In the age of Archimedes and Euclid (third century BC) science as we know it was born, and gave rise to sophisticated technology that would not be seen again until the 18th century.
The scientific revolution was accompanied by great changes in many other fields, such as art and medicine. What were the landmarks of this enormous cultural shift? Why are they so little known today? How do they relate to the post -1500 science that we are familiar with? what led to the end of ancient science? These are the questions that this book discusses, in the belief that the answers bear on choices we face today.
This book is comparable simultaneously to a sensational archaelogical discovery and an important scientific theory.
Marcello Cini, physicist, University of Rome
The book is among a handful of truly marvelously written books in the field of early science ... and it was accordingly a great success with the italian public. The community of historians of mathematics should be greatful to Russo for this achievement (...).
Reviel Netz, classicist, Stanford University
This is an important book and it is [to be] hoped that historians, both of science and of general history, take notice of it.
Heinrich Guggenheimer, review in Zentralblatt fur Mathematik
...a comprehensive and in-depth review of Hellenistic science. ...Thenovelty of [its] conclusions is such that one might be tempted to react with plain disbelief ... The reader should, however, avoid such reaction, because the scholarly support is unquestionably impressive. Thanks to his dual copetence in science and philology, Russo does away with a time-honored habit - namely, that humanists deal only with "literary" sources and historians of science with "scientific" ones.
Sandro Graffi, review in Notices of the American Mathematical Society
Russo's book is bound to stir up a discussion among historians of science!
Hendrik Lenstra, UC Berkeley and Universiteit Leiden
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