Water Technology in the Middle Ages: Cities, Monasteries and Waterworks after the Roman Empire.(Book Review)

By ROBERTA J. MAGNUSSON (Baltimore/London: Johns Hopkins U.P., 2001; pp. xiv + 238. 28 [pounds sterling]).

ROBERTA Magnusson's book is a useful contribution to our appreciation and understanding of the ability of medieval people to apply and develop their skills of technology in inventive ways so as to improve the conditions of their lives. While we admire the ability of the cities of Antiquity to contrive supplies of running water from a considerable distance, we too often neglect the comparable--and in important ways more effective--engineering skills of the middle ages. Rather than the technology of masonry canalways and open aqueducts, running from source springs to city along a gentle, steady gradient, the medieval engineers often preferred to lay pipelines underground. Most often these were pressurized lead pipes, the great advantage being that--as long as the intake reservoir was at a significantly higher level than the ultimate destination--the …