The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600

The Measure of Reality discusses the epochal shift from qualitative to quantitative perception in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. This shift made modern science, technology, business practice, and bureaucracy possible. It affected not only the obvious - such as measurements of time and space and mathematical technique - but, equally and simultaneously, music and painting, thus proving that the shift was even more profound than once thought.