The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600 by Alfred W. Crosby

The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600 Reviews

• 
  David

  This book is an incoherent mess. Buried somewhere among the thickets of impenetrable prose, run-on sentences and sundry atrocities against the English language is a semi-decent idea. But Alfred W. Crosby sorely lacks the skills to bring it to light.
  
  It's rare that a book can actually make me flinch, but AWC managed it on every other page. Two sample paragraphs convey the flavor of the writing:
  
  Pantometry is one of the neologisms that appeared in increasing numbers in the languages of Europe in the first half of the second Christian millennium, words summoned into being by new tendencies, institutions, and discoveries. Milione and America are others. A general surge of more in the 1200s rendered a thousand thousand obsolete and inspired a convenient replacement: milione. Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci and the like created the need for America two centuries or so later. These words were sparks thrown off by the wheels of Western society veering and grating against the sides of old ruts. The veerings and gratings are the subject of this book, but first we must examine the ruts, that is to say, the view of reality that most medieval and Renaissance Western Europeans accepted. We can begin by putting aside the word rut.
  
  The raison d'etre of this book is to describe an acceleration after 1250 or so in the West's shift from qualitative perception to, or at least toward, quantificational perception. Most particularly, we want to ferret out the source of that acceleration. The latter half of the assignment is daunting, and before we begin we must discuss just what we are looking for lest we convince ourselves we have found it before we get to it.
  
  This is "scientific" writing at its worst - bloated (inclusion of the neologism "America" has nothing to do with the point he is trying to make; the second paragraph could be written simply as "This book aims to describe an acceleration in the West's shift from qualitative to quantitative perception that occurred after 1250, and to pinpoint its source"), meandering (what does that third sentence mean, anyway?), and inelegant to the point of ugliness ("quantificational"?, that hideous "wheels and sparks" metaphor, with its dreary corollary, that the book is about "veerings and scrapings".
  
  The book is easily twice as long as it needs to be, and there is much meandering, repetitive bloviation which tends to obfuscate, rather than illuminate, whatever argument the author is trying to make. His credibility is not enhanced by glib, fanciful, and largely inaccurate characterizations of the nature of mathematics and of science. Although he acknowledges the central role of commercial and related accounting activities as an impetus towards improved measurement, he stints it implicitly by giving it only 20 pages of text, while devoting fully 60 pages to music and painting as stimuli. This seems frankly skewed, as does his failure to discuss scientific developments in an adequate fashion.
  
  But this is an author who has no evident understanding of mathematics or the scientific method, who is unable to distinguish between true progress in mathematics, numerology and mathematical mysticism. This leads to paragraphs like the following:
  
  "India, the home of Buddha, has produced and continues to produce a disproportionate number of brilliant pure mathematicians. The West has produced most of the good applied physicists, engineers, and accountants. (This may or may not be true of late, but I am speaking historically). One of history's most interesting problems is the question of why."
  
  It is impossible to take this kind of sloppy rubbish seriously. This is a bad book, by an extremely mediocre 'scholar'.
  
  
• 
  John David

  W. H. Auden once said that we live societies “to which the study of that which can be weighed and measured is a consuming love” – but that hasn’t always been the case. The science of Aristotle, arguably the biggest influence on post-Hellenic science west of the Levant, was thoroughly qualitative. Only later, after the rediscovery of the Plato whose fascination with numbers and ratios bordered on worship, did science begin to take on a properly quantitative quality. As the subtitle of the book hints, this begins to happen sometime in the mid-thirteenth century, and this is precisely the set of stories that Crosby seeks to elucidate for the general reader. He wants to retrace the steps that took us from a world of “emotional attachment to perception and experience, to a visualizing and quantifiable approach to reality,” to “comprehending reality as composed of quanta.”
  
  Because of what Crosby is trying to do, much of the book reads like a survey of medieval and Renaissance math and science. In a few hundred years, the West went from the Dark Ages (I’ve always despised that term since it’s so wrong and inappropriate, but if fits anywhere it’s true of the quantitative sciences) to the bourgeoning of an array of common things and ideas that would have been impossible without better economizers; just a few of these things include military maneuvering, increasing calendrical accuracy (i.e., the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar), cartography, time-keeping devices, grammar and alphabetization, geometric perspective in painting, astronomy and currency and bookkeeping. The invention of polyphonic music, perhaps the greatest innovation of the medieval West, would have been impossible without the modern musical notation that replaced neumatic notation (commonly, though questionably, attributed to Guido of Arezzo during the early eleventh century).
  
