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Last updated: 11/20/07
library.reference@cmich.edu

Compiled by David Ginsburg. For more information and/or reference assistance, please contact David Ginsburg (Email: david.ginsburg@cmich.edu, Phone: 989-774-1293) or ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the Park Library (Phone: 774-3470).

General histories of science usually begin in earnest with the scientific revolution in Europe (c. the seventeenth century) and acknowledge a debt to the ancient Greeks.  The scientific contributions of other cultures are generally briefly passed over, if covered at all.  Yet, in the ancient and medieval eras, science thrived in China, India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Americas, and the Islamic world.  For instance, what we know as the Pythagorean Theorem was known in India, China, Egypt, and Babylonia centuries before the time of Pythagoras (see Swetz, 1997 and Maor, 2007).

This bibliography concentrates on the exact sciences in ancient and medieval non-western cultures.  For a good general beginning I would recommend Teresi (2002).  The bibliography in that work is useful as well.  Selin (1992) is a comprehensive bibliography of works up to that time.

General

• Bose, D. M.  A Concise History of Science in India.  New Delhi, Indian National Science Academy, 1971
  BOOKS  Q 127 .I4 B58 
• Clagett, Marshall.  Ancient Egyptian Science: a Source Book.  3 vols.  Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1989-1999.
  BOOKS Q127 .E3 .C42 1989
• Hellemans, Alexander.  Timetables of Science.  New York, Simon & Schuster, 1988.
  REF  Q 125 .H557 1988
• Ho, Peng Yoke.  Li, Qi, and Shu: an Introduction to Science and Civilization in China.  Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 1985.
  BOOKS  Q 127 .C5 H627 1985
• Hogendijk, Jan P and Sabra, Abdelhamid I.  The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives.  Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 2003.
  BOOKS  Q 124.97  E57 2003
• Huff, Toby E.  The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West.  Cambridge UK,  Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  BOOKS  Q 127 .A5 H84 1995
• Lloyd, G. E. R.  The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in early China and Greece.  New Haven, Yale University Press, 2002.
  BOOKS Q 127. C5 L6 2002
• McClellan, James E.  Science and Technology in World History: an Introduction.  Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 2006.
  BOOKS  Q 125 .M414 2006
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein.  Islamic Science: an Illustrated Study.  London, World of Islam Festival Publishing, 1976.
  BOOKS  Q 128 .N38 1976x
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein.  Science and Civilization in Islam.  Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1968
  BOOKS  Q 125 .N17
• Needham, Joseph.  Science and Civilisation in China. 7 vols. in 20.  Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press, 1954-2004.
  BOOKS  DS 721 .N39
  Described by Selin (1992) as “the mother of all research on non-Western science.
• Neugebauer, O.  The Exact Sciences in Antiquity.  Providence, Brown University Press, 1957.
  BOOKS   QA 22 .N36 1957
• Rashed, Roshidi.  Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science.  3 vols.  London, Routledge, 1996.
  BOOKS   Q 127 .A5 E53 1996t
• Sarton, George.  Introduction to the History of Science.  3 vols. in 5.  Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins, 1927-1948.
  BOOKS  Q 125 .S32
• Selin, Helaine.  Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures.  Dodrecht, Kluwer, 1997.
  REF  Q 124.8 E53 1997
• Selin, Helaine.  Science Across Cultures:  an Annotated Bibliography on Non-Western Science, Technology, and Medicine.  New York, Garland, 1992.
  BOOKS  Q 175.5 .S44 1992x
• Singer, Charles Joseph.  A History of Technology.  7 vols.  Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1954-1978.
  BOOKS   T 15 .S53
• Taton, Rene.  History of Science.  4 vols.  New York, Basic Books, 1964-1966.
  BOOKS  Q 125  .T233
• Teresi, Dick.  Lost Discoveries: the Ancient Roots of Modern Science – from the Babylonians to the Maya.  New York, Simon & Schuster, 2002.
  BOOKS  Q 124.95 T47 2002
• Turner, Howard R.  Science in Medieval Islam: an Illustrated Introduction.  Austin, University of Texas Press. 1997.
  BOOKS  Q 127 .I742 T78 1997
• Waerden, B. L. van der.  Science Awakening.  2 vols.  Groningem, Noordhoff, 1954-1974.
  BOOKS  QA 22 .W33

