In early modern Europe — roughly the period from 1500 to 1789 — scientists didn’t exist. That term wasn’t coined until the 19th century. Instead, those who probed the mysteries of what Douglas Adams famously called “life, the universe and everything” viewed their speculations as either theology or “natural philosophy.” Historically as well as figuratively, Renaissance men (and an occasional woman) regularly dared to take all knowledge for their province.
As Derek K. Wilson, a prolific popular historian, reminds us in “A Magical World,” this meant that people didn’t distinguish between what we now call science and superstition. Squint a bit and alchemy is just chemistry; any belief in predestination makes astrology seem almost logical. As Wilson writes, “scientia” was a unity because “all knowledge emanated from and found its consummation in God.”
He points out that Isaac Newton, no less, devoted as much time to biblical exegesis, alchemical experiments and other occult matters as he did to theorizing about gravity and working out the principles of calculus. According to one modern scholar, Newton should be viewed as both a great scientist and “the last of the magicians.”
Wilson structures “A Magical World” as essentially a series of lightly sketched biographies of the era’s most prominent theologians, philosophers, physicians, cosmographers and antiquaries. As a result, the book resembles a slimmed-down version of Will and Ariel Durant’s still highly readable, multivolume work of intellectual history, “The Story of Civilization.”
