+Resource blog

The Light Ages: a Medieval Journey of Discovery by Seb Falk

Scott W.’s recommendation for the 510 Club | January 2026

 

Cover of "The Light Ages" by Seb Falk. The book is a yellow-orange colour, with most of the space taken up by the title in black-outlined lettering. The titular words are surrounded by a doodled string of red stars.

While not particularly mathematical, The Light Ages carves a smooth path into medieval scientific progress. Written primarily as a narrative and focussing primarily on astronomy, the story largely follows a man named John Westwyk; monk, astronomer, & travelling man of 14th century England.

There is much about time-keeping, calendar construction, star-tracking & scientific instruments, with plenty of meandering into other fields of interest, including the maps to find your way out. Special attention is paid to the measurement of the heavens, as well as the tables (some calculated to the 9th sexagesimal place!) and amazing devices to assist in this. That such precision was done by hand is nothing short of remarkable.

There is also a smattering of topical poetry from the time, given in both its original form and in translation. The book also has an extensive (25% of the book) further reading, notes, acknowledgements and index section, should you leave inspired.

 

 

WHAT IS THE 510 CLUB?

The 510 Club is named after the Dewey Decimal classification for Mathematics. It is a book recommendation project facilitated by Mathateca in collaboration with Christchurch MathsJam. Each month we feature a mathematical book recommendation, whether that’s a novel, articles / essays, a puzzle book, textbook, biography... just as long as it features maths in some way. Read the above book at your leisure then feel free to comment your thoughts below, or come along to the following Christchurch MathsJam sessions to join in an informal maths/book chat with the reviewer.

We're always looking for suggestions! If you're interested in contributing a book rec one month, please email christchurch@mathsjam.com to sign up.