Science medievale d'Espagne et d'Alentour

The articles in this volume provide a profound contribution to our knowledge of the scientific and intellectual context of the great voyages of discovery in the 15th century, and illustrate the particularities of the development of science and medicine in medieval Spain - for example at the medical school of Guadalupe. These particularities Guy Beaujouan would attribute in large measure to certain specific features of Spanish history: the important Muslim and Jewish presence, the relative weakness of the universities, and the early strength of the vernacular language. The volume opens with two surveys of science in the peninsula, and closes with a detailed analysis of the remarkable works of one 'Philippe Elephant' (perhaps actually a Scot, the author suggests). In between come a series of studies on the manuscript sources, fundamental research which has done much to open the field to others. Particular attention is given to the library established by Ferdinand Columbus, the son of Christopher, and to the relations between scientific learning and the arts of astronomy and navigation, notably as practised in Portugal. Les articles contenus dans ce volume sont d'un apport incontestable A nos connaissances du contexte scientifique et intellectuel des Grandes Decouvertes au 15 siecle. Ils illustrent aussi les particularites du developpement de la science et de la medecine medievales espagnoles, par exemple, l'ecole medicale de Guadalupe. Guy Beaujouan tend A attribuer ces particularites A certaines caracteristiques specifiques de l'histoire espagnole: l'importante presence juive et musulmane, la debilite relative des universites et une maturite precoce des langues vernaculaires. Le volume s'ouvre sur deux evaluations de la science dans la peninsule et se termine sur l'analyse detaillee des travaux exceptionnels d'un certain Philippe Elephant (selon l'auteur il s'agirait peut-Atre d'un Ecossais d'origine).