  His chapter on the development of music from 600 to around 1500 traces its development from the earliest Gregorian chant to the acme of Flemish polyphony, stating that the importance of music can be traced to its unique place in the quadrivium as “the only one of the four members in which measurement had immediate practical application.” Similarly, as the medieval visual art gently bleeds into the masterpieces of the Renaissance, we see a growing fascination with naturalism in painting that would have been impossible without new insights into optics, illusion, perspective, and depth – all quantifiable and “mathematizable.” Those familiar with the Renaissance greats will readily recognize that Leonardo, Masaccio, and Raphael are just as much about mystical Platonic ratios as they are about older, medieval considerations. Crosby ends his historical journey in a place that conveniently ties up several loose knots that would interest other kinds of historians, including those interested in the development of capitalism and the mercantile economy – namely, the advent of double-entry bookkeeping. While the mechanical clock “enabled them to measure time, double entry bookkeeping enabled them to stop it - on paper, at least.”
  
  While Crosby does little to actually make new discoveries in the fields he considers, he goes far in recasting and repurposing the information he has readily available. It seems incontrovertibly true that his central argument is true. How well does his evidence explain or support this argument? This seems shakier to me. As I noted above, taken as a whole, the book can come across as a history of medieval math, medieval science, medieval astronomy, etc. But his voice is quick-witted and engaging, sometimes even chatty – probably not what you were expecting given the title of the book. And rather than fully “accounting” for the rise of the particular phenomenon he is trying to explain, this book at the very least rediscovers some of the important philosophical fundamentals that undergird his concerns. However, he fails at answering the all-important “why?” Perhaps this question is better-suited to cliometricians and psychohistorians than historians of science.
• 
  Bruce Lerro

  What does the use of Hindu-Arabic numbers, linear perspective painting, polyphonic singing and double-entry bookkeeping have in common? Some very provocative answers are provided by Alfred Crosby in his clear and ambitious book The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society 1250-1600. Crosby systematically compares the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period in the areas of astronomy, cartography, mathematics, painting, music, commerce, accounting, military techniques space as well as spiritual and historical time.
  He argues there is a direct line between an increase in measurement, mathematical symbols, logical symbols, rational analysis and universal scientific judgments as we proceed from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. Crosby shows how so many of the scientific inventions of the early modern period-- specifically the activity of measuring-- required the use of visual technology. Everything from telescopes to microscopes; from clock-making to algebra; from shipbuilding navigation to perspective painting and musical scores involved sight. Composers, painters, astronomers and bookkeepers were committed to quantitative visual perception in the material of their craft. Essentially, he argues that the quantification of reality was one of the secrets that made the Western world different from the rest of the world for better and for worse. Crosby has a rare skill of being grounded in scientific study while being able to write for an educated lay audience. This is a wonderful book.
• 
  Anne

  I can't believe I actually finished a book like this, let alone enjoyed it as much as I did. Without a doubt its shortness helped a ton! To start, I admit it felt awkward to read a book on factors that would make Europeans a colonizing machine in the coming centuries, but I suppose I was interested enough in the deep history of those factors to give it a go (LOL, yes, I was here for some wee history on the development of double entry accounting). Plus, those late Antiquity - Medieval Europeans strike me as such a freakish lot; I can't help but want to read more on them in a relatively shallow way (I think it was me calling them freaks that lead my geographer friend to forcibly lend this to me). This book will defintely help me articulate why I think they were so freakish - so thanks for that!
  
  [Maybe at some point I'll dredge up the energy to type up summaries of the insights I got on the freaks and how they worked their way out of the freakishness. But probably not. Just know, there were things related to time, the development of universities, art, music, etc. etc. etc. BOOKKEEPING.]
  
