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Science 25 February 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5713, pp. 1208 - 1209
DOI: 10.1126/science.1109679
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Perspectives

Also see the archival list of Science's Compass: Enhanced Perspectives

HISTORY OF SCIENCE:
Enhanced: "How Science Survived"--Medieval Manuscripts as Fossils

Sharon Larimer Gilman and Florence Eliza Glaze

Ancient texts often survived from Antiquity through the Middle Ages in the form of copies made by dedicated monks before the arrival of the printing press in the 15th century A.D.; some of these texts are still in existence today. But how can we estimate the numbers of texts that survived or went extinct and consequently the amount of knowledge that we have inherited from the past? As biologist Gilman and historian Glaze discuss in their fascinating Perspective, a new study by Cisne helps to solve the problem by linking the paleodemography of ancient and medieval texts to population dynamics. By considering a series of extant medieval scientific manuscripts as "fossils" of early textual populations and applying models from population biology, Cisne calculates the size and age-distributions of certain scientific texts.

The authors are in the Departments of Biology and History, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC 29528, USA. E-mail: sgilman{at}coastal.edu, fglaze{at}coastal.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Comment on "How science survived: medieval manuscripts' 'demography' and classic texts' extinction"..
(2005)
Science 310, 1618
   Full Text »
Response to Comment on "How Science Survived: Medieval Manuscripts' `Demography' and Classic Texts' Extinction".
J. L. Cisne (2005)
Science 310, 1618c
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)