Podcaster: Loretta Cannon for the AAS-HAD ; Guest: Dr. Seb Falk
Title: H’ad astra historia Ep 201 – The 2025 HAD Osterbrock Book Prize
Organization: Historical Astronomy Division
Link: https://had.aas.org/
Description: Today’s guest: Dr. Seb Falk is the recipient of HAD’s 2025 Osterbrock Prize for his book “The Light Ages: the Surprising Story of Medieval Science”. His exceptionally well-written book takes the reader on a learning journey with the 14th century Benedictine monk John Westwyk who, at the end of his career in 1392, wrote an instructional manuscript in Middle English for an equatorie to compute a planet’s location. Originally discovered in 1951 and attributed to Chaucer, 30 years later the manuscript’s author was identified as Westwyk. Based on years of meticulous scholarly research, Falk teaches the reader detailed, and progressively complicated, 14th century science in this thoroughly pleasurable story about Westwyk’s life.
H’ad astra historia is the official podcast for the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society. We’re here to share stories from and about the people who study the stars, planets, and the cosmos. We’ll be hearing from individuals who not only study the history of astronomy, but also those who lived it, who were “in the room” during pivotal events within the last 50 years or so.
podcast music: “Frost Waltz” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under creative commons: by attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Bio: Loretta Cannon (an AAS affiliate via Rose City Astronomers) is a science-and-word-nerd who really likes the stars. She quite enjoys working as HAD’s podcaster, bringing astronomy stories to you.
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Transcript:
Rather than provide a complete transcript, we’re sharing links for further reading for the topics or names you’ve heard in today’s episode: “The 2025 Osterbrock Book Prize”.
Dr. Seb Falk: https://www.sebfalk.com/
and https://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/directory/falk
HAD’s announcement of 2025 Osterbrock Book Prize Winner: https://aas.org/posts/news/2024/09/seb-falk-receives-2025-osterbrock-book-prize
Dr. Falk’s PhD: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/a14b9418-dd04-4856-b153-4101c1e5480a
Derek J de Solla Price: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_J._de_Solla_Price
Prof Kari Anne Rand: https://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/people/emeriti/kschmidt/
Prof Rand’s article on Authorship of manuscript: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9780859913706/the-authorship-of-ithe-equatorie-of-the-planetisi/
The scholar as craftsman: Derek de Solla Price and the reconstruction of a medieval instrument: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2013.0062
Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/
Image of Dr. Falk standing next to Equatorium model: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/cms/asset/9186d8eb-cccd-41a9-844d-a8bea66d4c0f/rsnr20130062f03.jpg
also see image on Falk’s website: https://www.sebfalk.com/academic
Virtual Working Model of Equatorium: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/models/equatorie/#
Equatorie of the Planets (the complete digitized 163-page manuscript): https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-PETERHOUSE-00075-00001/1
WQXR 3-Minute Operas: https://www.wqxr.org/series/3-minute-operas/
St Alban’s Monastery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans_Cathedral
Richard of Wallingford: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_of_Wallingford
and his clock: https://www.cabinet.ox.ac.uk/astronomical-clock-richard-wallingford-d-1336#/media=14946
Biography of Richard of Wallingford: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2071784.God_s_Clockmaker
Myrobalan plant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminalia_chebula
and also see: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924857901003521
Eilmer of Malmesbury: https://www.athelstanmuseum.org.uk/malmesbury-history/people/eilmer-the-flying-monk/
Medieval medical book (written in English) Bald’s Leechbook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald%27s_Leechbook
Dr. Falk on his sailboat (image on his website): https://www.sebfalk.com/about-seb
The Wellermen official ‘sea shanty’ video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Oc9Xl5Aps
these guys are AWESOME – I dare you to not smile after listening, and they have other videos!!
A Medieval Astrolabe, Whipple Museum: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/astronomy/medieval-astrolabe
Nasir al-Dun al-Tusi (astronomer & mathematician): https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Tusi_Nasir/
also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_al-Din_al-Tusi
Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation (1969): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilisation_(TV_series)
This is available for viewing on the streaming service BritBox.
Civilizations (TV series remake 2018): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilisations_(TV_series)
(Note that this series was different in the UK from what was broadcast on PBS in the States)
Hipparchus of Rhodes: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hipparchus/
also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparchus
Ptolemy: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ptolemy/
Lodestone and Lodestone Compass: https://www.appstate.edu/~goodmanjm/rcoe/asuscienceed/four3electricitymagnetism/lodestone.html
Dissolution of the Monasteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_monasteries
The Stripping of the Alters (1992 book): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stripping_of_the_Altars
Bodleian Library: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/home
podcast music: “Frost Waltz” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under creative commons: by attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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Until next time let the stars guide your curiosity