Thorndike, Lynn

Thorndike, Lynn, 1882–1965, American historian, b. Lynn, Mass. He taught history at Northwestern Univ. (1907–9), at Western Reserve Univ. (1909–24), and at Columbia (1924–50). Among his books on magic and science in the Middle Ages are A History of Magic and Experimental Science (8 vol., 1923–58) and Science and Thought in the Fifteenth Century (1929). Thorndike also wrote The History of Medieval Europe (1917, 3d ed. 1949).

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Thorndike, Lynn (1882–1965) historian; born in Lynn, Mass. (brother of Edward Lee Thorndike). After taking his Ph.D. at Columbia University (1905), he taught at Northwestern (1907–09) and Western Reserve (1909–24) before returning to Columbia as a professor (1924–50). His early reputation as a medievalist came from his teaching and his textbook, History of Medieval Europe (1917); but he came to international prominence when he began publishing the first of what proved to be his eight-volume masterwork, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (1923–58), in which he was among the first to explore such activities as astrology, alchemy, and magic and their relationships to the development of modern science. He was prolific as an author, admired as a trainer of other professors, and active in various professional groups, including the founding of the History of Science Society (1924).