Mocking Medieval Minds: How Modern Histories of Science Transmitted Scholarly Vices

Abstract

This chapter highlights the contribution of the historiography of science to the articulation and long-term cultural transmission of scholarly vices. It shows how, throughout the long nineteenth century, the literary genre of the history of science served as a conduit for the transmission of a set of scholarly vices associated with medieval learning, most notably “reverence for authority” and “ignorance.” Examining a sample of 30 texts on the history of natural science, published in English, French, and German, this chapter uncovers several concrete modes of textual transmission that allowed these scholarly vices to endure over a remarkably extended period.