to bridges were steam of water could provide energy. Ship mills were used in Europe up until 1800.</p><p><br /></p><p>source: <a href="http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/11/boat-mills-bridge-mills-and-hanging-mills.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/11/boat-mills-bridge-mills-and-hanging-mills.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/11/boat-mills-bridge-mills-and-hanging-mills.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>RUSSIAN CYRILLIC ALPHABET:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744100[/ATTACH]</p><p>Cyril and Methodius are two byzantine monks from 800s, and they are for the Russian (and Balkan) Ortodoxs what Saint Patrick is for the Irish Catholics.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cyril and Methodius invented the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russians. It made Russian literature possible. It also made Russian expansion possible, because expansion requires effective revenues, and effective revenues require written-system to record taxes properly. Look how the Russians expanded century for century for century.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>GREEK FIRE AND PROTO-“GRANADE”:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744101[/ATTACH]</p><p>Greek Fire is a secret weapon made by Byzantines which meant they had control of a specific fire that even burnt on water! - The recipe was secret and only the Byzantines knew how to manufactured it, meaning they had an advantage against enemy ships. Greek fire without doubt saved the Byzantine Empire when they lifted and defeated the army of the Umayyad Caliphate in 717-718 during the great siege of Constantinople despite the fact that the Byzantine army and naval were completely outnumbered.</p><p><br /></p><p>While I am 100% sure that the Greek Fire was important in term of having an advantage in naval fight, I am not so sure how effective the proto-“grenade” was.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>SEPARATING CONJOINED TWINS:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744102[/ATTACH]</p><p>In the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century we have record of the first known example of separating conjoined twins: a pair of conjoined twins were physically well from Armenia but were eventually brought to Constantinople. Many years later one of them died so the surgeons in Constantinople decided to remove the body of the dead one. The result was partly successful as the surviving twin lived in three days before dying. But the fact that the second person survived for few days after separating it, was so impressive that it was mentioned 150 years later again by historians and they still talked about it. The next case of separating conjoined twins will be recorded 700 years later in the year 1689 in Germany.</p><p><br /></p><p>The depiction above is made by John Skylitzes 150 years later after the event found place.</p><p><br /></p><p>Source:</p><p><a href="http://denysmontandon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/conjoined-twins.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://denysmontandon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/conjoined-twins.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://denysmontandon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/conjoined-twins.pdf</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/the-case-of-conjoined-twins-in-10th-century-byzantium/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/the-case-of-conjoined-twins-in-10th-century-byzantium/" rel="nofollow">http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/the-case-of-conjoined-twins-in-10th-century-byzantium/</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>FORK AND MAYBE LYRA(VIOLIN?):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744103[/ATTACH]</p><p>Fork was first recorded during the crusades when the crusaders noted that the Byzantines ate with a fork. West Latin Europe did not know such thing. So, every time when you eat spaghetti you should think of Byzantine Empire during the crusade times.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lyra has always existed among the steppe people in Asia somehow, and most likely found way into Constantinople. However, the marble depicting lyra, is the earliest record of it. I will not go so far by saying that Byzantines invented violin unless I read it from a historian with expertise on music history. But here you have it: the first depiction of lyra.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>PRESERVATION OF CLASSICAL LEARNING:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]744104[/ATTACH]</p><p>After or before the fall of Constantinople in 1453, a lot of Greek scholars flee to North Italy which fueled the era later commonly known as “Renaissance” as they brought with them a lot of classical learning in term of Homer’s Iliad, Aristoteles’s physics, Ptolemy’s astronomy, Galen’s medical texts, Euclid’s mathematics, plus many other things. I mentioned earlier that John Philoponus-guy who was critical of Aristotle’s physics, and it was also in this context that it found way to north Italy, and at the end to Galileo.</p><p><br /></p><p>The preservation of classical texts, alongside Justinian’s codification, are probably the two greatest contribution of Byzantium.</p><p><br /></p><p>Source: David Lindberg, "The Beginnings of Western Science", page 162</p><p><br /></p><p>here are some free pages from page 162:</p><p><a href="https://books.google.dk/books?id=dPUBAkIm2lUC&pg=PA162&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://books.google.dk/books?id=dPUBAkIm2lUC&pg=PA162&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.dk/books?id=dPUBAkIm2lUC&pg=PA162&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I hope it has been somehow informative for you.