author
Lynn Thorndike
1882–1965
A pioneering historian of medieval science, magic, and alchemy, he helped bring neglected intellectual traditions into serious historical study. His books are known for their huge range, careful research, and lasting influence on how readers understand the medieval world.
3 Audiobooks
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
by Lynn Thorndike
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2) During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
by Lynn Thorndike
The place of magic in the intellectual history of Europe
by Lynn Thorndike
About the author
Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1882, Lynn Thorndike became one of the leading historians of medieval science and learned traditions that earlier scholars often dismissed. He studied at Wesleyan University and then at Columbia University, where he earned advanced degrees in medieval history.
Thorndike taught at Northwestern University, Western Reserve University, and later Columbia, where he spent much of his career. He is especially remembered for treating subjects like astrology, alchemy, magic, and experimental science as serious parts of intellectual history rather than curiosities at the margins.
His best-known achievement is the large multi-volume History of Magic and Experimental Science, a work that shaped the study of medieval and early modern thought for generations. He died in 1965, but his writing still stands out for its ambition, depth, and determination to show how ideas about nature, knowledge, and the cosmos developed over time.