David C. Lindberg is Hilldale Professor Emeritus of the History of Science and past director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has written or edited a dozen books on topics in the history of medieval and early modern science, including The Beginnings of Western Science (1992). He and Ronald L. Numbers have previously coedited God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science (1986) and When Science and Christianity Meet (2003). A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science, he has been a recipient of the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society, of which he is also past president (1994–5). Michael H. Shank is Professor of the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of 'Unless You Believe, You Shall Not Understand': Logic, University, and Society in Late Medieval Vienna (1988); the editor of The Scientific Enterprise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Readings from Isis (2000); the coeditor, with Peter Harrison and Ronald L. Numbers, of Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science (2011); and the author of numerous articles in edited collections and scholarly journals.

• General editors' preface; Introduction Michael H. Shank and David C. Lindberg; 1. Islamic culture and the natural sciences F. Jamil Ragep; 2. Islamic mathematics J. L. Berggren; 3. The mixed mathematical sciences: optics and mechanics in the Islamic Middle Ages Elaheh Kheirandish; 4. Islamic astronomy Robert G. Morrison; 5. Medicine in medieval Islam Emilie Savage-Smith; 6. Science in the Jewish communities Y. Tzvi Langermann; 7. Science in the Byzantine Empire Anne Tihon; 8. Schools and universities in medieval Latin science Michael H. Shank; 9. The organization of knowledge: disciplines and practices Joan Cadden; 10. Science and the medieval church David C. Lindberg; 11. Natural knowledge in the early Middle Ages Stephen C. McCluskey; 12. Cosmology, astronomy, and mathematics Bruce S. Eastwood; 13. Early medieval medicine and natural science Vivian Nutton; 14. Translation and transmission of Greek and Islamic science to Latin Christendom Charles Burnett; 15. The twelfth-century renaissance Charles Burnett; 16. Medieval alchemy William R. Newman; 17. Change and motion Walter Roy Laird; 18. Cosmology Edward Grant; 19. Astronomy and astrology John North; 20. The science of light and color, seeing, and knowing David C. Lindberg and Katherine H. Tachau; 21. Mathematics A. George Molland; 22. Logic E. J. Ashworth; 23. Geography David Woodward; 24. Natural history from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries Karen Meier Reeds and Tomomi Kinukawa; 25. Anatomy, physiology, and medical theory Danielle Jacquart; 26. Medical practice Katharine Park; 27. Technology and science George Ovitt; Conclusion.