  On the other hand, the author was kind of pretentious - though he didn't rise to the same level as the authors of that other pretentious geography book (
  The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography) I enjoyed - so I'm skeptical this would ever be widely read. And by the end I felt like the shallow take was made even shallower because not one historic woman was cited (I think Virgin Mary and her mother, Anna were the only two women mentioned by name in the entire book). Do I think only men engaged in the study and writing on these factors back then or do I think men have only been interested in citing men for the past 800+ years on these factors? Hmmm... So, yeah, that was a bit of a (n infuriating) snoozer.
  
  Nonetheless, I made it through! At some point I'll have to load an image of the cover that I had. It was driving me slightly to distraction that all the cover images here show the dude completely swapped from the cover of my copy. LOL, which side of the pond printed which?
• 
  Randall Harrison

  I enjoy reading about the history of science, which if I had to categorize this book, it would most appropriately fit there. However, I often get lost in the deep philosophical underpinnings of the discipline. I'm not an eager or happy reader of philosophy. This book started out well, not diving too deeply into that end of the pool. However, by the middle of the book, it took hold. Honestly, I can't say I understood anything that Crosby wrote in the chapter about music. Sadly, that was one of the subjects in which I had the greatest interest. Gladly, I found the chapter on the invention of double-entry bookkeeping (the basis of modern accounting) the most fascinating.
  
  Despite the slow pace, I enjoyed reading this slim volume. However, given its intellectual density, it took me a lot longer to read than anticipated. Reading was hard work in some places. I don't imagine there are a lot of people interested in my review of an obscure 22 year-old text published by a university press. If they have this book on their "to read" list, my review won't swing them one way or another.
  
  For the casual reader, I'd suggest reading this one chapter at a time, whenever the mood struck. Plowing through in one reading might be too much for the casual reader, like me, without a background in natural philosophy or the history of science.
• 
  Michael Dow

  Crosby is best known for his path-breaking scholarship on European colonial expansion, Ecological Imperialism and The Columbian Exchange, which discuss the happenstance biological advantages that allowed Europeans to overwhelm the Americas & springboard to world domination, and this book makes a lovely conclusion to this trilogy. Writing a longue durée history is a challenge for anyone, but especially when tackling changes, rather than continuities, across generations and cultures.
  
  Happily, Crosby has a gift not only for insight and synthesis, but also for engaging prose. Of all the authors I read in grad school, none was a more fun read than Crosby.
  
  I don't think he entirely escapes the trap of 'Europeans did it right, unlike everyone else', but it's hard to tell a story of conquerors without centering the story on them.
• 
  Nilendu Misra

  The ascent of west started with quantification. While the present era occupies a heap full smartest PhDs to measure ad-hit ratios, the renaissance started incorporating measurement - a proxy of (a) reality, (b) repeatability and (c) ability of participants to ask non-abstract questions -into art, music and commerce. The latter sponsored the former two. This book is a delightful tour of how west started to measure and fell in love with it.
• 
  Lance Cahill

  This book is a jumbled mess. Not that it doesn’t have value in a trivial pursuit sort of way, but the author lays out a bold thesis in the introduction why the West was so ably to escape the grasps of the Black Death and proceeds to almost forget about this point. I’ve heard the best introductions are written after a book is finished. In this case, the introduction was written before the book was finished and completely forgotten about.
  
  
• 
  Joel

  Clearly written. I thought he would expand on why all of these advances gave the West such an advantage over other cultures, but much of the argumentation is assumed. Crosby instead describes many advances and how they happened, in the areas of time, space, math, music, painting, bookkeeping, etc.
• 
  Matt

  Does exactly what it says on the tin. If you want to know about the rise of quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600, this is a great resource.
• 
  Father Sava Leida

  "Our chronic difficulty with medieval and Renaissance time is that, like an octopus, its shape was no more than approximate. Europeans of od had an enormous tolerance for anachronism." p. 28
• 
  Denise

  Not being a historian, I am hesitant to argue with the author who is a historian. However, I will.
  
  First, Crosby never demonstrates how this new thinking, the shift from the “Venerable Model” of the medieval outlook to the “New Model” of the Renaissance, helps bring about European imperialism. Sure, European sailors had better maps in 1600 than in 1300, but whence the desire to sail anywhere and set up colonies for exploitation? What led to the success of those colonies?
  