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Herberto, post: 3004661, member: 74222"]As the title suggests I will list a couple of Byzantine’s contribution to science. It might be somehow dry for someone, so in case you want just to see the coins I suggest just to scroll down to post number two. I will provide a couple of things related to science which were invented, re-invented or improved in the realm of the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps it might be interesting for some of you. Here they are: PENDENTIVE ARCHITECTURE: [ATTACH=full]744096[/ATTACH] Pendentive architecture is actually a late-Roman invention, at least in theory. But it was during Byzantine Empire that it was fully incorporated into practical matter where a tiny part of corners could support a heavy and large dome. The result is of course stunning. Source: [url]https://www.britannica.com/technology/pendentive[/url] JOHN PHILOPONUS’S CRITICISM OF ARISTOTOTLE’S PHYSICS: [ATTACH=full]744097[/ATTACH] A popular misconception is that nobody questioned Aristotle’s physics before Galileo’s time. The reality is that many did that. And the first one who did it, was John Philoponus who was a byzantine philosopher/scientist. He was the first to criticize Aristotle’s theory of the free fall. Aristotle stated that heavier item will fall faster than a lighter item. So basically, if you have a 10kg iron ball and a 1kg iron ball, and you throw them from the Eiffel tower then the 10kg-ball will hit the earth first according to Aristotle’s teaching. But Philoponus refuted it and argued that since a 10kg and 1kg iron would have the same density they will fall at the same time. During the Scientific Revolution, which spanned from Galileo’s time until Newton’s time (ca. 1600-1750), Philoponus’s criticism of Aristotelian physics was critical for Galileo as he cited and mentioned Philoponus in his works when Galileo argued why Aristotelian physics was wrong. Source: [url]https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philoponus/[/url] CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS: [ATTACH=full]744098[/ATTACH] Prior Justinian’s reign the law of the Romans was confusing as there were many contradictions between the law and the edicts of various emperors. Justinian’s code solved it, and the jurisprudence of the Western world has its roots from Byzantine law. SHIP MILL: [ATTACH=full]744099[/ATTACH] The theory behind the ship mill is from Vitruvius(a Roman engineer during Julius Caesar’s time) – The Byzantines knew Vitruvius’s ideas, and it was Byzantines who transformed his theory into practice by introducing ship mills to mill grain. Ship mills were often used close to bridges were steam of water could provide energy. Ship mills were used in Europe up until 1800. source: [url]http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/11/boat-mills-bridge-mills-and-hanging-mills.html[/url] RUSSIAN CYRILLIC ALPHABET: [ATTACH=full]744100[/ATTACH] Cyril and Methodius are two byzantine monks from 800s, and they are for the Russian (and Balkan) Ortodoxs what Saint Patrick is for the Irish Catholics. Cyril and Methodius invented the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russians. It made Russian literature possible. It also made Russian expansion possible, because expansion requires effective revenues, and effective revenues require written-system to record taxes properly. Look how the Russians expanded century for century for century. GREEK FIRE AND PROTO-“GRANADE”: [ATTACH=full]744101[/ATTACH] Greek Fire is a secret weapon made by Byzantines which meant they had control of a specific fire that even burnt on water! - The recipe was secret and only the Byzantines knew how to manufactured it, meaning they had an advantage against enemy ships. Greek fire without doubt saved the Byzantine Empire when they lifted and defeated the army of the Umayyad Caliphate in 717-718 during the great siege of Constantinople despite the fact that the Byzantine army and naval were completely outnumbered. While I am 100% sure that the Greek Fire was important in term of having an advantage in naval fight, I am not so sure how effective the proto-“grenade” was. SEPARATING CONJOINED TWINS: [ATTACH=full]744102[/ATTACH] In the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century we have record of the first known example of separating conjoined twins: a pair of conjoined twins were physically well from Armenia but were eventually brought to Constantinople. Many years later one of them died so the surgeons in Constantinople decided to remove the body of the dead one. The result was partly successful as the surviving twin lived in three days before dying. But the fact that the second person survived for few days after separating it, was so impressive that it was mentioned 150 years later again by historians and they still talked about it. The next case of separating conjoined twins will be recorded 700 years later in the year 1689 in Germany. The depiction above is made by John Skylitzes 150 years later after the event found place. Source: [url]http://denysmontandon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/conjoined-twins.pdf[/url] [url]http://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/the-case-of-conjoined-twins-in-10th-century-byzantium/[/url] FORK AND MAYBE LYRA(VIOLIN?): [ATTACH=full]744103[/ATTACH] Fork was first recorded during the crusades when the crusaders noted that the Byzantines ate with a fork. West Latin Europe did not know such thing. So, every time when you eat spaghetti you should think of Byzantine Empire during the crusade times. Lyra has always existed among the steppe people in Asia somehow, and most likely found way into Constantinople. However, the marble depicting lyra, is the earliest record of it. I will not go so far by saying that Byzantines invented violin unless I read it from a historian with expertise on music history. But here you have it: the first depiction of lyra. PRESERVATION OF CLASSICAL LEARNING: [ATTACH=full]744104[/ATTACH] After or before the fall of Constantinople in 1453, a lot of Greek scholars flee to North Italy which fueled the era later commonly known as “Renaissance” as they brought with them a lot of classical learning in term of Homer’s Iliad, Aristoteles’s physics, Ptolemy’s astronomy, Galen’s medical texts, Euclid’s mathematics, plus many other things. I mentioned earlier that John Philoponus-guy who was critical of Aristotle’s physics, and it was also in this context that it found way to north Italy, and at the end to Galileo. The preservation of classical texts, alongside Justinian’s codification, are probably the two greatest contribution of Byzantium. Source: David Lindberg, "The Beginnings of Western Science", page 162 here are some free pages from page 162: [url]https://books.google.dk/books?id=dPUBAkIm2lUC&pg=PA162&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false[/url] I hope it has been somehow informative for you.[/QUOTE]
Your name or email address:
Do you already have an account?
No, create an account now.
Yes, my password is:
Forgot your password?
Stay logged in
Coin Talk
Home
Forums
>
Coin Forums
>
Ancient Coins
>
Byzantine’s contribution to science (and some coins)
>
Home
Home
Quick Links
Search Forums
Recent Activity
Recent Posts
Forums
Forums
Quick Links
Search Forums
Recent Posts
Competitions
Competitions
Quick Links
Competition Index
Rules, Terms & Conditions
Gallery
Gallery
Quick Links
Search Media
New Media
Showcase
Showcase
Quick Links
Search Items
Most Active Members
New Items
Directory
Directory
Quick Links
Directory Home
New Listings
Members
Members
Quick Links
Notable Members
Current Visitors
Recent Activity
New Profile Posts
Sponsors
Menu
Search
Search titles only
Posted by Member:
Separate names with a comma.
Newer Than:
Search this thread only
Search this forum only
Display results as threads
Useful Searches
Recent Posts
More...
