The traditional view of the birth of modern science places it firmly in the age of the so-called scientific revolution in the 17th century, with men like Sir Francis Bacon,

René Descartes, Isaac Newton and Galileo.

Here we're told we see the rise of empiricism and the development of the

scientific method, the creation of institutions. of the blood that laid the foundation for subjects that would go on to become physics, astronomy and biology.

But what if we drew back and looked not just for the great men of change offered to us by the 17th century,

but the ones who paved the way for their revelations.

At the places that facilitated their discoveries, at the forms of technology and types of

collaboration that created the environment in which intellectual innovation could occur.

What, in other words, is the prehistory of the scientific

revolution. When did the birth of science really occur? Today's guest suggests

that we need to shift our focus a century earlier to the places and people, including women who drew the blueprints for scientific work.

She is Violet Mula, award-winning author of The Map of Knowledge, whose new book,

Inside the Stargazer's Palace, The Transformation of Science in 16th Century Northern Europe Europe takes us from the icy Danish

Observatory of Ticobrahe to the obsidian mirror of Dr John D.

Join us as we venture into the mysterious world in which modern science began.

Dr Violet Mueller, welcome to not just the Tudors.

Thank you so much for having me on.

It is a delight and a privilege to talk to you about your forthcoming book inside the Stargazer's Palace, which I have read and

thoroughly enjoyed. And what's so interesting about this is it completely reformulates our idea of when science

happened as it were. I mean this book is the kind of prequel to the birth of science

that we normally hear.

It's not about the narrative of great men in the 17th century.

...