  The author sets out to prove that the late medieval Europeans developed a habit—unknown among them until then—of precise measurement of nearly everything, for which he uses the word "panotmetry." This led to technical developments, such as the town clock, and advancements in art, mathematics, astronomy, music, and bookkeeping. He posits less successfully (IMHnonprofessionalO) that this led to the success of European imperialism. He also, I believe, gives short shrift to the fact that many of the advances were enhancements of knowledge and craft imported through Arab or Indian contacts.
  
  While I disagree with Crosby’s thesis, I had fun reading about the medieval world and the change in outlook. For example, after the development of polyphonic music from plainsong, the older generation complained about that newfangled so-called music. In a way, it’s nice to know we old fogeys have been bellyaching about kids’ music since at least the 14th century.
  
  See full review
  here.
• 
  Jim Tucker

  A very interesting treatise on the development of "measurement" in the Western world. The book provides a convincing explanation of how the West became the world's powerhouse within several centuries by evolving from a qualitative society to a quantitative society, thus enabling it to be productive in areas that provided the base for modern economics. While it may seem that such a development was in all ways positive, there have been obvious negative consequences, which may or may not be resolvable by such a philosophical change. As I read the book, it occurred to me that the world is now moving away from the the strictly quantitative perspective of the Industrial age to a more qualitative philosophy, even in science. This move has been necessitated by reaching what one might even argue is the limits of the quantitative perspective. But that argument calls for another book.
• 
  Andrew

  Crosby is a great history writer. His narrative is concise and engaging, yet he works in the occasional historical tangent to lighten things up. As we discussed in our history book club, our estimated direct impact of the topics discussed in the book on geopolitical outcomes is somewhere between 4 - 7% (not even close to geography, resources, and general luck). In short, the topics Crosby deals with here are more likely to be effects than causes of the rise of "The West."
  
  This in no way should deter anyone from reading this book. It is fascinating and I came away with a much deeper appreciation and understanding of the development of "western" thought.
• 
  Alain

  FRA
  
  Tout bon citoyen devrait lire ce livre. Il est essentiel pour savoir comment comprendre la nature de la Science et comment voter. C'est un livre qui explique les fondements de notre société technologique, en nous parlant de la naissance de la quantification au 13e siècle.
  
  ENG
  
  Any good citizen should read this book. It is essential in order to know the nature of Science, and who to vote for. It's about the birth of quantification in the 13th century, where you find the very basis of our modern technology-intensive society.
• 
  Ed Fonseca

  From page 134:
  
  

  Reading was also laborious: there were few or no divisions between words, and when scribes did leave spaces, they did so not necessarily after every word but wherever was comfortable for them, whether convenient for the reader or not.

  
  
  That's a bit how it feels to read this book from the very first pages. Entire pages could have easily been condensed into one paragraph, as the author meanders along. Utterly, unnecessarily, incredibly verbose writing.
• 
  Mark Hansen

  For those interested in the transitions made between medieval Europe and the Renaissance, this book is rather enlightening. Beyond that, I don't see why you might want to read this. Some of the author's points are very interesting, but others seem rather speculative. For those purely interested in the history and not the philosophy and ideologies, Wikipedia should suffice.
• 
  Douglas Summers-Stay

  This is a history of how Western Europe became quantified. At the beginning of the period the only measure of a day was morning, evening, and night, and at the end hours and minutes were commonly used. Similar transformations happened in mapmaking, painting, music, and so forth. I didn't feel like he developed much of a thesis, but many of the examples were interesting.
• 
  Nathan

  The growth of measurement culture in the late Medieval and Renaissance periods. Lots of talk about perspective in painting, doubleentry bookkeeping, musical notation etc and so on. Brief, but not without insights. Rated G. 3/5
  
• 
  Liam Evans

  Definitely interesting. highly recommended for anyone who has an interesting history or just knowing why things are the way they are. you might look at the title and think, boy that sounds like a dull book. Don't make that mistake! Seriously, you'll like it!
• 
  Kip

  A very intellectual book, somewhat expecting the reader to understand medieval European History, but very interesting for me personally. it shows how significant changes in thought processes occur over time. The discussion of bookkeeping, the last chapt
• 
  Julaine

  Double Check Date Purchased. Source: Chapters
• 
  Thomas

  i love this book. The guy is so excited about his subject.
• 
  Phoebe

  MIND FUCKING BLOWING