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• Aaboe, Asger.  Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics.  New York, Singer, 1963.
  BOOKS  QA 22 .A13
• Gillings, Richard J.  Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs.  Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1972.
  BOOKS  QA 27 .E3 G52
• Joseph, George Gheverghese.  The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics.  London, Penguin, 1992.
  BOOKS  QA 22 .J67 1992x
• Lam, Lay Yong and Ang, Tian Se.  Fleeting Footsteps: Tracing the Conception of Arithmetic and Algebra in Ancient China.  River Edge, NJ, World Scientific, 2004.
  BOOKS  QA 27 .C5 L283 2004
• Lakshmikantham, V.  The Origin of Mathematics.  Lanham, Md., University Press of America, 2000.
  BOOKS  QA 27 .I4 L34 2000
• Li, Yan, and Du, Shiran.  Chinese Mathematics: a Concise History.  Oxford, Clarendon, 1987.
  BOOKS  QA 27 .C5 L4713 1987
• McLeish, John.  Number.  New York, Fawcett Columbine, 1992.
  BOOKS  QA 21 .M38 1992
• Maor, Eli.  The Pythagorean Theorem: a 4,000-Year History.  Princeton, Princeton University Press. 2007
  BOOKS QA460.P8 M36 2007
• Martzloff, JeanClaude.  A History of Chinese Mathematics.  New York, Springer, 2006.
  BOOKS QA27 .C5 M3613 2006
• Mikami, Yoshio.  The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan.  New York, Chelsea, 1961.
  BOOKS  QA 27 .C5 M5 1961
• Smith, David Eugene.  History of Mathematics.  2 vols.  New York, Dover, 1958.
  BOOKS  QA 21 .S62
• Selin, Helaine, ed..  Mathematics Across Cultures: the History of Non-Western Mathematics.  Dordrecht, Kluwer, 2000.
  BOOKS  QA 21 .M3612 2000
• Swetz, Frank. Was Pythaogoras Chinese?: an Examination of Right Triangle Theory in Ancient China.  University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.
  BOOKS  QA 27 .C5 S95

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• Aaboe, Asger.  Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy.  New York, Springer, 2001.
  BOOKS  QB 15 .A15 2001
• Aveni, Anthony F.  Ancient Astronomers.  Washington DC, Smithsonian, 1993.
  BOOKS GN799.A8 A84 1993
• Aveni, Anthony F.  Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great Ancient Cultures.  New York, Wiley, 1997.
  BOOKS  QB 16 .A88 1997
• Kendall, D. G., and Hodson, Frank Roy.  The Place of Astronomy in the Ancient World: a Joint Symposium of the Royal Society and the British Academy. London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1974.
  BOOKS   QB 16 .P55
• Krupp, E. C.  Archaeoastronomy and the Roots of Science.  Boulder, Westview Press for the American Association fro the Advancement of Science, 1984.
  BOOKS  QB 16 .A73 1984
• Neugebauer, O.  A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy.  3 vols.  Berlin, Springer-Verlag,   1975.
  BOOKS  QB 16 .N46
• Selin, Helaine, ed.  Astronomy Across Cultures: the History of Non-Western Astronomy.  Boston, Kluwer, 2000.
  BOOKS  QB 16 .A75 2000

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Other

• Aveni, Anthony F.  Empires of Time:  Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures.  Boulder, University Press of Colorado, 2002.
  BOOKS  QB 209 .A94 2002
• Li, Qiaoping.  The Chemical Arts of Old China.  Easton, Pa., Journal of Chemical Education, 1948.
  BOOKS  QD 18 .C5 L5

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