ABSTRACT
Modern technology is the extrapolation of that of the Western Middle Ages not merely in detail but also in the spirit that infuses it. The fact that thirteenth-century theologians in Cairo, Constantinople, and Paris were all commenting on Aristotle helps us to grasp the unity of the triune Middle Ages. To find an explanation for this distinctive quality in the Western Middle Ages we must try to relate it to the general cultural climate of those centuries and places. Historians trying to understand the cultural climate of an epoch recognize that the degree and style of an era's respect for written tradition is a major element in its climate. The technological creativity of medieval Europe is one of the resonant facts of history. At the level of concrete facts it is difficult to interpret technological history from its social context.
