SUMMARY

Chapter 2: Moon and Sun (500 Years, ca. 750–1250; 1250–1750) extends the subject of history to science, and the message that the methods of history apply to the history of science in identifying, besides key players in scientific developments and outcomes, the occurrence and recurrence of light and dark moments, and their coincidence. In this chapter, the historical sources are more than one old manuscript, the historical figures are practitioners of various fields historically called ‘science’, and historical developments and outcomes are presented in terms of the nature and role of another key player in the story of early science, here highlighted as the ‘routes’ of transmission.