The book “New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery” whose main author was Anthony Grafton, mainly discusses various arguments made concerning the validity of knowledge, facts and beliefs that existed between the 13th and 16th century.
The book consists of five chapters. In each chapter, Grafton explains how the emergence of new world scholars, brought about a sense of doubt and scrutiny among people, concerning the credibility of doctrines that had been written by the classical and ancient scholars who had lived in the years before the 13th century.
Throughout his book, Grafton illustrates how new world scholars discovered new facts about the world that were unknown to scholars of the classical and ancient ages.
Grafton explains how the discovery of new facts about the world changed how people viewed different aspects about their lives and the world. For example, after the discovery of new facts that affected the world, many people living between the 13th and 16th century began to wonder and question why dependable sources of knowledge such as the Bible, had no information that explained the origin of native Americans.
Chapter 1:
In the first chapter, Grafton lays the foundation for the arguments that have been discussed in the rest of the book. Grafton begins chapter one by explaining that old scholars initially used books about the history of the whole world to lecture and teach scholars (p.1-3)
The old books of history had been written by writers such as Peutinger and Korberger. The old books had a wide variety of content and were divided into various topics that discussed aspects such as the geography and science of the world and the universe as a whole (p.3-5). However, new world scholars referred to as the humanitarians emerged between the 13th and 16th centuries. The humanitarians came up with new theories that criticized and opposed old theories that were being used by the classical and ancient scholars (p.7-9). Chapter one, therefore, also explains how humanitarians started a new learning system in universities. Grafton talks about the cartography of Ptolemy and lists down some of the facts that make the cartography incorrect (p.20-35).
At the end of chapter one, Grafton also explains the emergence of forged books. Grafton discusses how the discovery of the existence of forged books brought about a state of confusion as people did not know what doctrine or facts to believe due to the conflicting facts proposed by traditional and humanitarian scholars (p.50-60).
Chapter 2:
Chapter two of the book mainly compares the culture of Merchants and Navigators with the culture of the learned group of people who lived in the period between the 13th and 16th centuries.
In the second chapter, Grafton mainly tries to compare knowledge learnt academically with the knowledge that is acquired practically. Grafton explains that people living in the period between the 13th and 16th century initially thought that the knowledge learnt academically was quite different with the knowledge that was acquired practically (p.65-70)
However, as time went by, people started to realize that there no big difference between the knowledge learnt academically and the knowledge that was acquired practically. In fact, a lot of similarities were derived between knowledge that was learnt academically with the knowledge that was acquired practically (p.70-75).
Grafton uses the famous world explorer known as Columbus to illustrate the strong relationship between academic and practically acquired knowledge. The strong relationship between academic and practically acquired knowledge is illustrated by discussing how Columbus set out to explore the world as a crusade aimed as serving God. This crusade was a practice of the old and practically acquired knowledge that used to follow religious beliefs that existed in the old times that is the centuries before the 13th century (p.75-80).
However, Grafton explains that the reports that Columbus wrote to document the observations and conclusions he came up with during his worldwide crusade, have been generally accepted both traditional and humanitarian scholars (p.85-90).
The acceptance that both traditional and humanitarian beliefs were similar began to change the method used by scholars to teach their students. New world scholars began to incorporate some of the traditional doctrines into their new methods of teaching (p.90-95).
Chapter 3:
Chapter three of the book introduces the contributions made by two individuals known as Corpernicus and Vesalius. It is documented in chapter three of the book that both Corpernicus and Vesalius brought about radical changes to old scientific facts and beliefs. The radical changes brought about by Corpenicus and Vesalius tried to merge ancient scientific with new knowledge (p.120-125).
However, chapter three explains how Corpenicus and Vesalius were criticized by other scientists who existed during the time of transition from the traditional knowledge to modern knowledge. Critics claimed that both Corpernicus and Vesalius were not radicals since they tried to merge old and new knowledge instead of working towards changing the old system of knowledge (p.130-145).
Grafton explains in chapter three how people began to question authority during the transition of the old to the new system of knowledge and facts. The reason behind people’s doubt of the existing authority occurred because people did not know whether to support the old or new knowledge (p.155-175).
At the end of chapter three, modern knowledge emerged superior over traditional knowledge. An example of how modern knowledge emerged superior over traditional knowledge is shown by the realization of how a map drawn by a person known as Mercator who was a supporter of the modern system of knowledge, was generally accepted to be better than a similar map drawn by a supporter of the old system of knowledge known as Ptolemy (p.177-182).
Grafton also praises an individual known as Bartolomore Las Casas at the end of chapter three for changing an old, existing notion that Indian people were barbaric. Instead of viewing Indians as barbaric Bartolomore encouraged people to start treating Indians as normal human beings (p.183-187).
Chapter 4 and 5:
The final two chapters of Grafton’s book mainly discuss some of the new discoveries that were made in medicine as well as other fields. For example, chapter five explains how a scientist known as Bacon initiated a massive campaign aimed at encouraging the adoption of a new way of conducting studies by the people existing during his time (p.195-205).
Bacon argued that many of the new discoveries made necessitated the adoption of a new system of knowledge as the traditional system of knowledge could not support the understanding of the new discoveries that had been made. Bacon also added that, in order to equip people with better ability of making discoveries, people needed to adopt a new system of acquiring knowledge (p.213-215).
Conclusion:
Grafton’s book “New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery”, therefore, tries to give readers several insights that affected both the old and new system of knowledge. The book illustrates the difficulties that were faced as people living between the 13th and 16th century tried to improve their education systems.
Works Cited
Grafton, Anthony, April Shelford and Nancy G. Siraisi. "New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery." Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. 198.
