What were scientific accomplishments in the medieval ages?

Answer 1

Answer:

A study of the scientific achievements that have taken place on the Indian subcontinent will certainly surprise and perhaps entertain most persons. Surprised by the relevance of scientific discovery by Hindu, Islamic, and Buddhist philosophers to their everyday lives, they sometimes raise their eyebrows as they learn about the unique ideas that developed in a dynamic culture with many languages and religious points of view. Many scientific discoveries attributed to European origin actually came from India via Arab translators. Other ideas, such as how to prevent some plant diseases with boiled milk, had little influence on scientific thought beyond the local region, yet they are unique and quite interesting.

Answer:

The related question found by using the link below has an answer discussing a variety of advances in a number of advances, including scientific, either made in or imported into medieval Europe.

Answer 2

Medieval scientists generally did not think about future inventions. They were more concerned about understanding the nature of things and addressing specific, practical problems.

The attitude toward future inventions can be clearly seen in the history of patents. Prior to the introduction of a modern patent system in Venice in 1474, patents were granted to encourage improvements that were not really inventions, and often were simply introduced from abroad. For example, Aldus Manutius was given a papal patent on the Italic type face, which was simply a cursive alphabet adapted for the printing press, and this patent was good throughout Europe, despite the fact that such a adaptation was obvious, and not substantially different that adapting other calligraphic type faces for printing. Another example is that King Henry VI granted a patent on making colored glass to a man who learned the skill abroad and introduced it to England.

Since we can see that invention and new discovery was not anticipated in the law, we can be fairly sure the scientists were not asking for protection on new ideas. And since that is the case, we can be fairly sure the scientists were not thinking in terms of new inventions.

Another thing to consider is that the new inventions of the Middle Ages were not generally done by scientists. We do not know who invented the European wheel barrow, horse collar, horse shoe, stirrup, or heavy plow, but my bet would be that the people who did these things were blacksmiths and farmers. A very important invention of the Middle Ages was the chimney, which I would bet was invented by a mason as a way of dealing with a specific problem of ventilation. The military tactical inventions of massed archers and mixed arms were probably done by tacticians. The printing press is attributed to a number of different people, none of whom was a scientist. Oil paint is often attributed to an artist. And the list goes on similarly.

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