Robert Grosseteste and the pursuit of Religious and Scientific learning in the Middle-Ages. (Springer 2016) Eds. Jack P. Cunningham & M. Hocknull. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33468, ISBN 978-3-319-33466-0. No. of pages 401. No. of illustrations 16 colour. £86.00.
July 2016 will see the publication of the proceedings of the 3rd international Robert Grosseteste Conference which took place in Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln in July 2014. The book is entitled Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Religious and Scientific Learning in the Middle-Ages. Members of the Ordered Universe Project are well represented in this work which includes Giles Gasper on Nature, Creation and Man in the Hexaemeron and Tom McLeish on medieval lessons for the modern religion and science debate. These two authors are joined by Brian Tanner and Richard Bower in a chapter on unity and symmetry in the De luce. Hannah Smithson offers a fascinating account of three dimensional colour space with reference to De iride. Jack Cunningham contributes with a chapter on the pursuit of learning in the thirteenth century. Cecilia Panti discusses the theological use of science in Grosseteste and Adam Marsh, according to Roger Bacon, and Nader El-Bizri Grosseteste’s study of meteorological optics. Eight other excellent chapters bring together an international field of historians, theologians, medievalists and scientists in order to explore and discuss Grosseteste’s contribution to the history of science, theology and intellectual development in general. This volume is dedicated to Prof. Pietro B. Rossi in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Grosseteste studies.
It is excellent to see this volume come to fruition, testament to the labours of Jack Cunningham and Mark Hocknull, and the staff at Springer. It is a rich collection of insights on a wide variety of topics, adding breadth and depth to interpretations and analysis of Grosseteste, his works and his influence.