A book review of Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare’s Mathematical Life and Times by Rob Eastaway
Stars: *****
The Experiment (2024)
Shakespeare/Math History
235 pages
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: Open a new portal into Shakespeare’s words―and his Renaissance life―with math and numbers as your key.
Shakespeare’s era was abuzz with mathematical progress, from the new concept of “zero” to Galileo’s redraft of the heavens. Now, Rob Eastaway uncovers the many surprising ways math shaped Shakespeare’s plays―and his world―touring astronomy, code-breaking, color theory, navigation, music, sports, and more.
- How reliable was a pocket sundial?
- Was math illusionist John Dee the real-life Prospero?
- How long was a Scottish mile, and what could you buy for a groat?
- Do Jupiter’s moons have a cameo in Cymbeline?
- How did ordinary people use numbers day to day?
- And might Shakespeare have tried that game-changing invention―the pencil?
Full of delights for devotees of both Tudor history and the Bard, Much Ado About Numbers is proof that the arts and sciences have always danced together.
Much Ado About Numbers
This book is very interesting to someone who loves Shakespeare and Math. Or wants to know how math was different in the Tudor times. I learned so much!
I had no idea that measurements for example were so different in Shakespeare’s time. I should have known as language was different then too. However it never occurred to me. People always talk about how the English language has changed since Shakespeare’s times. Not once (until now) have I seen anyone talk about how numbers have changed.
“The sixteenth century was an era of imprecision, at least for the average person in the street. […] There were no millimetres marked on rulers, no second hand on a watch, and as for temperature, there was merely hot, warm and cold.” – pg 74
There is even insight into life in the 1500s such as what school was like, how the rainbow was described, how writing was done, common sports and games played and money.
I found it all very interesting and will be sharing some parts of it with my homeschooled students as we study Shakespeare and that time period in history next year.
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